NEW: After an anti-bike lane lawsuit sent the Department of Transportation back to the drawing board on 31st Street in Astoria, the agency is responding… with a plan for an even longer bike lane on the deadly corridor.

The 485-x tax benefit in NYC became effective during 2024. It proscribes higher requirements for buildings with 100+ units To avoid the requirement, you can build 99 units. Did this rule affect new housing in the city? I'm going to say: Yes!

There's a lot to like about the new GAP design: * Connected ped. space * Plaza St bike lanes fixed * Direct Vanderbilt bike conn. * Raised crosswalks * Mid-plaza crosswalks * No more St John's 5-way int. What not to like: * No bus lanes * Still a couple of slip lanes * The timeline is too long

🥳 🥳 🥳

ah, my favorite part of taxes: ARE YOU AWARE OF THE EXISTENCE OF YONKERS???

Again, there's a strange feeling of whiplash when you watch what's happening at the federal level at the hands of a political party and movement that actively wants to make people's lives worse and then turn around and see a leader at the city level who actively wants to make people's lives better.

Very good news. And a five-year timeline is pretty fast by municipal standards. Also: "The city has roughly three million parking spaces, and full trash containerization is expected to take about 150,000 spaces, or 5 percent."

Fun find this afternoon: In 1957, the Port Authority did the engineering work to link the downtown PATH to the Lexington Avenue subway local tracks.

Flatbush Ave bus lanes are coming! I'm a little disappointed the whole thing will take six months, but I'm glad they're starting now gothamist.com/news/nyc-to-...

Fourth, political giveaways to the LIRR unions helped lay the ground work for the MTA's pension crisis in the 2000s, which was fueled in part by fraudulent disability claims at the... LIRR. www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...

Work rule differences between the LIRR and tje Metro-North unions (both railroads run the same trains on the same power systems at about the same speeds serving the same metro area) cost the MTA $200 million a year -- nypost.com/2023/01/16/m...

In NYC, there are 158 surface parking lots in historic districts. Map focuses on lower Manhattan. Link: citytracker.ai/results/publ... Street views below.

MTA, planning SAS West: "hold my beer"

As ETA has argued, mandating two-person trains is akin to mandating the return of elevator operators. NY transit should be learning from global best practices. That means OPTO & automation for better service. Our transit shouldn't be locked in the past. www.etany.org/statements/i...

ETA and other civic orgs are urging NY not to require two operators on every train. One-person train operation (OPTO) is a standard practice used on every subway system around the world—including on the MTA. This bill would hurt riders and lock NY's transit system in the past. tinyurl.com/etatpto

In NYC, how many applications for new buildings propose exactly 99 units? This did not happen before 2024. March 2026 saw a new record: 11 buildings just that month! (link to filings below) Why 99? 485-x, which increases requirements above 100 units.

Today is Conrail day! 50 years on, I’d suggest we remember its least credited legacy: the Northeast Corridor. Without the region-wide network planning exercise that created Conrail, the NEC would still be full of freight—as it was until the 70s. Since Conrail, that feat has never been repeated.

Some extremely exciting news (🧵): The MTA is looking for a vendor to redesign our website! Ours badly needs a refresh—I manage it, I'm allowed to say that—and my dream is for a site that's modern, accessible, user-friendly, and that incorporates our very iconic design and branding.

The current 12-game Jeopardy champion works at an affordable housing finance agency in NJ, and shamed New York for not building more housing: "NJ's doing really well, we're ahead of NY, CT, PA. If you're from one of those states, shame on you, build more housing."

A 125th St Q extension is the right route, but with a price of > $7B/mi and deep stations forcing 5+min escalator trips, the current plan doesn't work. ETA sat down with @jointtransit.bsky.social to talk fixes for this vital link. Watch!: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fgy...

Stay tuned, as ETA will launch its own report in a few weeks discussing ways to build this route at a cost closer to our international peers, while also making it far more useful for transfer and crosstown riders. Also, be sure to check out JTA's petition: c.org/zT4N88GG7b

An NYU study of NYC rentals found that every 10% increase in local housing stock cut rents 1% within 500 feet — and the effect persisted year over year. New high-rises also reduced rents in nearby mid-tier buildings, with outer borough impacts reaching 2%. cayimby.org/blog/yes-bui...

In the small 30-block-zone that makes up the Theater District, there were 486 reported crashes last year. It should be a no-brainer to ban private motor vehicles there, given that it has the best public transit access of any similarly-sized area in the entire US.

