Finally, an evolutionary explanation for the overwhelming skinniness of the Williamsburg hipster, as identified through various statistics cited in “For Less Crowding on L Train, Think 2010, Report Says” in today’s Times:
• Riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in 2006: 4.99 million
• Riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in 1995: 2.09 million
• Increase in riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in that period: 139 percent
• Rank of the L train among 22 subways lines for likelihood of getting a seat at rush hour, according to the Straphangers Campaign’s annual report card: 20
• Number of L trains currently running per hour during rush hour: 15
• Number of L trains that will eventually be able to run per hour during rush hour: 26
• When those new, additional trains will be fully operational: January 2010
• Number of stops that Traci Tullius, a 30-year-old Williamsburger who teaches art at Yeshiva University, rides her bike farther into Brooklyn before getting on the L, to increase her chances of finding a less-crowded train: 3
• Number of trains Tullius says she has to let go past before she can fit onto one, even three stops further east: 4
• Tullius’s terms for the trains she ends up squeezed into: “The sardine train”
And fat people, unable to commute to work and therefore unable to pay rent, are naturally selected out. Yay, Darwin!
