MTA stickers or public intervention

Have you ever seen a triangle, star, or V to the upper left or right hand side of the subway doors? Next time your riding the subway take a look. Two or three months ago I first noticed a triangle sticker pasted left of the no smoking sign in the subway. I was asking myself what is this?What does it stand for/represent?At first glance, I thought this was put up by the mta, then I thought maybe this was a form of public intervention. After looking closer the stickers are the same dimension as the L5, R6 which are at the left and right of the subway doors. The stickers seem to be adhered in the same way as well.

After battling it in my head, I started to think about what makes something appear official or unofficial. I know when I see something printed instead of hand written I inherently think its more official or legitimate. I also think about the context and if the symbols appears to fit in or stand out in that environment. The sticker upon appearance seemed to fit in with the surrounding environment. The information wasn't numbers or letters though, it was symbols, which stood out. To me, they didn't seem to totally fit in. So what do these symbols mean? What does a triangle or star mean in the subway car? It's fun to think that the mta's okaying each train car by giving it a star. Could it be telling the "inside people" that there's a camera installed in the train. When it comes down to it these symbols are vague enough to be unknown to the everyday rider.

If the mta installed these they did a good job of hiding of what they mean, but why do they want to hide the information? If it was a public intervention, well they did a pretty great job of fitting in and not getting taken down. Take a look next time your out on the subways and tell me what you think these symbols represent. I look forward to hearing others opinions.