Roosevelt Island Subway Station Info - Tram Outage Service, Disabled Access, Ridership Statistics and Fair Use

Image of Blurred, Moving F Train From Venus in Furs

RIOC President Steve Shane met with representatives of the MTA last Tuesday. While at the meeting, Mr. Shane sent the following message to fellow blogger Roosevelt Island 360 and myself.

I am at a meeting at the MTA and they are quite upset about the ad in the March 7 WIRE at p.10 with "Unofficial Service Changes". Use of MTA logo without authorization is a big no-no.

If either of you had anything to do with it, cease and desist.

On Wednesday, I inquired of Mr.Shane:

What happened at your MTA meeting yesterday? Is there any further information regarding Roosevelt Island subway service both before and during the Tram outage as well as any other Roosevelt Island/MTA transportation news?

Mr. Shane replied:

The purpose of the meeting was to explain the Tram project and to allay any concerns about impact on the existing tunnel system. In addition, the following:
At this moment, there are no scheduled service interruptions for the duration of the Tram outage.

The MTA is working on the platforms to eliminate the "gap" for the handicapped. The raised platform area is in the middle of each platform so that the handicapped may be observed by the conductor who controls the doors. The project is not yet finished, but is ongoing to get tile, etc. suitable for the job, plus signage and public notice.

More Subway news. The Center For An Urban Future issued a NY By The Numbers Report providing:

...a station-by-station examination of the growth in subway ridership between 1998 and 2008 and a borough-by-borough analysis of bus ridership changes.

As to Roosevelt Island daily average Subway Station ridership growth, it increased from 3789 in 1998 to 6071 in 2008 for an increase of 60.2% making it #22 of 119 Manhattan subway stations in % ridership growth (Page 9).

The stop immediately preceding Roosevelt Island, Queensbridge, had the highest % ridership growth rate in Queens (Page 12) and 5th (Page 2) in the entire City from 2088 in 1998 to 7374 in 2008 for a 253% increase.

The next stop immediately after Roosevelt Island on the F train heading into Manhattan, Lexington - 63rd Street had the highest ridership growth rate in the entire NYC Subway system from 1538 in 1998 to 13,488 in 2008 for a 777% increase ( Page 2).

RI 360 provides an update on future F train service disruptions thru June 1.

As to the MTA logo, consider this from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in regard to the Fair Use Doctrine:

What is fair use?

There are no hard and fast rules for fair use (and anyone who tells
you that a set number of words or percentage of a work is "fair" is
talking about guidelines, not the law). The Copyright Act sets out
four factors for courts to look at (17 U.S.C. § 107):

• The purpose and character of the use. Transformative uses are favored over mere copying. Non-commercial uses are also more likely fair.
• The nature of the copyrighted work. Is the original factual in nature or fiction?
• Published or unpublished? Creative and unpublished works get more protection under copyright, while using factual material is more often fair use.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used. Copying nearly all of a work, or copying its "heart" is less likely to be fair.
• The effect on the market or potential market. This factor is often held to be the most important in the analysis, and it applies even if the original is given away for free. If you use the copied work in a way that substitutes for the original in the market, it's unlikely to be a fair use; uses that serve a different audience or purpose are more likely fair. Linking to the original may also help to diminish the substitution effect. Note that criticism or parody that has the side effect of reducing a market may be fair because of its transformative character. In other words, if your criticism of a product is so powerful that people stop buying the product, that doesn't count as having an "effect on the market for the work" under copyright law.

When can I borrow someone's images for my blog post?

Images are subject to the same copyright and fair use laws as written materials, so here too you'll want to think about the fair use factors that might apply. Is the image used in a transformative way? Are you taking only what's necessary to convey your point? A thumbnail (reduced-size) image, or a portion of a larger image is more likely to be fair use than taking an entire full-size image. If you want to go beyond fair use, look for Creative Commons licensed images.

May I freely copy from federal government documents?

Yes. Works produced by the US government, or any government agency or person acting in a government capacity, are in the public domain. So are the texts of legal cases and statutes from state or federal government. Private contractors working for the government, however, can transfer copyrights to the US government.

UPDATE - 7 PM - The purported use of the MTA logo from Page 10 of the 3/7/09 Main Street WIRE is here. (PDF File).