iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 02/10/2026

The MTA is looking for ways to improve passenger wayfinding via improved screens and announcements. Better tech is good on paper, ETA's Blair Lorenzo told the New York Groove, but the real question is if it will actually be used to improve the rider experience, and not simply blast more noise.

Lorenzo noted that any new tech is only as good as the messaging its used for. New tech also opens up the opportunity, of course, for more advertising.

"That would only make the rider experience worse, further pushing people who can to ignore announcements while forcing those who rely on them to sift through an ever-increasing amount of noise," she said. "The best technology in the world is useless if it isn't used in a way that gives riders the information they need while otherwise respecting their time and attention."

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Adam @adamshap.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

NYC’s congestion pricing program cut ambulance travel times by over a minute

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Colleen Wilson @colleenonthescene.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I’m at the Gateway Development Commission’s Tonnelle Ave construction site for the unveiling of the first of two tunnel boring machines. An incredible piece of machinery that will chip away through the volcanic Palisades rock of NJ. Story TK

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Clem Tillier @ctillier.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I always thought under-slung BART wouldn’t fit through the Golden Gate Bridge towers, but it turns out BART is small and the bridge is huge. Here is a mockup in 1/100 scale, BART fits easily.

A photo of a 1/100 scale model of a tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, showing a paper cutout of a cross section of a BART line under the road deck. It fits easily.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Come help us design, build and buy the trains and buses that move millions! We’re hiring for the special projects team in the rolling stock program. We’re looking for a fast and strategic thinker, problem solver and consensus builder who’ll assist w/‘hot potatoes’ — careers.mta.org/jobs/1827678...

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Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Kind of amazing how underappreciated “make the buses go faster” would save service hours, free up bus availability, and actually sell more fares, all of which are positives on a transit agency’s balance sheet

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 21/09/2026

ETA is here in Berlin and will be all week for InnoTrans to bring the best insights back to New York from the biggest public transit showcase in the world! If you'd like to meet with our team while we are here, we'd love to hear from you, feel free to drop us a message!

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It seems that Trump has irrevocably broken the global fossil fuel energy chain such that moving people and freight using electric power will be a national priority over the next decade. It would've been great to build this infrastructure during the ZIRP, but the 2nd best time is right now.

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Tim “Positive Subway” Smith @positivesubway.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It tells you all you need to know about the role of policing in general that the people who are constantly shrieking about low-level crime and homelessness and bike lanes (lol) as intolerable intrusions on our quality of life have no problem with this

Private cars completely blocking a public sidewalk near a Bronx station house, rendering it unusable

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Despite the mayor's big announcement yesterday, I'm not sure New York can achieve Vision Zero when the police commissioner allows sidewalk parking and won't punish cops who brutalize citizens for trying to get them to stop.

nyc.streetsblog.org

NYPD Commissioner Tisch Declined To Punish Cops Who Used Force So Other Cops Could Park Illegally - Streetsblog New York City

The top cop's decision came even though the NYPD's patrol guide prohibits both excessive force and bars officers from parking on the sidewalk.

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 16/09/2026

This is literally how Ossoff won

Jon Ossoff at a 2020 Senate debate, gesturing at the empty podium for his opponent, who chose not to show up

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 16/09/2026

Let's see how homophobic pearl-clutching affects the NY-01 congressional race! I'd hope these kinds of stories aren't deal-breakers anymore, but knowing Long Island, I'm not optimistic www.out.com/trending/chr...

out.com

Gay congressional candidate goes viral for X-rated BDSM ads

Chris Gallant, the politician who went viral after his photos surfaced, is a Black Hawk pilot, Army veteran, National Guardsman, former air traffic controller and volunteer firefighter.

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Adam Fisher-Cox @adamfishercox.com · 10/09/2026

Announcement pollution is one of those things that’s a huge problem but complaining about it sounds like nitpicking. It’s a respect and safety issue. Training riders to tune out announcements has consequences when you finally announce something important!

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 09/09/2026

Transit in New York is just too damn loud. The seemingly-endless onslaught of announcements not only annoys riders, but impairs accessibility, making navigating transit far more difficult than it needs to be. ETA discusses how to let riders travel in peace: www.etany.org/briefs/too-d...

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"Why does San Francisco still have so much car traffic?" I ask as I cast my vote on the 53rd ballot box attempt to de-pedestrianize the Great Highway.

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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

In fact if there's one political message that should reach everyone on Bluesky, the website for Democratic politics obsessives afraid to leave their own house, it's that you should vote in person this year.

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Another reminder that firefighter/police/emt opposition to policies like congestion pricing, bike lanes, road diets, pedestrianization, etc. typically have nothing to do with legitimate public safety concerns and everything to do with maintaining personal driving and parking privileges.

