Advocates for the city’s straphangers yesterday threatened to haul the MTA into court over the agency’s decision to censor a subway ad that lampoons rush-hour crowding.
The ad, which includes a picture of a jammed subway car, urges fed-up riders to lobby state lawmakers for more transit funds — and for a full-length Second Avenue subway.
“With livestock, it’s called animal cruelty,” reads the ad copy. “With people, it’s called the morning commute.”
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials nixed the ad — one of two that were to be part of a $100,000 campaign paid for by the Straphangers Campaign and the Regional Plan Association.
“Free speech shouldn’t end when you board the A train or get on the number 7 line,” fumed Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign.
The ads were to be posted in about 3,000 subway cars next month, just as state lawmakers are expected to begin their review of the MTA’s proposed five-year, $16.5billion capital plan.
Chris Boyland, chief spokesman for the MTA, said the headline in the ad violates agency policy because it would discourage people from taking the subways.
“It’s directly adverse to the commercial interests of the MTA,” said Boyland.