MediaFile readers care about the intersection of media and technology. But readers have to commute home from work every day, which is the mostly tangential connection to this item:

If a prize was awarded for “Least Necessary” podcast, the New York subway authority could be the front runner. TransitTrax, the new podcasting service of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, is promoting 15 digital audio recordings, including THREE MINUTES of advice in MP3 format to riders to “Stay off the tracks.”

Last we checked, the topic is pretty well covered with the simple four-word admonition: STAY OFF THE TRACKS.

There’s also FIVE MINUTES of somewhat grusome detail on “sick passengers,” along with needlessly helpful advice on “slips, trips and falls,” “preventing track fires,” and “summer heat & the subway.” 

An excerpt gives you the general tenor: “New York City transit subway (tracks are) a very dangerous area… No one should ever enter the track area… Something experts like Luiz Melendez strongly advise against.”

Each year dozens of people are injured. Ten to fifteen items fall onto the tracks a day. Lost iPods and cellphones are the biggest problem, said Melendez, whose title is superintendent of the Department of Subway’s emergency response and track lubrication division. 

Heatwave suffers: Check it out before the power surges, the lights go out and subway trains get stuck in New York’s many underground tunnels.

(Additional reporting by Frank Tantillo)