Transit

October 1, 2015

Here’s What the G Train Could Look Like if It Went Into Manhattan

Considering it's taken the city nearly 100 years to get the Second Avenue Subway moving and that the MTA is over its head in debt, we're not holding our breath that any other major expansion work will take place in the system, but we can all dream, right? Take for instance these new maps created by cartographer Andrew Lynch as part of his Future NYC Subway series. He envisions the G train, which currently only connects Brooklyn and Queens, making two loops into Manhattan -- one Downtown and one in Midtown. As Curbed notes, "It's a slightly convoluted proposal," but Lynch clearly put a lot of thought into his scheme, even figuring out the tunnels and connection points the train would take.
READ MORE

Transit

September 23, 2015

New York City Now Has Over 1,000 Miles of Bike Lanes!

By Diane Pham

1,010.2 miles to be exact. Yesterday morning, NYC reached the milestone figure with the painting of its latest lane in the Lower East Side along Clinton Street. In addition to this, the Department of Transportation announced that yet another 12 miles of protected lanes would be completed by the year's end between West 14th Street and West 33rd Street. The number is above the city's five-mile annual target, and the highest amount ever installed in any year. The news, a blessing to cyclists citywide, certainly supports the fact that New York is set on strengthening the cycling culture of the city—which has already been named by Bicycling Magazine as 2015's best American city for bikes.
More here

Transit

It’s Official! JetBlue Will Turn the Iconic TWA Flight Terminal at JFK Into a Hotel

Image courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle

September 18, 2015

It’s Official! JetBlue Will Turn the Iconic TWA Flight Terminal at JFK Into a Hotel

By Diane Pham

No longer will the fate of Eero Saarinen’s architectural masterpiece sit in limbo, Crain's reports that the iconic structure will indeed be made into a hotel, developed through a partnership between MCR Development and JetBlue. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chose the pair amongst a "field of several competitors" bidding for the job, and the decision will be formally announced at the agency's board meeting next week. As we previously reported, the new destination will be known as the TWA Flight Center Hotel.
more details this way

September 16, 2015

Liven Up Your Walls With Bike Art Inspired by the New York City Streets

By Rebecca Paul

Original art is a great way to adorn the walls in your home, but for some of us, it can also be outside of our budget. One excellent solution to this conundrum is to purchase original prints from local artists like Massimo Mongiardo. Mongiardo recieved his BFA in Illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art, and he now lives and works in New York City. His playful collection of bike prints were inspired by the bike culture he observed around his studio.
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$20M Allocated to New Technology That Will Let NYC Vehicles ‘Talk’ to Each Other

Traffic jam photo via joiseyshowaa/flickr

September 15, 2015

$20M Allocated to New Technology That Will Let NYC Vehicles ‘Talk’ to Each Other

By Dana Schulz

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that $42 million will be allocated to new technology in New York City, Tampa, and the state of Wyoming that allows vehicles to "talk" to one another and their surroundings "in order to reduce congestion, prevent accidents, and cut emissions," according to Daily Intelligencer. The city is receiving $20 million of the funds, with which it will create "connected vehicles" that can hopefully reduce traffic accidents by up to 80 percent. By gaining access to real-time traffic data, both drivers and pedestrians will be alerted (or do the alerting) of potential hazards.
Learn about the specifics of what this technology entails

September 10, 2015

Mapping the Never-Built Highways of NYC from Robert Moses and Others

By Dana Schulz

If there's one thing most people attribute to Robert Moses it's highways. The master planner built 13 expressways throughout New York, including the Cross Bronx Expressway, Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the FDR Drive, and the West Side Highway. Love him or hate him, this was a pretty profound feat of urban planning. But had he been granted free rein, Moses would've constructed even more highways. The two failed attempts that remain most notorious are the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would've cut east-west along the residential areas of Broome Street, as well as a Mid-Manhattan Expressway, a proposed six-lane elevated highway along 30th Street. After mapping these aforementioned Moses proposals, cartographer Andrew Lynch decided to take his project one step further and create a map series of all the never-built highways in NYC, both from Moses and others.
Check out the full-size maps here

Transit

September 3, 2015

Here’s How Many Calories You’ll Burn if You Walk, Jog, or Cycle Instead of Taking the Subway

By Dana Schulz

Looking to shed a few pounds after all the summer cookouts and outdoor happy hours? Perhaps you should consider ditching the old Metrocard and traveling by foot or bicycle instead. To put into perspective just how fit this will get you, the folks over at Treated have calculated how many calories you'll burn by walking, jogging, and cycling between subway stops. As Curbed notes, the analysis provides calorie info for every single subway stop and also charts the longest stops, which unsurprisingly are mostly over bridges, and the shortest stops, mostly located in lower Manhattan.
See the full map and calorie charts here

