Cap'n Transit

Suffolk County accounted for a QUARTER of the road fatalities in downstate NY counties, 2020-2024. Now the people in charge who've been building tons of wide roads want to spend millions of tax dollars to widen Sunrise Highway again. Can we stop this? westchester.news12.com/2026/09/15/s...

We endorse Adam Bojak for the open seat in Buffalo's 150th Assembly district. He'll advocate for improvements to Buffalo's bike infrastructure, and is committed to seeking increased funding for NFTA-Metro, which operates the region's buses and limited rail options. www.streetspac.org/2026_nys_gen...

From the political perspective: they would prefer to keep transit as a make-work jobs program and that's why we're the only subway system with two crew on almost every train. They're also the big reason why it took so long to end carriage horse rides.

The Mamdani administration says it will dramatically expand an effort by his predecessor to install speed governors inside city-owned vehicles, rising from 1,000 today to 3,000. buff.ly/SUR2xQP

In Queens's 30th Assembly district, we endorse Patrick Martinez, who won a close primary race with our backing. He's a regular straphanger who's never owned a car & says his main form of transportation is a bicycle. He supports both the IBX & QueensLink. More here: www.streetspac.org/2026_nys_gen...

And so "Be Bright, Be Seen" season begins.

In the Albany area's 43rd State Senate district, we endorse Devin Lander. The New York State Historian and former Assembly staffer supports expanding upstate transit service, and backs efforts to remove Albany's I-787 to restore access to the riverfront. More here: www.streetspac.org/2026_nys_gen...

Best (climate) news of the day

driving is coded as white in American society. That's eg why the default is for cops not to enforce rules against drivers. These targets of racist propaganda are driving luxury cars, because people of color driving better cars transgresses the audience's racist social mores more than generic wealth

New Yorkers can vote to stop those endless anti-bike lane lawsuits.

Carrying a surveillance device in one’s pocket at all times: I sleep A city-owned camera takes a picture of your license plate and sends you a ticket if you run a rear light: “This is a hecking jorjorwell 1984”

Samantha Kattan is our pick in Queens's 37th Assembly district. She has a Master's in urban planning, and lists improving the district's cycling infrastructure as one of her top street-safety priorities, along with investing in and enhancing bus service. More here: www.streetspac.org/2026_nys_gen...

We urge you to vote YES on NYC Ballot Proposal 3, which will streamline the review of street safety projects to expedite implementation, speed up the disposition of unused city property, and make it easier for the city to acquire office space for city employees. www.streetspac.org/2026_nys_gen...

This was ALWAYS a stupid fucking idea, and we need to make sure it doesn't spread beyond Paladino to anyone who might be able to get a bill passed in the City Council. You want slow electric replica cars? Bring them to the streets of Whitestone. Electric rides in the park? Improve pedicabs.

$117 million isn't a lot for a highway this size, but the Trans-Manhattan Expressway is part of the shitty George Washington Bridge/Cross Bronx Expressway asthma factory/clusterfuck, and we should do anything we can do to downsize it instead of rebuilding it as it is. gothamist.com/news/port-au...

This is a good story, but Sammy should have at least mentioned the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) and how they relate to the NYPD...

why the FUCK is the transit workers union running anti-Hochul ads?? seems like they would literally rather have a Republican governor that would destroy the MTA for some insane reason?

Cars are back on Forest Park's Freedom Drive weeks ahead of schedule, showing that the Mamdani administration is doubling down on a decision made by former Mayor Eric Adams. buff.ly/qaJHypp

The thing that bothers me the most is that the Sanitation Department is constantly complaining that people leave cars in the path of the sweepers, preventing them from cleaning the streets. Then their cops park their cars in bus stops, preventing buses from picking people up and dropping them off.

New research on Chicago's speed safety cameras. 🔹 They're generally sited in places with lots of kids and a history of crashes. That's good! 🔹 No link btw race and camera placement 🔹 Cameras were less likely to be sited in poor communities, leaving residents at greater risk doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...

Nice lede

The Eagle team is a completely unacceptable way to enforce fares, and it's a shame buses are treated so poorly by politicians that no local officials are making a stink about it. bsky.app/profile/rock...

