MTA
Streetsblog Basics
As Subway Trips Climb, MTA Bus Ridership Continues to Stagnate
While subway ridership hit a 65-year high last year, the story for surface transit in NYC is different. Bus ridership has yet to recover from a major round of service cuts in 2010, and in 2014 it lost some ground, according to new stats from the MTA.
April 23, 2015
Subway Ridership Hits 65-Year High. Does Cuomo Care?
Subway ridership hit a 65-year high in 2014, serving 1.75 billion trips last year, the most since the New York City Transit Authority was formed in 1953. That's an increase of 2.6 percent over 2013 and 12 percent since 2007, according to the MTA. The subway now serves 5.6 million passenger trips on an average weekday, and 6 million on an average two-day weekend.
April 20, 2015
DOT Scraps Bus Lanes in Kew Gardens Hills for Flushing-Jamaica SBS
This afternoon, the City Council overwhelmingly passed a bill that requires DOT to work with the MTA on a citywide Bus Rapid Transit plan to be updated every two years. The vote came a day after DOT told bus lane opponents in eastern Queens that it will water down a Select Bus Service proposal in their neighborhood.
April 16, 2015
Jim Brennan’s Transpo $ Plan: Gas Tax, Income Tax, and Forced City Funding
A bill from Assembly Member Jim Brennan, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, would create a transportation finance authority to collect new taxes and help fund the MTA as well as roads, bridges, and transit statewide. It's the first major transportation funding proposal to come out of Albany this year.
April 10, 2015
The Times Fails to Comprehend the Nature of the MTA Funding Gap
New York politicos couldn't have asked for a better deflection of their own responsibility to keep our transit system running than this piece served up yesterday by Times opinion writer Eleanor Randolph:
April 10, 2015
Bus Lanes Coming to 125th Street in West Harlem This Summer
Bus riders may not be stuck in crosstown traffic on 125th Street much longer. DOT plans to extend bus lanes from Lenox Avenue to Morningside Avenue this summer [PDF].
April 3, 2015
MTA Refuses to Test Simple Bus Design Fix That Could Save Lives
Council Member Antonio Reynoso has introduced a resolution calling on the MTA to install rear wheel side guards, which keep pedestrians and cyclists from being crushed beneath the wheels of a bus. The equipment is already used on buses in cities across the country, but the MTA says it's not interested in installing sideguards on its vehicles.
March 12, 2015
MTA Tests Bike Racks on Bus Across Verrazano
An anonymously-sourced New York Post story yesterday might leave readers with the impression that new bike racks on the front of Staten Island buses will lead to late trips and a liability nightmare for the MTA. The MTA, however, says it's still studying the racks -- a tried-and-true amenity in every other big American city -- on a route crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which currently has no bike path.
March 10, 2015
Parents of Seth Kahn: Ineffective MTA Protocols Contributed to Son’s Death
After Wednesday’s MTA board meeting transit chief Tom Prendergast said the agency may revise bus routes to reduce the number of turns bus drivers have to make, in order to minimize conflicts between buses and pedestrians, according to the Daily News. Prendergast said another possibility would be to move crosswalks away from intersections where buses make turns, which would necessitate streetscape changes by DOT.
February 27, 2015