September 2, 2015

VIDEO: Riding the Subway in the 1940s Wasn’t Much Different From Today

By Dana Schulz

Here's a picture of the New York City subway–mobs of commuters crowding the platforms; train cars filled to the brim; passengers blocking the train doors; people walking while reading the paper, oblivious to their surroundings. Sounds like your commute this morning, right? But believe it or not, we're describing the subway from the 1940s. Unearthed today by Gothamist, this video from the New York Transit Museum archives shows just how little things have changed in the past 75 years.
Watch the video here

September 1, 2015

Infographic: The Correlation Between Income and Access to NYC Public Transit

By Dana Schulz

We already know that there are plenty of areas within the five boroughs that are underserved by public transportation, but a new visualization provides an interesting perspective on how this lack of service is related to income. The simple infographic by FiveThirtyEight shows how New Yorkers commute based on income and access to public transportation, revealing five broad categories that range from those with no good options at all to those who have their choice of Uber or public transportation.
READ MORE

Hudson Yards 7 Train Station Will Officially Open on September 13th

An aerial rendering of the new station

August 28, 2015

Hudson Yards 7 Train Station Will Officially Open on September 13th

By Dana Schulz

We once had a friend who lived in midtown all the way over on 12th Avenue...and let's just say we rarely visited. But what was once a subway wasteland is finally getting its very own subway station. After years of delays, the new 7 train stop at 34th Street-Hudson Yards will officially open on September 13th, at 1:00pm to be exact. The extension from its current endpoint at Times Square has cost the city $2.4 billion since construction commenced in 2007.
More details

Transit

Before LaGuardia, There Was Glenn H. Curtiss Airport

By Dana Schulz

Last month, Governor Cuomo revealed his $4 billion plan to overhaul LaGuardia Airport, the third-worst airport in the country that Vice President Biden recently likened to a third-world country. While today it's hard to imagine New York City without its sub-par airports (JFK is THE worst airport in the nation), they weren't always a fixture in the city. In fact, LaGuardia was preceded by a much more modest facility with links to world aviation history -- Glenn H. Curtiss Airport. It opened in 1929 as a private airfield off Flushing Bay; became a commercial airport called North Beach in 1935; and a decade later was changed to what we know today when then Mayor La Guardia wanted the city to have its own airport and not have to rely on Newark.
Get the full history right here

August 26, 2015

See NYC’s Subway Lines Superimposed Over an Aerial Photo of the City

By Diane Pham

When we head underground and board the subway, most of us don't give much thought to all the streets and landmarks we'll be zipping past as we move along to our destination. But here’s an incredible mash-up from map enthusiast Anorian that offers a much different perspective on exactly where the subway travels. An amalgamation of digital photos taken from a commercial plane and the expert mapping of each line, this beautiful image is far more captivating and insightful than any printed or online map out there.
See more views here

Transit

August 25, 2015

This $9 Device Can Save Drivers from the Much-Loathed Parking Ticket

By Dana Schulz

After driving around for what seems like an eternity, you finally find a parking spot. You read all the signs, double check that there's no yellow curbs or fire hydrants nearby, feed the meter, and go on your merry way. A few hours later, you walk back up to your car and see that tiny orange rectangle (the infamous NYC parking ticket) taunting you from the windshield. If this sounds familiar, here's your chance to stop shelling out $65 for being one minute over your last quarter. AwareCar, a smartphone app and Bluetooth device, keeps drivers in check by reminding them where they parked, when the meter is expiring, and at what time they need to leave to head back to their vehicle (h/t CityLab). And all this will only set you back $9.
Find out how this genius technology works

August 24, 2015

MTA Rolls Out Startling New Campaign to Reduce Railroad Crossing Accidents

By Diane Pham

In response to the tragic Metro-North Railroad crash back in February which killed six and injured over a dozen, this summer the MTA released a new campaign hoping to get pedestrians and motorists to be more aware of their surroundings when around train tracks. The campaign—made up of five posters and three videos—is illustrated in the same vein as the also recently rolled out "Courtesy Counts" posters found throughout the city's subways. But what's most surprising about the agency's railroad crossing adverts is that like those in the subway (e.g. man-spreading and poll hogging), they're all inspired by real life events.
see more of the posters and the videos here

Transit

August 18, 2015

Vote to Bring the East River Skyway to SXSW 2016!

