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There are quite a few subspace issues that have come up over the years. There was the silly warp travel damaging the fabric of space thing but we've seen other anomalies too. Check out this sci-tech page:

http://www.ditl.org/scitech-page.php?Sc ... D=Sci-tech

One would think that is the issue was known, most species would stop using the tech out of self preservation, or maybe there is something like a arms agreement, where almost everyone agrees not to use the damaging drives, and if any small power doesnt agree, everyone comes together and damn well makes them.

IanKennedy wrote:There are quite a few subspace issues that have come up over the years. There was the silly warp travel damaging the fabric of space thing but we've seen other anomalies too. Check out this sci-tech page:

http://www.ditl.org/scitech-page.php?Sc ... D=Sci-tech

So I noted something interesting in the yellow text in one of those entries. A "Cochran factor".

Trying to look that up, I found a memory alpha entry stating:

"Star Trek Maps mentions the Cochrane's factor, a mathematical variable pointed out by Zefram Cochrane in 2053, in which the curvature of space the ship is traveling through causes a multiplication of the relative speed depending on the mass of nearby matter. It can be as high as a multiplication of 1500 times within the most dense interstellar dust and gas, and as little as 1 in the intergalactic void.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Cochrane_Equation
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek_Maps

Based on the episodes it's referenced, it seems a Cochran factor of 0 is also possible, creating the "subspace sandbar."

So the term is cannonical and I wonder if the maybe-not-quite-cannon explanation comes from addressing the trip to the center of the galaxy. The general mass present increases as one approaches the galactic center (and spacetime is actually warped in that direction, producing a gravitational pull).

As a side note I love that the Star Trek Maps book apparently includes an introduction to vector calculus.

The problem of a 'pull' would be that you can get there really quickly but never really get back. It's more that he speeds close to the core would be faster in general, no matter what direction you would be travelling in, and further out (in areas of lower star density) they would be slower. Given a fixed warp speed number.