MTA exploring pee detection technology to spot urine-soaked elevators
It’s the MTA’s “Number 1” priority.
Urine detection technology could be coming to the yellow-soaked elevators of the Big Apple’s massive subway system, a top transit official said.
“We are actually going to be piloting a device that will alert — I won’t tell you what the smell is — but it will alert our cleaners about potential lack of cleanliness in elevators,” MTA New York City Transit president Rich Davey told City Council members on Monday.
Davey’s statement came in response to a question about the unsavory stenches that often greet straphangers when they enter the transit authority’s elevators.
The MTA has 353 elevators throughout the subway system, though the vast majority of stops do not have one.
New York would not be the first transit system to try spotting subway piss puddles before they ruin someone’s day, Davey said.
The subway agencies in Atlanta and Davey’s hometown of Boston have also tested the tech, according to the nonprofit news outlet The City.
Subway bathrooms have been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. MTA officials recently announced plans to reopen the facilities at nine stations, beginning in January.
Most subway elevators are pee-free and operational, according to MTA stats.
“I can tell you 97, 98% of our elevators in the last few months have been available,” Davey told council members.
Pee-detection for elevators-only will only go so far, straphangers told The Post on Wednesday.
“[The subway] smells pretty bad to be honest. There’s like no part that smells ‘good’ or even ‘OK’ and it’s way behind other systems in terms of cleanliness. Even a car freshener would help a little,” said Hector Guerra, 30, at the West 4th Street station.
“I don’t think pee detectors would help overall,” Guerra continued, “but I think it would be good for people that have to take the elevator. Because it would help cleaning crews address it quicker. And make their commutes easier if there are enough people on call to clean.”
Martin Ma, 20, a subway-rider also at West 4th, agreed that the MTA needs to go beyond elevators.
“When it gets hot outside and the subway is packed, it can be really nasty and unbearable, I can’t even identify what kind of things I am smelling, it’s like a distinct NYC subway smell,” he said.
“But just speaking on the detector, I think this can be helpful because most people who takes elevators in the subway are people with movement issues or elderly people and having them constantly be in contact with those kinds of smell is just unfair.”
Still, “that wouldn’t completely solve the problem and they should implement more things inside the subway to offset the smell like installing more and cleaner bathrooms, have air refresher and other stuff,” Ma added.