By Alyssa Alimurung

These are the facts: NYC subways still run on 1930s technology, the delays are getting longer, and there’s no stopping the residential development boom happening not only in Manhattan, but also in Brooklyn. If you’ve commuted from Brooklyn to Manhattan (and vice-versa) during rush hour you know that the subway ride is a nightmare. That's why we need the East River Skyway, an aerial gondola system that would run along the Brooklyn waterfront and into Manhattan, bringing commuters over the river in just 3.5 minutes. The project is being led by Dan Levy, the president and CEO of CityRealty* and a Williamsburg resident, who noticed while skiing how quickly gondolas moved and how comfortable they were. He has spent several years investigating the technology and completed preliminary studies to see what it would take to adapt a similar system to meet the needs of New York City. What he found was that implementation would be relatively inexpensive and quickly deployable.
Learn how you can help

August 17, 2015

Quirky Taxi Poster Illustrates the Designs of NYC’s Iconic Cabs

By Diane Pham

Although in daily life you're more likely to curse cabs than celebrate them, this cool print by illustrator James Gulliver Hancock highlights the charms of the city's yellow icon. Featuring the cab designs of today and yesteryear, this wonderful print is a work of art and a pretty accurate representation of just how nutty NYC traffic can get.
Where to buy one here

August 14, 2015

What’s Your Subway Cred? New Game Judges You Based on the Number of Stations You’ve Visited

By Diane Pham

Akin to pinning all of the cities you've visited on a world map, "What's your Subway Number?" allows you to visually quantify your worldliness—or in this case your "New Yorkness"—by accounting for every subway stop you've stepped foot in. The game is the clever creation of digital designer Mike Solomon, and breaks straphangers down into four categories: Rich Tourist, Junior Commuter, Official Resident, and NYC Lifer.
Find out more here

Transit

August 13, 2015

Study Says: The 4 Train Is the Worst Performing, the L Train the Best

By Diane Pham

The L train may be painfully packed during rush hour, but at least it can tout the title of being the best performing of all of NYC's subway lines—which appear only to be getting worse. The Journal reports that an audit recently conducted by the state comptroller’s office revealed that, on average, the subway system's on-time performance (how frequently a train reaches its last stop within five minutes of the scheduled time) is on the decline, falling to 74 percent on weekdays and 81 percent on weekends in 2014, from 81 percent and 85 percent in 2013. But the worst performing train of all? The 4 train.
More on the best and worst trains here

August 12, 2015

POLL: Do You Agree That the New LaGuardia Plan Is Non-Functional and Uninspiring?

By Dana Schulz

On Monday, resident architecture critic Carter B. Horsley shared his thoughts on the the new $4 billion LaGuardia airport proposal, and let’s just say he is not impressed. He feels the design is “especially lackluster and uninspired when compared to many new 21st-century airports” with no “new urban mascot, logo or icon to offer and amuse.” He […]

August 6, 2015

Map of ‘Subway Deserts’ Shows Outer Boroughs Left High and Dry

By Michelle Cohen

Though we may already know there are places in NYC that we can't easily get to, transit data junkie Chris Whong lays it all out on a map that points out the city's lesser-served regions, at least by underground means. The interactive map shows all NYC land areas more than 500 meters (about .3 miles) from one of the city’s 468 subway stations–that’s about two avenue blocks or six or seven shorter street blocks (around a seven-minute walk) according to Google maps. A big blue dot blots out this radius surrounding the station; everything outside the dot, well, you’re hoofing it (or taking a bus, car or rickshaw).
Find out more

July 31, 2015

Feasibility Study to Address Streetcars or Light Rail for Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront

By Michelle Cohen

In the ongoing discussion of expanding the city's mass transit options to underserved areas, we may be a step closer to addressing the need for transit along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront–between Astoria, Red Hook and Sunset Park, according to CapitalNY. While many of those areas have transit to and from Manhattan covered, a north-west connection is needed (and relying on the G train doesn't help much). An advisory committee comprised of developers, transportation experts and civic organizers has formed to address this need. Recently, the consulting firm of HR&A Advisors (former employers of city planning commissioner Carl Weisbrod) was hired by the committee to study the feasibility of a streetcar service or a light rail line to connect Sunset Park to Astoria, connecting rapidly growing neighborhoods like Red Hook, Williamsburg and Downtown Brooklyn, as well as burgeoning business and industry hubs like Long Island City and the Brookyn Navy Yard.
Find out more

July 29, 2015

LaGuardia Overhaul Could Actually Cost $8 Billion and Take Over 10 Years to Complete

By Diane Pham

Womp womp. For those of you still flying high over yesterday's news that LaGuardia Airport would soon be getting a major revamp, here comes some unfortunate news that might bring you back down to earth. As Crain's reports, Governor Cuomo appears to have grossly underestimated his vision for the upgraded air hub. "According to several sources with direct knowledge of the project," the paper says, "a new LaGuardia could take more than 10 years to build and cost close to $8 billion"—a price that's double the Cuomo administration estimates of $4 billion, with at least another five years tacked on to the schedule.
Find out more here

July 29, 2015

POLL: Should the MTA Get Money from the State Before LaGuardia Airport?

