Particle.news
Download on the App Store
3 ARTICLES
·
4d ago

MTA Unveils Revamped Ride Inside, Stay Alive Campaign With BMX Pro Nigel Sylvester

Student-recorded announcements, illustrated comics accompanied by digital posters aim to discourage a practice that has already claimed the life of a 13-year-old this year.

Ads from the MTA’s new campaign against subway surfing at the Queens Plaza E, M and R station. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for New York Daily News)
A person is subway surfing on the 5 train on March 16, 2023 in the Bronx borough of New York City.
Image

Overview

  • The campaign’s launch on June 11 in Long Island City featured Nigel Sylvester alongside high school spokespeople delivering safety messages throughout the subway system.
  • The initiative includes 43 digital posters and comic strips that dramatize the ripple effects of subway surfing on teens, families and first responders.
  • The MTA has worked with platforms including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to remove more than 1,800 subway surfing videos since the start of the year.
  • NYPD officers are stationed at known subway surfing hotspots and conduct home visits to dissuade young riders from climbing onto train roofs.
  • Subway surfing has led to one fatality so far in 2025 after claiming six lives in 2024 and five in 2023, prompting early tests of attachable barriers on train cars to block rooftop access.