Photograph of one of the wooden platform rubbing boards boards at the Kings Highway subway station by Triborough on Flickr In the wake of a 14-year-old's fall into subway tracks after the platform edge crumbled, giving way, concerns are being raised over dangerous platforms at other stations. amNew York listed nine in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan: Brooklyn, Q line: - Avenue J: boards are separated from the platform and warped. - Avenue M:......

Stand clear of the platform edge and then some: A 14-year-old boy fell into the tracks at the Kings Highway subway station when the platform partially collapsed. Avi Katz was able to get away before the approaching Q train made it into the station. Katz had been at the station around 6PM on January 29 and, per WABC 7, "stepped onto the edge of the platform to see if his train was coming." The platform,......

Yesterday the NY Post warned non-recyclers that they'd have to don a "scarlet litter" if they didn't clean up their acts. We hoped this "scarlet litter" would be a hat hand-crafted by a Freegan and worn atop the heads of the environmentally-challenged, but instead it's something much more sensible: a clear bag for all of your garbage that leaves little to the imagination. New York, we don't really want to see your trash, so please......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing patient at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, a car vs. overpass on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, and a truck explosion on 64th Rd. and 108th St. in Queens. A sharp-sighted deckhand on a Staten Island Ferry spotted a pistol sticking out of the pocket of a dim-witted passenger snoozing on a Sunday morning ferry. The passenger, who was arrested, had a long record of criminal weapons possessions.......

Hollaback! A man was arrested for menacing, stalking and exposing himself to a woman on the B and Q trains on Monday. The Post reports that the police caught 24-year-old Jay Arungah after the victim showed them a camera phone picture of a naked Arungah. The 30-year-old woman's subway ride sounds harrowing: She was at the Avenue M station at 8PM and she noticed Arungah staring at her. From the Post: When they boarded the......

Yesterday the Department of Transportation installed the first countdown pedestrian signal at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway. Here's how the city explains the timer: The pedestrian countdown signals are the same size as the existing pedestrian signal head, but feature a dual display - the traditional "Walking Man" and "Hand" display, and a pedestrian interval countdown display. The countdown feature is programmed to start at the beginning of the "flashing hand"......

We got an email from the Straphangers yesterday, who directed us to check out the MTA's NYC Bus Rapid Transit Study. The MTA is looking to identify "corridors in the five boroughs that have BRT potential," and there will be public information sessions starting next week in all five boroughs. So far, the MTA is considering fifteen corridors:Bronx - Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway - Grand Concourse - Webster Avenue + 3rd Avenue Brooklyn - Flatbush Avenue......

If there was ever a story that could remind people that soliciting hookers is not a good idea, it would have to be this one: Mushtaq Azmat was shot in the head when the pimp of the prostitute he was, uh, spending time with, tried to rob him. But in the course of those heated moments, the pimp was caught in the gunfire of his associates and died from a chest wound. The NY Post......

Somehow, a subway conductor was injured last night. Another MTA employee saw a conductor on a southbound Q train in Brooklyn slumped over his cab's window. The conductor's skull and left arm was injured, and lost his right eye. The MTA says that the conductor lost contact with the train operator after announcing the Kings Highway stop at 9:30PM, and was only discovered at Avenue U. The current theory is that the conductor could have......