By Dana Schulz

Yesterday, we learned of Governor Cuomo’s plans for a major, $4 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport. The project includes consolidating the four terminals, moving the entire facility south, introducing a 24-hour ferry service, and launching AirTrain service that’ll connect travelers to the 7 line in Willet’s Point. Today, however, the revelry took a turn when it […]

July 28, 2015

Governor Cuomo Reveals Renderings for $4 Billion LaGuardia Airport Overhaul

By Dana Schulz

After much anticipation, Governor Cuomo unveiled his plan yesterday to overhaul LaGuardia Airport, which he called "un-New York" in its current state. The $4 billion project includes consolidating the four terminals into one hub and moving the entire facility south the length of two football fields, according to Crain's. Additionally, Cuomo's controversial AirTrain, which will connect travelers to the 7 line in Willet's Point, will be put into effect, as will a 24-hour ferry service that will operate out of the landmarked Art Deco Marine Air Terminal. The development will be handled by LaGuardia Gateway Partners, a new public-private partnership formed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who will oversee the construction, financing, and operation of the new terminal under a 35-year lease.
Lots more details and renderings this way

July 28, 2015

Eero Saarinen’s Iconic JFK Terminal to Be Reborn as the ‘TWA Flight Center Hotel’

By Diane Pham

For the last 14 years, JFK's most beloved structure has mostly languished vacant, reopened intermittently for public tours or to serve as the backdrop of some Jet Age fashion shoot. While there has been plenty of talk surrounding the TWA Flight Center's transformation into a hotel, details have remained sparse until now. As Curbed has it, the city has finally revealed that MCR Development will be taking the reigns alongside JetBlue and the NYNJ Port Authority, bringing the iconic terminal back to life as a 505-room LEED-certified hotel with restaurants, 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck. The project will aptly be called "The TWA Flight Center Hotel."
FInd out more here

Transit

Here’s What the G Train Could Look Like if It Went Into Manhattan

New York City Now Has Over 1,000 Miles of Bike Lanes!

It’s Official! JetBlue Will Turn the Iconic TWA Flight Terminal at JFK Into a Hotel

Liven Up Your Walls With Bike Art Inspired by the New York City Streets

$20M Allocated to New Technology That Will Let NYC Vehicles ‘Talk’ to Each Other

Mapping the Never-Built Highways of NYC from Robert Moses and Others

Here’s How Many Calories You’ll Burn if You Walk, Jog, or Cycle Instead of Taking the Subway

VIDEO: Riding the Subway in the 1940s Wasn’t Much Different From Today

Infographic: The Correlation Between Income and Access to NYC Public Transit

Hudson Yards 7 Train Station Will Officially Open on September 13th

Before LaGuardia, There Was Glenn H. Curtiss Airport

See NYC’s Subway Lines Superimposed Over an Aerial Photo of the City

This $9 Device Can Save Drivers from the Much-Loathed Parking Ticket

MTA Rolls Out Startling New Campaign to Reduce Railroad Crossing Accidents

Vote to Bring the East River Skyway to SXSW 2016!

For $1.85M, this Chelsea co-op is a work of art

Quirky Taxi Poster Illustrates the Designs of NYC’s Iconic Cabs

What’s Your Subway Cred? New Game Judges You Based on the Number of Stations You’ve Visited

Study Says: The 4 Train Is the Worst Performing, the L Train the Best

POLL: Do You Agree That the New LaGuardia Plan Is Non-Functional and Uninspiring?

Map of ‘Subway Deserts’ Shows Outer Boroughs Left High and Dry

Feasibility Study to Address Streetcars or Light Rail for Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront

LaGuardia Overhaul Could Actually Cost $8 Billion and Take Over 10 Years to Complete

POLL: Should the MTA Get Money from the State Before LaGuardia Airport?

Governor Cuomo Reveals Renderings for $4 Billion LaGuardia Airport Overhaul

Eero Saarinen’s Iconic JFK Terminal to Be Reborn as the ‘TWA Flight Center Hotel’

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