A Touch of the Future

photo: fastcodesign.com

The future has arrived! The MTA is finally bringing us the touch screen subway maps we have all been waiting for. These On the Go! kiosks provide an unprecedented amount of information to subway and commuter rail riders (including news and weather!) and after a successful pilot program with 13 kiosks back in 2011, the new plan will roll out a total of 90 throughout the city, although specific dates are not confirmed.

According the MTA website:

The sleek, stainless steel enclosure supports a large screen with a colorful display, offering customers information about their entire trip, from planning with Trip Planner, real-time service status, escalator & elevator status and local neighborhood maps. In addition, the MTA has partnered with third party developers to include applications which provide additional information, such as local history, shopping and dining options nearby provided by third-party applications Zagat, myCitiapp, and History Bus.

Last night Jimmy Fallon quipped that the new touch screen maps are what would happen if “the iPhone and the flu had a giant baby.” Which when you think about it, is equal parts disgusting and accurate. But germs shmerms, remember payphones? You use your entire hand for that, these screens only require the touch of one finger.

While the direction assistance and real-time status updates will no doubt be helpful to the everyday rider, the local attraction features will be most useful to tourists, who occupy most of the space in front of already existing maps. It is likely that at stations serving heavy tourist crowds like Times Square and Rockefeller Center, it’s the tourists who will benefit the most. Less confused tourists will mean less annoying tourists, which will mean less annoyed New Yorkers. Now that’s an investment worth making!

“What IS this?!”

As a MetroCard collector, I may be annoyed by the dollar charge for a new card, but I have no real problem with it. I understand the need and am fine with spotting the MTA the extra buck to beef up my collection. What I do have a problem with, however, is when I get charged a dollar for a new card looks like this:Grand Central Terminal holds a special place in my heart, but it should not be on my MetroCard. Luckily, immediately after purchasing this specialty card, I noticed that there was a man in the subway booth, who turned out to be lovely. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What IS this?! <holding up MetroCard>
Him: What is what?
Me: This MetrcoCard, why doesn’t it look like a normal MetroCard?
Him: <removes a normal MetrcoCard from a huge stack of normal MetroCards on his desk> You mean, like this?
Me: Yes! Can I transfer this to that?
— PAUSE. CONFUSION. RESIGNATION —
Him: Sure?

And the MetroCards were transferred. He even let me keep this funny looking one. Probably so that I could share this story with you.

Any pinch of innovation that comes out of the MTA is usually awesome, helpful and appreciated, but until the agency decides to fully phase them out – which it has been postponing slowly but surely – please leave my MetroCards out of it.

The Taxicab: Our Modern-Day Sanctuary?

Conversations in the back of taxis are sacred right? Daniel J. Wilson doesn’t seem to think so.

A documentary filmmaker and licensed NYC cab driver, Wilson made a 37-minute video called “9Y40” – after his medallion number – that collages snippets from a 4-week period covering the 5pm to 5am shift. I can think of at least a handful of conversations I’ve had with friends in the back of taxis during that shift (and probably closer to the 5am end) that I may not want to broadcasted, but reading about his adventures got me thinking.

What is it about that magical 15-minute ride from point A to point B that brings out our inhibitions? Subconscious or not, there is something about the back of a taxi that makes us feel safe, free to discuss whatever is on our minds; cry about recent break-ups, laugh about crazy nights. Especially in a city like New York where the streets are never empty and your alcove studio converted to a 2-bedroom leaves no room for your thoughts or private conversations, the back of a taxi might be all you’ve got!

Being a taxi driver has got to be one of the most interesting jobs in the world. Just think about all of the pieces of conversation you hear while standing on a street corner for even a minute. Now imagine you’re sitting, and for twelve hours! But besides the eavesdropping, the spying or whatever you’d like to call it, perhaps the most interesting part of all of this is hearing Wilson describe the life of the driver, living in a world where “people act like you don’t exist, even though you’re three feet away.”

New Pope Francis: Leader of the Catholic Church, Straphanger

It was a sunny morning in February 2011, and my friend and I were about to leave our hostel in the beautiful Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo Soho. As we headed towards the door, the man at the front desk stopped us – “Buenas dias! There was a big crash in the train this morning. It has been fixed. Have a nice day!”

