The MTA has been pushing a slew of changes lately: cell phone service has become available in Midtown and Chelsea stations, $15,000 in prizes for an app competition and even those fancy underground time tables for the 456 and 123 lines. Though there has been some data restrictions, the MTA published its first ever late night subway map today: Read More
Sure, you can get cell service in the subways now, and bus rapid transit runs up and down the avenues, but do they seem a little dirtier, a little slower? Well, 61 percent of mass transit riders agree, according to a new poll from Transportation Alternatives, which found that a supermajority of straphangers believe their commutes have gotten worse since 2009.
That is when a combination of funding raids led to transit cuts the following year, and Transportation Alternatives is hoping to galvanize riders to fight for funding, which could easily be imperiled yet again. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg was asked about Jay Walder's glum assessment of the M.T.A. yesterday. He agreed with the ousted transit chief and then proceeded to throw up his hands, passing the buck to the governor, according to Capital New York. Read More
Tuesday was Jay Walder's first day on the million-dollar job in Honk Kong, and while the focus was on fair hikes there in his first press conference, the former M.T.A chief did not hesitate to take a swipe at New York, where frustrations with the politics and finances of the system drove him away.
“New York, when I arrived there, was in a financial crisis,” Mr. Walder said. “The system simply did not have enough money to continue to operate. The assets were not being renewed. And the infrastructure was in terrible condition.”
“What I did,” Mr. Walder continued, “was to be able to right that financial basis and to be able to put the system back on firm financial footing.” Read More
Or at least they do not like mom and apple pie, Read More
Locally grown produce is not what one typically associates with the Atlantic Avenue subway station—the mall food court upstairs is anything but, and the victuals across the street at the Brooklyn Flea is really just fast food for hipsters. Crack pie, anyone?
However, a new photography exhibit by Brooklyn-based photographer Valery Rizzo on display now until December 2012, will decorate the subway walls with vibrant images of mouthwatering legumes, radishes and cucumbers, likely to inspire guilt about Shake Shake cravings and understocked refrigerators. Read More
Charles Komanoff, the hound of Manhattan traffic, penned an interesting column yesterday for Streetsblog arguing that the Occupy movement had the potential to bring congestion pricing back to life.
After all, the protesters, with their message of pervasive inequality, arguably helped put enough pressure on the Cuomo administration to embrace some form of higher taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. Why couldn't some form of populist support do the same for tolls on East River bridges and the subsequent boost to clean air and mass transit that would come with it? Read More
How many buses must be plodding along the streets of New York right now, showing up late, freezing out their riders as the weather turns toward winter? Too bad for those riders they do not have warmhearted elected officials preparing reports on their behalf. A pack of Brooklyn pols convened at a B61 bus stop at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope this morning to take the M.T.A to task for failing riders of this lonesome shuttle.
"The results are clear and dramatic," said Councilman Brad Lander, whose office produced the report. "More than half of B61's don't arrive on time during rush hour, that's unacceptable and is failing riders." The report, entitled "Next Bus Please" harnessed a gang of volunteers to gather the information during the three month period of July to September this year, surveying the peak hours. Read More
This time next Friday—actually, starting sometime around Monday probably—the fan boys will begin lining up in Grand Central Terminal to be the first into the new Apple Store when it opens Dec. 9.
Will they care whether Apple is paying $60 per square foot, or $80, or $180? Probably not. But State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli cares, and yesterday, his office announced they would do an audit of the M.T.A.'s real estate practices, following up on one from last year, to make sure the transit agency is not cutting anybody—Apple, Danny Meyer, their mother—a sweetheart deal.
To which the M.T.A.'s response is: "Bring it on." Read More
The bus. Possibly the most romantic form of public transportation, made all the more romantic by its numerous portrayals on the big screen. Think Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke taking a furtive ride in Austria, a moody Eminem scribbling notes and of course Kate Hudson and her ensemble belting out "Tiny Dancer." None of the claustrophobia of the subway or the pat downs of the airport.
Though its hard to feel any way romantic about a 3.5 mile-per-hour ride across a crowded Manhattan, but that's the speed that the M50 bus was clocked at by The Straphangers Campaign this year, earning the route the not so sought after, Pokey award, now in its 10th year. Read More
With all the fan boy excitement surrounding the new Apple Store at Grand Central, it is no surprise the shiny glass bauble was able to land a sweetheart deal for the space. Now, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is probing Apple's lease with the M.T.A., according to the Post, looking for signs of whether or not there was anything untoward about the deal. Read More
Curbside fare payment machines along 34th street? What will they dream up next? To the delight of bus drivers and passengers alike, Mayor Bloomberg and his rabble rousing Department of transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan implemented the next phase of operation Select Bus Service on 34th street earlier today. Read More
As of today, Joe Lhota is driving the M.T.A.
The former Giuliani budget director said in a brief statement sent out to the press that his first order of business is getting a handle on the organization, no doubt so he can get to work streamlining it, as many hope he will. Read More
When Jay Walder resigned from the M.T.A. earlier this year, the transportation community was mortified. Here was their messiah leaving for Hong Kong, his work barely begun. Transit wonks could hardly fathom who could take over for Mr. Walder, continuing his formidable task of transforming the agency in ways both subtle—cutting $4 billion in waste and efficiencies—and not—underground cellphones, Oyster cards, Bus Rapid Transit.
They were looking in the wrong place. Read More
While The Observer can't remember the last time we called the M.T.A. to complain—it seems as futile as waiting for a G on the weekends—it is now at least a little easier to contact the agency, which has just streamlined its 117 phone numbers throughout the region down to one: 511. In a move that seems a tad overdue, callers no longer have to jump from menu to menu, in order to get their questions answered. The system incorporates a plethora of new options through voice recognition, the phone technology that everyone loves!
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