You don’t necessarily have to be overweight to feel cramped on a rush-hour ride home on the New Jersey Transit—just sitting between two people on a narrow three-seater with no legroom and several bags on your lap will do the trick.
So it may come as something of a relief to commuters to know that New Jersey Transit is planning to make its seats wider. According to an article in the New York Times today, New Jersey Transit “has a five-year plan to add 100 double-decker train cars that have seats 2.2 inches wider than the 17.55-inch seats found in its single-deck trains.”
It’s one of many transportation agencies that is addressing the need to accommodate Americans’ growing waistlines. In what is apparently an unironic move, Amtrak will also be adding larger seats to 25 new dining cars.
A spokesperson for New Jersey Transit told the Times that NJ Transit decided to make the seats wider at the request of riders. The new seats will accommodate riders ranging from a woman in the 5th percentile to a man in the 95th percentile.
The new trains—the first of which will appear this summer—will replace the single-deck trains which, according to the New Jersey Transit website, will mean more than 20 percent more seating. Let’s hope that means no more standing in the aisles.
Photo by tom.arthur/flickr
The new buses they recently rolled out have wider seats, too. And the door to the bus seems almost twice as wide. The wider doorway is great for bus pass holders that can just walk around the folks struggling with the dollar-grabber when getting on.
Thank heaven they saw the light of the middle-seat-folly. I don’t commute on the train, but the few times I’ve ridden into the city, I tend to equate the middle being put in the corner wearing a dunce cap. Yuk! Bad enough no one really wants to sit there, but even if you *do*, someone’s hogging it up with their stuff anyway. Ugh.
“It’s one of many transportation agencies that is addressing the need to accommodate Americans’ growing waistlines. In what is apparently an unironic move, Amtrak will also be adding larger seats to 25 new dining cars.”
This cracked me up. Also, I am sure the added space and materials will ultimately add up to “expanded” ticket fees as well.
What a relief. I was getting sick of this diet anyway. Pass the sweet and sour shrimp!
“A spokesperson for New Jersey Transit told the Times that NJ Transit decided to make the seats wider at the request of riders”
Now that is pretty funny.
“Hey, wait a second, these seats are unreasonably small, yeah thats the problem, they should be made wider” ….. thought an Obese train rider.
In another news Obama announced that under his healthcare reform act public transportation providers could apply for subsidies related to upgrading or modifying transportation equiptment as a result of public health concerns.
another anti-skinny think piece by the FATristanet….
I’d opt for improved service over wider seats any day.
I don’t commute by train or bus, but I’m with Kay — I (and everybody else?) have a horror of middle seats. I’m not obese, but I can’t recount how many times I’ve sat between two large-o’s –usually male, who assumed that their size entitled them to 4″ of my seat space. Most recently at a concert. One of these days I’m going to shove back, and tell them I paid just as much for my ticket as they did for theirs, and the line is here (down the middle of the arm rest — no touching.)
But I’d rather not have to engage in confrontation, and if there were just two seats, it would be less of a problem.
I love asking to sit in the middle and watch the eyes roll of the folks on either side. They can’t seem to fathom one would rather sit than stand.
Bebopgun speaks with commuter tongue. We bow.
Next….The airlines? I came back from Dallas in a middle seat. Paid for it the next few days with stiff shoulders & neck.
The doubledecker trains are terrific, but I only ever see them on the Mtc line on that rare occasion I go in at, say 10 or 11 am. What I’d really like to know is WHEN will we see them on rush hour trains?
It is good that New Jersey Transit is weighing in on this.
Nellie, it’s a heavy issue.
Waisting of America.
Chapter three
Stress calling.
Seems to me that the dubble decker has only two abreast on either side of the aisle anyhow. So all they are doing is jettisoning the underused seats and spreading the space a little without widening the trains.
How cheeky. Unmitigated gall bladder.