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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 01/09/2026

New York’s congestion pricing program has resulted in a statistically significant reduction in travel times for EMS vehicles

nber.org

Urban Congestion Pricing and the Response Times of Emergency Medical Services

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The math behind high-level platforms *and* wide doors: Narrow doors/high platforms allow 45 passengers/min/door to flow through. The 50" (double-wide) doors increase that number to 75 passengers/minute/door. Two sets at the quarter points means the whole car can clear in 48 secs.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Converting agriculture to solar farms is environmental restoration

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 26/08/2026

HS2 is bad bad, but this chart would look very different with a second axis plotting how much of each route is tunneled. The CAHSR IOS has no tunnels, just a bunch of excessive viaducts. Florence-Bologna is almost entirely (94%) tunneled under the Apennines!

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Danny Fearns @dannyfearns.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ This is one of the last coal powered sheep. The vast majority of UK sheep are now all electric ⚡️

Sheep grazing in fields, the one in the foreground with white smoke apparently coming out of its bottom

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Carey @careylikemariah.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Huge story breaking right now in NYC: BK Dems party boss Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn announced that she's subverting the will of Brooklyn's voters (a majority of whom recently voted to change party leadership) by dramatically changing the rules in order to hang onto her position as party boss.

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Streetsblog NYC @nyc.streetsblog.org · 19/08/2026

The MTA could halve the $7.7 billion price tag for the planned subway extension along 125th Street — but only if its leaders have the will to use “cut-and-cover” techniques to build shallower and smaller stations more in line with peer cities. buff.ly/sH1eo4b

nyc.streetsblog.org

Shallower, Smaller Stations Could Cut 125th Street Subway Costs In Half: Report - Streetsblog New York City

The MTA could halve the $7.7 billion price tag for the planned 125th Street subway if it's willing to use "cut-and-cover" construction.

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 19/08/2026

This is such an impressive report, every paragraph is just a wealth of information. Here's a random one:

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 19/08/2026

A 125 St subway should be a slam dunk. But at $7.7B for 1.25 miles, and with stations deep underground, current plans would not only build the most expensive subway in the the world, but would cost riders valuable minutes every single trip. It's not too late, however: www.etany.org/reports/digg...

etany.org

Digging Out of a Very Deep Hole: Saving Billions on 125th Street — Effective Transit Alliance New York

A 125 St subway should be a slam dunk. But at $7.7B and with stations more than 100 ft underground, it would be the most expensive subway in the world, and cost riders more than 5 minutes every trip b...

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The cost disparity between third rail and catenary has gotten a lot worse over the years because the costs of substations have exploded. In 1966, they were about $500,000 a pop -- or about $5 million today if they'd risen at the costs of inflation. But they didn't. Now they're like $30-$40m each.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Promises made/promises kept: Please meet the 1966 report that would determine the next 60 years of how LIRR would be powered: the third rail. If all the work on platforms and dwells by Ronan & Co. was planning that was way ahead of its time that got things very right, this is the opposite.

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Reminds me of something I read years ago about SROs in New York that insisted the city not demolish any of them because they’re an important source of affordable housing, but also we should not build any more under any circumstances.

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 11/08/2026

I'm really excited about "new station cooling technology" for obvious reasons. They've been testing a similar (or the same?) system at East Broadway too

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 07/08/2026

Notably, PATH reintroduced 4-line service on weekends last month, and they doubled overnight service frequencies. It turns out, people take the train more when they don't have to wait as long and their trips get 9 minutes faster!

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 03/08/2026

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 29/07/2026

This morning, ETA commented to the MTA board on it's study extending LIRR electrification to the new Yaphank-BNL station. It's exciting to see electrification of commuter rail, however we urge the agency to study more cost-effective catenary for extensions. www.etany.org/statements/y...

ETA welcomes the MTA's commitment to study electrification and double-tracking to the new Yaphank-BNL station. But prior studies rested on assumptions that inflate costs and reduce benefits, jeopardizing the value of the project.
The LIRR's environmental assessment put electrification beyond Ronkonkoma at 25 million dollars per mile, in today's dollars. Recent international commuter rail projects electrify for 2 to 3 million dollars per mile — an order of magnitude less. The difference is catenary and modern installation methods. Catenary requires less track work and fewer substations, and supplies more power for faster acceleration. The MTA instead proposed third rail, a legacy technology.
We ask the LIRR to study catenary electrification, and to study railcars that run on both third rail and catenary, like the M8, and that clear every LIRR tunnel. ETA's "M10" concept is one example worth examining.
We also ask the LIRR to consider passing sidings rather than full double-tracking, as Utah's Frontrunner 2x is doing. That requires less track and signal work, freeing funds for service increases elsewhere. Several diesel branches carry more riders than this stretch of the Main Line, and deserve the same study.
Finally, this work should serve a region-wide goal: incrementally unifying on a single electrical standard, 25 kV 60 Hz AC Catenary, as expensive-to-maintain third rail equipment reaches its normal end of life.
Scoping the study this way will identify the most cost-effective ways to improve service for LIRR riders. We ask that you include these suggestions. Thank you.

