Riders catch a whiff of new $2K NYC subway scents: ‘Lavender with a hint of despair’
If you smell something, say something!
Two New York City subway stations are sporting fresh new scents thanks to diffusers installed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as part of a pilot program which aims to improve travels for straphangers, The Post has learned.
The Grand Avenue-Newtown station in Elmhurst and the Rockaway Avenue station in Bed-Stuy got the new Scent Marketing Inc. devices, which are attached to the ceilings near turnstiles, in August.
“Notice something different?” signs at the stations read. “There’s a fresh scent in this station. Take a deep breath and let us know what you think.”
Many people on social media choked on the suggestion to breath deep in the subways.
“Asking people to take a deep breath down there is just … weird!” one Reddit user who snapped a picture of the new sign wrote. “The smell was … just so bad, like poopurri with an undercurrent of rotting rat carcass.”
“Why can’t they spend money on actually helpful stuff,” others wondered, questioning the use of chemicals on top of already toxic subways fumes.
The devices cost up to $2,200 each, according to Scent Marketing’s website.
QR codes hanging in the stations lead to a two-question survey asking if riders noticed the “enhancements” and if they liked the scent.
The feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive,” an MTA spokesman said.
Some riders liked what they got a whiff of.
“It isn’t so bad,” one person commented. “The baby powdery scent actually completely consumes most other smells on the station level. The track level … that’s another story.”
“It smells so nice now — I wish every station had these,” Josephina Tavarez, 46, told The Post.
Tavarez travels from Astoria to the Elmhurst station five days a week for her job at the Queens Center mall. “The Steinway Street station needs one next!” she said.
“Everybody asks me about the smell, they’re so surprised by it,” said Nelson Victor, 52, a security guard at the Elmhurst station. He likened the aroma to fresh flowers.
Another MTA employee described attempts to spruce up the station with recent paint jobs and efforts to get homeless people out and into nearby shelters.
Aside from cosmetic issues, the Queens station has been plagued with violence in recent years.
Earlier this year, a man was hospitalized after being struck with what appeared to be a hammer while exiting the Grand Avenue-Newtown station.
Last year, a shirtless man randomly attacked a straphanger with a chair and a scooter. In 2021, a man believed to be homeless was killed on the platform.
Other signs at the station read, “We’re working to make your time in this station more pleasant. We’ll be asking for your feedback soon.”
The MTA last year spent $64,495 on “improving station environment[s],” according to records.
The MTA is planning to spend up to $1 million in federal funds to study the mindset of the average fare evader, The Post reported last week, a move critics bashed as wasteful and hypocritical.
