Decision time.
Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty
You know that situation where two trains show up at almost the same time and you have to decide — sometimes frantically — which one is going to leave first? City Room examined the phenomenon today, but, sadly, it did not uncover any secret patterns, except for noting that a “dispatcher must decide which train leaves first.” Personally, we usually go with the train that arrives first, reasoning that it has dibs, although sometimes we go for the express regardless of when it arrived, because we like to imagine that the express trains are the varsity team of the subway system and like to push around the local, JV trains.
