Would a Chocolate MetroCard Sweeten Your Hellish Commute?

When the trains are a mess, ALWAYS remember to pee before you commute.

The commute of your nightmares is now worthy of a prize, courtesy of the advocacy group, Riders Alliance.

The group's new contest, called Worst Commute of the Week, has its first winner: A librarian named Jennifer Tang, who commutes from Forest Hill, Queens, into Manhattan. On her way home one evening, she was just half a stop away from her destination when her R train ride stalled out for almost two hours due to signal problems. Which is bad enough. But the part that won her the prize was the fact that she hadn't gone to the bathroom before she got on the train.

Danny Perlstein from Riders Alliance says that Queens produced a runner-up, as well. "We had another story of an older gentleman on the same line," Perlstein told WNYC, "a two-time cancer survivor, who, on his morning commute, takes a local so he can sit down. He was stuck standing up for two hours, again due to signal problems, and he had a pain that developed in his legs that lasted several days, he expects it'll last him several more."

Last summer, the MTA made a point of trying to give frank announcements about what's wrong when a train stalls. And Perlstein said that instead of blaming the train's dispatcher, conductors are at least saying there are signal problems ahead.

But a red signal doesn't necessarily mean that traffic is keeping the train from moving; it's often the case that the signal itself is just broken. In holding a weekly contest, Riders Alliance says it plans to analyze all the entries to further identify problem areas to present to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls the MTA.

For riders, there's a more immediate incentive to submit a story. The winner each week gets a chocolate MetroCard

Had a prize-worthy bad commute lately? Tell us about it on our We The Commuters Facebook Group, where you can enter the contest, as well.