It's the ultimate New York fantasy. You're sitting next to some old man, doing your morning crossword puzzle, you look up and there they are. The love of your life, filling out the same 16-down. You lock eyes, you move next to them, and you end up getting off at the same stop with promises to meet for dinner. It's a great idea, but you probably have a better chance of conversing with that hobo who smells like Colt 45 sitting down the car than you do of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right. Enter SubMate.
Currently located in New York, Paris and London, SubMate lets users enter their commute information to find others looking for love on the same lines. For instance, a search for a "morning" commute from Astoria Blvd to 34th Street-Herald Square results in about five matches, though nobody's profile is complete yet (the site is just two days old). A trip from York Street to Astor Place, however, brings up a promising looking 26-year-old who enjoys golf, hockey and scotch. An early morning commute from the 1,2,3 stop on 72nd to High Street in Brooklyn yields one man describing himself as "Superman." Rawr.
Founder Laurent Kretz told the Post he came up with the idea after approaching a woman he met on his commute from the East Village to 57th Street. "Sometimes, after work, we met around the station at the Starbucks at Cooper Square. It lasted a couple of months." Commuter Elizabeth Yannone said she was excited about the site. "You know how you look at people and wonder about them, where are they going? You wonder what they're wearing or what they're like...I like putting an identity to these people. Now I can look them up!" Sure, but will it ever compete with the timeless mystery of Craigslist's Missed Connections?
