If you happen to scent one thing, say one thing!
Two New York Metropolis subway stations are sporting recent new scents because of diffusers put in by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a part of a pilot program which goals to enhance travels for straphangers, The Put up has discovered.
The Grand Avenue-Newtown station in Elmhurst and the Rockaway Avenue station in Mattress-Stuy acquired the brand new Scent Advertising and marketing Inc. units, that are connected to the ceilings close to turnstiles, in August.
“Discover one thing totally different?” indicators on the stations learn. “There’s a recent scent on this station. Take a deep breath and tell us what you assume.”
Many individuals on social media choked on the suggestion to breath deep within the subways.
“Asking individuals to take a deep breath down there may be simply … bizarre!” one Reddit consumer who snapped an image of the brand new signal wrote. “The scent was … simply so unhealthy, like poopurri with an undercurrent of rotting rat carcass.”
“Why can’t they spend cash on truly useful stuff,” others puzzled, questioning using chemical substances on high of already poisonous subways fumes.
The units price as much as $2,200 every, in response to Scent Advertising and marketing’s web site.
QR codes hanging within the stations result in a two-question survey asking if riders seen the “enhancements” and in the event that they favored the scent.
The suggestions has been “overwhelmingly constructive,” an MTA spokesman stated.
Some riders favored what they acquired a whiff of.
“It isn’t so unhealthy,” one particular person commented. “The newborn powdery scent truly fully consumes most different smells on the station stage. The monitor stage … that’s one other story.”
“It smells so good now — I want each station had these,” Josephina Tavarez, 46, instructed The Put up.
Tavarez travels from Astoria to the Elmhurst station 5 days per week for her job on the Queens Middle mall. “The Steinway Road station wants one subsequent!” she stated.
“Everyone asks me concerning the scent, they’re so stunned by it,” stated Nelson Victor, 52, a safety guard on the Elmhurst station. He likened the aroma to recent flowers.
One other MTA worker described makes an attempt to spruce up the station with latest paint jobs and efforts to get homeless individuals out and into close by shelters.
Other than beauty points, the Queens station has been plagued with violence lately.
Earlier this yr, a person was hospitalized after being struck with what gave the impression to be a hammer whereas exiting the Grand Avenue-Newtown station.
Final yr, a shirtless man randomly attacked a straphanger with a chair and a scooter. In 2021, a person believed to be homeless was killed on the platform.
Different indicators on the station learn, “We’re working to make your time on this station extra nice. We’ll be asking on your suggestions quickly.”
The MTA final yr spent $64,495 on “enhancing station atmosphere[s],” in response to data.
The MTA is planning to spend as much as $1 million in federal funds to review the mindset of the typical fare evader, The Put up reported final week, a transfer critics bashed as wasteful and hypocritical.
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