Nothing smacks of MTA’s mismanagement of cash than their prolific use of whiteboards to communicate useless information in a totally meaningless way.

Here is a typical sign:

“NO metro cards sold here, money/change given, disable tickets”

Yes, I gathered that from the crickets chirping inside your little booth.  No one is there to yell at me through the intercom system.  No friendly attendant to give me attitude like I’m the one disrupting her time doing her nails and text messaging when I want to ask a simple question.

in very faint writing… “No E or A” (can’t read it)

Thanks for that helpful message scrawled in what appears to be a ballpoint pen on whiteboard (my favorite kind of messaging medium to work with).  This is definitely the most effective way to convey that the trains in the station (which is labeled A/C/E on the outside) are not fucking running! I can see why this placement was strategically superior to putting a giant sign outside the station alerting would-be riders not to waste their time walking down those stairs.  Shit’s not running.

And then the helpful warning that your shit can be randomly searched by the NYPD.

This was a policy set forth maybe 4 years ago… and they still haven’t put up official signs with an NYPD logo that clearly explain what they can and cannot do, what the purpose of random searching is, why it is important to do, etc.  Meanwhile, I have never been searched but have seen the NYPD tables many times.  Random doesn’t seem to be the most effective way to catch criminals when 5 million people ride each day.

They should write funny quotes on those whiteboards… or physics equations.  Whiteboards do not make good signs.