The leaning rail is the new bench. Not every butt is happy about it

In early March, New York City subway riders noticed a new development at the West 4th Street station, near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Construction workers for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority were photographed removing a bench on the station’s platform and replacing it with a curving metal structure. Looking a bit like an oversized shaving razor with two handles, the metal object is known as a leaning rail or a leaning rail. Its horizontal face, slightly tilted and about three feet off the ground, is intended as a place for subway riders to lean their backsides while they wait for a train.

Comment
byu/thrilsika from discussion
innycrail

Goodbye benches, hello leaning rails?

Not exactly, according to Meghan Keegan of the MTA’s media relations. “We’re trying out a freestanding version of a concept previously deployed at a few stations that have already proved successful. There are four leaning bars at West 4 St and we’ll evaluate how they work before deciding whether to expand,” she explains via email. “Benches remain at the station. Leaning bars are another option for customers.”

According to the company that built the leaning rails, they’re becoming an increasingly common option, and not just for subway riders. “We have seen some really nice growth in the market since the launch of the product,” says Heidi Grinde, director of category management at Global Industrial, an industrial and commercial supply company that added standalone leaning rails to its product list last year. “We’re even seeing it in areas that maybe we hadn’t expected originally.”

In addition to transit customers like the MTA, Grinde says Global Industrial has been selling leaning bars to a wide range of users. Airports are installing them at rideshare pickup zones. Hospitals are putting them outside emergency rooms. Universities are adding them to quads and other public spaces. They’re even popping up in outdoor shopping malls.

“If you have a smaller footprint, or you don’t have room for benches, you can utilize the leaning rails for your patrons to be able to just kind of take a break,” Grinde says.

In the New York subway station, the leaning rails are intended for short breaks while riders are waiting—not long, ideally—for a train with a high-frequency schedule. “We picked this station because it’s a high-trafficked one with island platforms,” says the MTA’s Keegan.

Some subway users were unenthusiastic about the idea. “Thanks, I hate it,” one Reddit user wrote. Reacting to a photo of the newly installed leaning rail, some called it “hostile architecture” that is intended to deter the homeless while disregarding the needs of people with mobility challenges. “As someone who frequents West 4th and uses a cane I am . . . baffled,” another Reddit user wrote. “I can stand up fine most of the time waiting for the train but I’m thinking about the people who can’t stand at all. What is this doing? How is this helping?”

The MTA plans to evaluate the use of the leaning rails at the West 4th Street station “through a variety of methods including customer and station employee feedback,” says Keegan.

Grinde says the leaning rails have been ergonomically designed to offer support to most people’s bodies, with the resting area typically located around 32 to 36 inches off the ground. “The leaning rail helps you to distribute your weight, and it reduces strain on your legs and your back,” she says. “With a wall, you’re not really ergonomically correct. It’s not holding the posture of your body.”

And while some subway riders aren’t welcoming these new leaning rails, they’re likely to become more common. Grinde expects the rails to be a growth area for Global Industrial, and to take new forms. Lighting is being integrated into their design, as are technology elements like charging infrastructure and interactive screens. Some are even considering adding heating elements. “A metal rail tends to get a little cold in the middle of winter,” she says. “The market as a whole has been looking at some different things to increase what that leaning rail can do for the customers in the space.”

But she doesn’t suggest leaning rails should become the hostile bench of the future. “It’s a great complement to a bench,” she says. “It’s not a replacement.”

View the full article