InsideTransit

Last year Google got cozy with the MTA with the launch of transit directions inside of Google Maps. Last week the Google Maps team has announced the launch of a new layer on Google Maps that displays all of the NYC subway routes directly on the map.

There have been many mashups that created something similar in the past but now the subway lines are displayed directly on the map. So far I haven’t been able to find any errors in the lines and/or stations. I am sure my fellow railfans will find any errors this weekend.

The new subway map lines also work on the mobile version of Google Maps. Google notes that they provide transit directions for 436 transit agencies around the world.

While the subway lines on the map are nice, nothing beats the Swiss Rail mashup that shows the trains in real-time and they actually move on the map!

Ewan also reports that the subway layer works in London as well. He calls it a mess and notes how wonderful the Harry Beck London Tube map still is today.

Last week the NY Waterway announced the addition of a bus locator service to their bus fleet in NYC. The NY Waterway provides a ferry service around NYC and they have a bus fleet with over 40 buses. The company notes that their 40 buses makes them larger than many transit systems across the U.S.

The bus locator service is available via the addition of GPS transmission devices placed on their buses. Currently you need to call NY Waterway to find out when the next bus will arrive although the company says that mobile apps are coming soon. Not sure why you would launch without a way to get the information automatically via your computer or mobile device.

Earlier this year the NYC MTA launched a test of a bus locator service on several crosstown bus routes. Many other cities already have displays with a list of times until the next bus arrives. While I am not a fan of this functionality underground (there is never a long wait), I am a big fan of this technology for the bus fleet. The countdown timers can give you a quick indication if you should walk or take a cab.

Found via SubChat, can you name all of the subway stations in Manhattan? Sporcle has put together a quiz which provides you with 15 minutes to name all of the 127 stations. I was able to get all of the right answers in 9:58. Leave your scores and times in the comments.

Good luck! May the Chambers St. be with you! Now if they put together a Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island quiz – those would be MUCH harder!

The new NYC MTA Chairman, Jay H. Walder, is considering looking at off-peak pricing for public transportation in NYC.  The off-peak pricing is already in place in London where Walder formerly ran the system.

I can’t decide if I am a fan of off-peak pricing. While some I spoke with today believe it will increase usage which will make up for the lower price overall, I am not sure that more people will use the system. If you need to use transit, you do. If you don’t, you won’t. A 25 or 50 cent discount is not going ot make people run out and take transit when they have no reason to be going somewhere.

If they increased service on buses and trains on the weekend, then we would have something to talk about.

More on 1010Wins.

Finally!! The transportation authority here in NYC (MTA) has finally decided to realize that it’s a damn pain in the butt to try to haul luggage on a bus bound for the airport. Today they announced a pilot program to test luggage racks on the bus routes that serve both LGA and JFK airports (i.e. M60, B15, Q3, Q10, Q33, Q48 and Q72).  One bus running on the M60 to LGA has the rack installed.

“We believe that the racks will be a great amenity, making things more comfortable for our customers and even helping our bus operators speed their trips. We are going to have our managers out monitoring these buses, asking our customers and bus operators if they are seeing an improvement,” said Joseph Smith, Senior Vice President in the Department of Buses. “If the results are positive, we will expand the installation of the racks to other buses on these routes.”

The issues I see with the luggage rack location are:

• security – placing the racks right next to the rear door allows a criminal to easily exit with your bag
• you must drag the bag from the front of the bus to the rear – my guess is many passengers will just continue standing towards the front with their bag

In any case, good for the MTA for testing out a feature that many other cities already offer on their airport-bound buses. I’d rather see larger and wider buses running on the airport routes rather than the low-floor tiny buses.

Here’s something from the NYC subway wayback machine courtesy Subchat. Many years ago, there was a special “train to the plane” that operated in NYC. It made only a few stops in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn then ended at the Howard Beach subway stop. From there passengers boarded a shuttle bus which took them to JFK airport. The train ran every 20 minutes and there was an additional fare of $3.50-4.00 which was collected on board.

If you are traveling to/from the NYC airports and want to try using transit (you should!), check out our NYC airport guide. I find that using the subway and the LIRR is much faster and way cheaper than taking a taxi from JFK airport.

Here’s a video with 2 commercials from the Train to the Plane – both look like they were created by the people who made the Brady Bunch tv show.
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There’s nothing cooler than transit data in a visual form. If you are like me, you will love the site I have for you today. It was created by Sha and takes NYC subway ridership data from 2006 and displays it on a map. You can check out each station and see how many people began their travels at that station. The thicker the line, the more people paid their fare at that station. You can also see the data as dots instead of lines.

As one might imagine, Times Square leads the pack. Other interesting notes:

• 17 million people started at the Main Street station in Flushing
• Beach 105st in the Rockaways only had 80,000 people use the station
• 17 million people also used the 86th street Lexington IRT station

We need more visualizations and frankly more transit data usage to both understand more about how the system works and to help passengers more effectively utilize the system.

It would be interesting to overlay 2008 data as I am sure many of the stations in Long Island City and parts of Brooklyn will probably feature much thicker lines. Imagine a global transit usage directory!

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the MTA going after application developers who use transit schedule data in their apps. It’s still a shock to me that any public agency would have an issue with outsiders trying to help them help their customers (many times for free). I wonder what Bloomberg thinks of this with all of his ads about how he is going to fix the MTA.

David Turner and Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock have put together a meetup for tomorrow evening (Tuesday) to discuss how the MTA and the developer community can best collaborate. You can find all of the details here about the event including a variety of comments about whether Google gets current data for their Maps and Transit products.

I won’t be able to make the event due to scheduling concerns and am very hopeful the group can come out with some good learnings and next steps. If the MTA wants to fix the MTA, talking to the “Internet” could be the first step.

Earlier this week, bricks and tiles fell from the ceiling of the 181th street subway station in NYC. Work has been ongoing 24 hours a day to get the line open again and I am hearing that the line should be open on Monday.  The MTA has been posting photos from the work site at 181st – I’ve posted a few of them below.

This is a perfect example of why the MTA should have a blog – to humanize the conversation of events like this ceiling collapse. Posting images on Twitter is meaningless for the majority of transit riders who would be interested in viewing the work progress. Give me a call MTA – let’s talk. Instead of a blog, we get silly television commercials telling us how Bloomberg wants to fix the MTA – how come now he wants to do it – why not any of the other years? Oh yea, it’s an election year

Here a work crane is on the tracks on the right and a meeting is being held on the right platform:

Here is a photo showing bricks from the ceiling being removed – probably to be saved:

Earlier this week, riders of the L subway line in NYC got an eyeful when 19 year-old Jocelyn Saldana stripped down naked and started riding the pole. The NY Post has a story about the event which took riders by surprise – they probably thought the heat got to them and they were hallucinating. I can tell you this, I’d rather see a naked woman on my subway rides home than listen to the (mostly) horrible music that so-called musicians try to play. Even more I’d just prefer a quiet train with good air conditioning.

From the Post, “…That free show in mid-June — as well as similar ones from Times Square to Chinatown — were the creation of photographer Zach Hyman, 22, whose portraits are never under-exposed. The photographer and his volunteer models don’t spend much time on location. The model quickly disrobes and Hyman gives himself only 30 seconds to fire off 10 shots with his Hasselblad 500 film camera.”

Apparently Hyman carries a lot of bail money should cops find him while he is shooting the nudes.

And here you thought the Metrocard was just for paying your fare. Below is a photo from the “shoot” but I’ve blurred the bits – if you want to see the full image (NOT SAFE FOR WORK) – Swiss site Blick has it for you.