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Ben Vaught @benvaught.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

the land use policies of almost every blue city in America are flatly homophobic

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Benjamin Schneider @benschneider.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The fundamental math of @etany.org 's thru-running proposal. There are 11 platforms at Penn. Assume 10 minutes per train. That adds up to 66 trains per hour, easily enough to handle the 48 tph of the Gateway tunnels. Lots of caveats and complexities but that’s the basic plan.

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 18/07/2026

ICYMI, this week Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal held a forum on through-running for Penn Station. Watch ETA's executive director Blair Lorenzo, the RPA's Tom Wright, and NYU Wagner's Polly Trottenberg debate how through-running can improve service and capacity: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms3i...

youtube.com

Penn Station Through-Running Town Hall

YouTube video by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 22/07/2026

Big news for regional transit: FRA’s Phase 1 report confirms that through-running can boost Penn Station’s capacity without expansion. ETA examined why this is a good first step—and why, with the operational changes of Phase 2, its true potential is even greater. www.etany.org/statements/f...

ETA Statement on the FRA’s Phase I Report, read at https://www.etany.org/statements/fra-phase1-statement

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Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 20/07/2026

Absolutely necessary reform. Let the city government *do* things.

Mamdani’s commission to review the City Charter plans to put questions to voters this November that, if passed, would consolidate outside review and allow the Department of Transportation to immediately launch street redesigns, such as bicycle and bus lanes, without having to wait on other agencies to weigh in and risk litigation.

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 18/07/2026

I canceled my @hellgatenyc.com subscription a little while back because of their sensationalized, ultra-NIMBY coverage of this really excellent housing development

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Second Ave. Sagas @2avesag.as · 17/07/2026

Why is the Flatbush Avenue busway construction not finished yet? This is taking far too long for a project that should’ve been done in a week or two. Construction delivery is a big barrier to getting people to accept these projects.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

As part of the new Yaphank station announcement, the MTA announced it's eying an extension of electrification to Yaphank. Momentum 1 laid out a detailed case for why fixing the Montauk service and the Port Jeff service should be first -- transitcosts.com/momentum/#6

The opening of the new Yaphank-BNL station comes as the MTA launches a study of potential infrastructure improvements to support more frequent and reliable service on the LIRR Main Line east of Ronkonkoma Station. This portion of the branch currently has only one track and is not electrified, requiring trains to operate using diesel power and run less frequently.

The study will assess opportunities to upgrade signals, communications and other infrastructure; add a second track along all or part of the branch between Ronkonkoma and Riverhead; and electrify a portion of the branch east of Ronkonkoma. Adding a second track would build on the LIRR’s Double Track Project between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma and allow more trains to operate in both directions. Electrification could support faster, more frequent service while reducing reliance on diesel locomotives.

As part of that work, the MTA will evaluate the supporting infrastructure required, including new power substations, and examine the costs and benefits of potential investments. The study is expected to be completed in early 2027, and its findings will help inform future conversations with the public about investment priorities across the LIRR system. This study is funded by the MTA's historic $68 billion 2025-2029 Capital Plan, which was fully funded by Governor Hochul and the legislature in the FY 2026 Enacted State Budget.

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

New SEQR reform need just dropped.

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Effective Transit Alliance @etany.org · 15/07/2026

Last night, ETA's Blair Lorenzo sat down with Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal and others to argue that not only is through-running possible, but it would improve capacity at Penn Station while also building a regional transit network. Watch here!: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms3i...

youtube.com

Penn Station Through-Running Town Hall

YouTube video by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal

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Tim Donnelly @timdonnelly.com · 15/07/2026

three hours into the meeting about banning horse carriages and still not a single horse has been heard from

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Or you could say these neighborhoods are about to reclaim 50% of their sidewalks from steaming hot bags of garbage.

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Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

'the explicit purpose of corridor zoning is to concentrate both air pollution and the perceived social pollution of apartment dwellers in quarantine zones that single-family homeowners can avoid.' yup

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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

An excellent piece by John on how the NECIP came apart. I'd add two bits to this: - Firstly, Amtrak's ability to plan and deliver capital projects remains a problem (e.g. Gateway is set up as its own entity via the Port Authority for this very reason) - Secondly, ... x/2

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William Meehan @meehan.nyc · 12/07/2026

All-door boarding is the biggest win here. The city could add bus lanes and TSP themselves, but the MTA has been dragging its feet on all-door boarding for years. Huge credit to Mamdani for getting them to finally agree to it.

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Yet another societal benefit of congestion pricing: Better emergency care New paper credits NYC's congestion pricing program for a 5-6 percent reduction in emergency response travel time. www.nber.org/system/files...

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