MTA

“In London, you carry nearly twice as many people in the bus system as you do on the Underground.” In New York, the opposite is true. “We must close the gap and make more of the bus system.”

IBM's Smarter Planet project, which uses technology (and sometimes plain old polling) in an effort to revamp urban infrastructure, today signed deals with transit agencies in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to "smartly" manage the ins and outs of keeping trains and buses running.

Without good information for riders, transit systems don't work very well. A subway station sans system map or a bus stop lacking a posted schedule perform terribly from a usability perspective. That's why real-time bus information and subway countdown clocks have been getting so much play lately. They would give New York City transit riders extremely useful information that's currently unavailable.

In Utah, they flip off forest rangers and wheel their ATV’s onto delicate wilderness trails. In the Virginia exurbs they lounge in air-conditioned trophy homes and write checks to stop carbon taxes. Here in NYC, they find their “Network” moment in a 25-cent bump in MTA bridge tolls, then ferret out toll-free routes into Manhattan and crow about them in the Daily News.

Will the third time be the charm for reliable bus arrival displays in Manhattan? NYCDOT and the MTA announced today that, yes, they will deliver a tracking system bus riders can count on.

Sure, knocking the MTA is a favorite local past time, particularly for the politicians and press who are practically guaranteed a "Hallelujah!" chorus for every barb (today's scandal: fat cat transit workers poised to rake in cost-of-living allowance!!). But despite the MTA's problems, as Michael Frumin points out on his Frumination blog, the city's streets and highways can't hold a candle to the subways when it comes to moving commuters into and out of Manhattan's Central Business District.

David Paterson has nominated Jay Walder to the top post at the MTA, a selection welcomed by transportation advocates who hailed his expertise and accomplishments today. Walder brings to the job several years of executive experience at large transit agencies, including 12 years at the MTA spanning the 80s and 90s, and a recent six-year stint at Transport for London. Walder still needs to be confirmed by the State Senate, which is slated to meet in an extraordinary session tomorrow.

We wondered a few months back why Upper Manhattan Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, a supporter of congestion pricing, would side with the usual suspects in opposing Ravitch-backed East and Harlem River bridge tolls. At the time, Espaillat told Streetsblog readers that new tolls would place an unfair burden on his district, and blamed MTA financial woes on "contemptible bookkeeping and abject failure to control spending."

Ben Kabak at Second Avenue Sagas is on a roll critiquing media coverage of the MTA fare hike, which went into effect yesterday. Last week he questioned the coalition-building skills of transit advocates. Today he goes after the reporters: