New York installing 'high-heel friendly' subway grates

NEW YORK, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that subway grates on a stretch of sidewalk in Manhattan come with a new feature -- they're "high-heel friendly."

The MTA said the grates installed above the East 55th Street Ventilation Facility between Park and Madison avenues were designed in part to address the complaints of wearers of high-heeled shoes, who have long struggled with their heels becoming wedged in the grates.

The new grates were designed with slip-resistant surfaces and feature only a half and inch of space between cross bars, the MTA said.

The grates are "sure to keep wearers of high-heeled shoes safe and happy," the MTA said in a press release.

The new ventilation facility will provide ventilation for the tunnels under Park Avenue that will carry Long Island Rail Road trains into East Side Access, a new train station being built under Grand Central Station that is the largest transportation infrastructure project in the United States.