University of Chicago Medical Center + City Colleges of Chicago heard you liked big car parking garages next to 'L' stations and is bringing 630 cars to the Garfield Green Line station

The double standard in American politics about who is allowed to insult who is just so blatant

You shouldn't start your day stuck on Bay Parkway.  That's why we're redesigning Bay Parkway and Cropsey Avenue for the 85,000 daily bus riders on the B6, B82, X28 and X38. New bus lanes, faster buses, and safer streets coming soon.

Time to explore the other side of Thailand's canal-rail fight with Rails of the Kingdom, a lighter but still authoritative read from one of Thailand's foremost rail historians

I don't know the regulatory situation in the UK. But in the US there are a lot of gas stations that should be confiscated from their owners, and a lot of drivers buying these nitrous oxide canisters who should lose their licenses. www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resou...

The Hochul administration is slow-walking safety on the West Side Highway as more and more people suffer injuries or worse on the corridor. buff.ly/4xTsqyZ

Anatomy of a double-vehicular homicide: the press first states the speeding driver “tried to make the light”. Then the press claims “the driver lost control” and “the car wouldn’t stop” and the driver “had a medical episode”. Two women dead. No one will be held responsible.

This is just a fucking carjacking. How the hell was he supposed to know it was a state sponsored carjacking. what the fuck are we doing here.

This is why mere education for drivers is insufficient. There's a fundamental political disagreement, and even highly educated carbrains support street violence to control public space, unless they get rewarded to stop. Decent people need to fight back. @bloodwork.show this is violence work imo

This el was replaced by the Gowanus Expressway.

Bienvenue à bord du TGV Lyria reliant Paris à Lausanne. Today begins my #OrientExpressInterrail trip from Paris to Istanbul over the trackage of the famous Simplon-Orient-Express.

Please enjoy this minute long video of @governor.ny.gov struggling and failing to get one of @mta.info's new turnstiles to let her pass into her own press conference about the new turnstiles 🤣

PATH proving increased weekend service reaps upping ridership. Now only if they would lengthen the window of increased service on weekends for after 9pm.

Once again, the ridehail app’s promised five minute pickup turned out to be 15 minutes after I booked it. I’m not a lawyer, but it sure smells like systematic false advertising.

If states pay money, that would probably be an improvement, but I have to point out that it wouldn't actually make the NHTSA bureaucrats or the car company investors suffer.

The new schedule may not be in the press release, but it's on Amtrak's website! Eastbound trips: Departs PIT 7:10 AM > Arrives NYC 4:43 PM Departs PIT 1:00 PM > Arrives NYC 10:25 PM Westbound trips: Departs NYC 5:50 AM > Arrives PIT 3:14 PM Departs NYC 12:25 PM > Arrives PIT 9:54 PM

I was told Zohran Mamdani would instantly turn New York into a crime-ridden hellscape. Yet murders are down almost 20%, year over year. 203 people have been slain, about 22.5 per month. In 1990, that average was *251 per month.* NYC has never been this safe.

This is the first time I think that Sound Transit has actually shown a rendering of the infamous "trapezoidal" light rail station at Seattle Center that is expected to be $470 million cheaper than a simple box station, thanks to elimination of a mined section of tunnel.

What Is the Federal Surface Transportation Program For? Congress is once again trying to reauthorize the transportation program — the one that funds highways and, if they must, transit, walking, biking, and intercity passenger rail. But for what purpose? bethosbornesga.substack.com/p/what-is-th...

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.

The interview with Owen Zidar is particularly interesting. He points out that many of these people who are worth tens or hundreds of millions (and donate to center and right-wing politicians, or ARE center and right-wing politicians) are car dealers. I wonder how many more own drive-thrus.

Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending

Run the analysis again but with an entrance at 2nd Ave. instead. Idiotic commentary at the link really.

This is stupid. It should be like that trans parody website, where the answer is always "yes." gothamist.com/arts-enterta...

a political downside of US transportation dominated by personal cars going door to door, is that most middle or upper class Americans avoid ever sharing space with people much poorer than them, except employees.