Last night, on the way home via subway, at 12 midnight I happened upon a MTA engineer in my subway car. I started to ask him questions: what was it like to be all day underground? Did he ever see homeless people in the tunnels, had anyone ever jumped, fallen or been pushed in front of his train? Then the biggest question, why does the conductor lean out of his window and point his finger at the striped boards hanging above his head. [You might recall the YouTube video of the clever kids who made signs and stood below the striped boards. The signs read with comments -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9jIsxQNz0Mike- and since he/she had to point their finger anyway, it was a good laugh for all.] HOWEVER, the video said it was silly to show he was paying attention. So last night i asked: why does he/she point their finger?
HERE IS THE PROFOUND ANSWER: Each train is 10-11 cars long. When the train comes to a halt in the station, and the conductor is just in front of the stripped board, and he points at it, he is indicating that the entire! train is in the station. That if all the doors open, no one will fall out onto the tracks. It is a safety measure. And every conductor does it, religiously, because there are undercover MTA personnel checking on them all the time. And you will be fired if you miss it.