NY is considering SEQRA reform. If you’re unsure about whether reform is needed, I urge you to … *read* environmental reports for new housing. It’ll radicalize you. For most reports, a huge part of them is either obvious, irrelevant, or counterproductive. (Thread)

Received this lovely, bad-faith email from the Mayor of Del Mar after writing in support of the Crest Canyon alignment as a transit advocate. This is what they're dealing with, so please reach write to SANDAG in support!

🚨Bad News🚨: QueensWay has put together their own letter writing campaign to influence @mayor.nyc.gov !! Make sure YOUR voice is heard! Tell Mayor Mamdani to SUPPORT QUEENSLINK actionnetwork.org/letters/it-a...

They say the modern fare gates have reduced fare evasion by 20%-70% accross the stations where they have been installed.

NYPD ADMITS TO STREETSBLOG THAT THERE IS AN INTERNAL POLICY OF NOT GIVING TICKETS TO CITY EMPLOYEES OR FANS OF RIGHT-WING RADIO SHOWS nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/25/f...

It's important to remind your friends and neighbors - particularly on Long Island - that when you summer energy costs are up high this year, it's because Donald Trump used your taxpayer money to bribe a foreign company to invest in fossil fuels and halt wind farm developments off the LI coast.

God damn. Building over the Rockaway Branch without room for the @queenslink.org is incredibly dumb policy. Right-of-ways like this don't just grow on trees.

In 2014, NYC lowered the citywide default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. In the year that followed: - Traffic fatalities fell by more than 22% - Pedestrian fatalities fell by more than 25% Yes, adding physical traffic calming is imperative but just lowering the limit can have a halo effect.

*incoherent screaming*

Every year of TPTO costs the MTA $400m, or $4 billion a decade (enough to start expanding the system again).

Despite their in-station PSAs, the MTA clearly isn't trying very hard to prevent subway surfing, or they'd buy 100% open gangway cars

In fact, although they are replacing cars from the 1980s, all the R262s should be the true OGs. www.mta.info/document/201...

Indeed, as the R211T has shown, walk-through trains work well and are popular in NYC already. They allow passengers to move around, and they help prevent subway surfing. It's past time for all new trains to be open gangway.

While it's exciting that the MTA is ordering new trains, there is no excuse not to buy all of them as walk-through (open-gangway) cars. Walk-through cars are the standard worldwide: they're not only higher capacity, but safer. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/n...

oh look at that www.pew.org/en/research-...

At 627 Lily Lake Rd in Fulton County, this house sits on 7 acres of freshly-cleared forest land on a 126 acre lot. It also has a 5,000 sqft accessory garage. Because SEQRA presumes that single-family homes have no significant environmental impact, no review was necessary.

We know New York isn't building enough housing. But outside NYC, the housing we do build is overwhelmingly single-family sprawl, often bulldozing acres of forest to build mansions. This broken status-quo is ironically the result of our environmental review law, SEQRA. 🧵

My brain hasn't fully switched on yet today, so I thought this was referring to an entire country at first

"Advocates for pedestrianization point out that there haven't been any traffic hiccups for the five years that it has been closed for drivers. As such, there’s no reason for cars to return to it." We have a rare and historic opportunity to create a car-free space in Gowanus. Let's not miss it.

Breaking: MTA sues Trump admin for withholding $60M for the Second Avenue Subway expansion, a multibillion-dollar project that the city has hoped to build for close to a century. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/n...

“Car drivers have gotten used to not having access [to the bridge] already. So why introduce deadly vehicles back to a place where they’ve been barred from for years?”

We're implementing the largest expansion of Sammy’s Law in city history: lowering speed limits to 15 MPH at all eligible school locations by the end of our first term. And we’re not waiting to start. In 2026, we’re reducing 800 locations to 15 MPH, for a total of nearly 1,300 School Slow Zones.

Some terrific safe streets news from New York City on a gloomy Monday morning. Hopefully this will lead to a renewed push for more Open Streets at schools Gift link: www.nydailynews.com/2026/03/16/m...

Not having a car-brained mayor rules www.nydailynews.com/2026/03/15/i...

LMAO The Portal Bridge going out as a total dumpster fire. You gotta salute it. 🫡

Last night was a big night for offshore wind: Vineyard Wind finished construction and Revolution Wind began sending power to the grid @wbur.org #energysky www.wbur.org/news/2026/03...