Yesterday, our friend Jehiah Czebotar threw down the gauntlet, but reporter Dave Colon picked it right up. First, the dare:
I’m told by the officer responding to my 311 report that this magnetic (and illegal) “BUSES” license plate cover was “issued” to this MTA bus supervisor to avoid MTA bus cameras. Insane if true @nyc.streetsblog.org
— Jehiah (@jehiah.cz) 2025-10-28T13:32:36.541Z
As you can see from Czebotar's Bluesky post, some guy told a cop that he was using a fake license plate because he's an MTA bus supervisor and doesn't want to get automated tickets for blocking bus lanes.
It sounded almost vaguely plausible — I mean, who wants to trigger all those cameras with bus lane violations as you go about your day monitoring, um, bus lane violations?
But Colon got the answer from the MTA: it's total BS. First of all, of course, lots of official cars are exempted from tickets already and are filtered out before tickets are issued. Second, the MTA said it did not issue, nor does it issue, such fake plates.
The leaves only one question: Did the driver lie to the cop ... or did the cop lie to Czebotar? Either way, there's a great song about the whole thing.
In other news:
- Our friends at W42St cited our coverage in its own reporting on Academy Bus Lines' fight to get a waiver from the city's anti-idling law.
- In another "Streetsblog Gets Action" story, there was a ghost car crackdown in Brooklyn. (PIX11)
- Bronx Council Member Amanda Farias has signed onto her colleague Julie Won's universal daylighting bill, bringing the number of sponsors to a majority. (NYC Council)
- "Changing Lanes," the great documentary on the McGuinness Boulevard bike lane saga by Ben Wolf got a nice write-up in Greenpointers. You can see it on Nov. 8 at the Bicycle Film Festival. (Tickets here.)
- Here's how to score a cheap e-bike. (Bloomberg)
- Look, reasonable minds can debate how immigration should be enforced in this country, but federal agents should not be illegally covering their plates. (NPR)
- Speaking of the feds, MTA CEO Janno Lieber is just trying to run a railroad. (Bloomberg)
- The Daily News op-ed page thinks Penn Station needs to be a full-on monument.
- What is it going to take to stop fare evasion? Hostility, of course. (Fast Company)
- U.S. Department of Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy went after the New York City subway system again yesterday, so Twitter did what it does.
- Vital City pointed out that street safety questions were almost entirely left out of the mayoral debates.
- The Court Street bike lane is a great place for supporters to meet their opponents, apparently. (Ben Furnas via X)
- And, finally, the face-to-face portion of Transportation Alternatives' annual "Vision Zero Cities" conference begins today at NYU's Kimmel Center. We're going to skip the Polly Trottenberg-Anthony Foxx keynote opener, but intend to cover some pretty damn important sessions: "Streets Mean Business: Making the Economic Case for Safe Streets" (10:45 a.m.) and the timely "Safe Streets for All: Vision Zero in an Era of Immigration Crackdowns" (2:30 p.m.) Tickets are available here.