“WHAT?!” we Americans exclaimed. A crash in the subway?! Was anyone hurt? Is the city a mess? Nope. No one cared. The accident was cleared in under an hour and everyone went about their lives.

Having experienced the nonchalance of Porteños firsthand, it does not surprise me that the new Pope is rumored to be just as cool as his compatriots. According to the National Catholic Reporter,

Bergoglio’s reputation for personal simplicity also exercised an undeniable appeal – a Prince of the Church who chose to live in a simple apartment rather than the archbishop’s palace, who gave up his chauffeured limousine in favor of taking the bus to work, and who cooked his own meals.

New Pope Francis sounds awesome! We have so much in common! We might disagree on the little things, like female reproductive rights and gay marriage, but I am loving the fact that “riding the bus” is one of his most written about attributes on the day of his election. Certainly his new gig will mean more security, less public transit, oh and riding around in this:

It may take some getting used to, a few less sleeping strangers on his shoulder, but I think he will be just fine.

Open Data and Transportation: A Perfect Match

Reblogged from Open Transportation, March 12, 2013:

A couple of weeks ago, Chris and I attended the NY Open Transportation Meetup “ALL aboard! The reboot, a presentation of MTA’s Bus Time & NYC DOT data” co-hosted by NYU’s very own Sarah Kaufman. Not only were we greeted with free pizza, we were also given the opportunity to interact with some of the most interesting and innovative people in the transportation field.

First we heard from Neil Freeman of the Department of Transportation, about the agency’s strategic communications initiatives and the current state and future of open DOT data. We also heard about how the DOT is undertaking the important initiative of performance measurement. Having completed Wagner’s Performance Measurement and Management course, I am familiar with the challenges public agencies face in measuring their success. As the DOT seeks to provide New Yorkers with safe and efficient public space, measuring safety, or even perceptions of safety can be quite difficult. For an agency as large as the DOT, it is good to know that they have a talented and creative team taking the reigns.

We also heard from Mike Frumin of the MTA who, while he couldn’t go into too much detail about the latest Bust Time API updates, was able to get us excited for what is to come. I am very much looking forward to seeing how developers will utilize open data so that I can know exactly when my bus is coming, and spend less time outside in the cold.

All in all, the Meetup was entertaining, informative and delicious. A relative newbie to all of this open data talk, I was impressed with the MTA and DOT’s policies that seem to be truly embracing developers and open data to create better and more efficient ways for New Yorkers to move around, and even enjoy it!

Shut Up and Swipe

In last night’s Public Policy for Metropolitan Regions class, we had the privilege of hearing from Peter Derrick, a transit historian, former planner and assistant director at the MTA (1982-1996), and Visiting Scholar at the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy. Derrick gave us the rundown of NYC subway planning and building all the way back to the 19th century. He touched on everything from the late 1800s annexation of the outer boroughs to the “Cash Cow” status of the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels, but one topic that was particularly timely and insightful was his discussion of the history of the subway fare.

Last week, the MTA increased the subway and bus fare from $2.25 to $2.50 a ride. Every New Yorker has been affected and every one of us has an opinion about it. Almost all of those opinions are negative, many of them angry and a handful of them sympathetic; but what most New Yorkers do not understand is that, as Derrick explains it, “there’s no other way to do it!”

The “it” Derrick refers to is the overall management and maintenance of our public transportation system, and he is absolutely right. Most MTA riders do not know that the price of their swipe does not even cover half of the cost of maintaining the system. While part of the increase is due to state allocation cutbacks, another part is simple inflation; and the fares seem to be increasing faster than regular inflation rates mainly to pay off the bonds that paid for these systems in the first place!

Did you know that in the 1930s when every other major US city was increasing their transit fares to a whopping 8 cents, NYC kept it at a cool 5 cents in order to maintain the authority’s belief that public transit should remain affordable? Sure, $112 feels a lot less affordable for a monthly MetroCard than say, the $81 it cost you just five years ago! But the truth is, for all the complaining we do, we fail to focus on all the positives – like extraordinarily low collision rates and relative cleanliness of subway cars and buses.

Back in October, a Rudin Center study proved that compared to other major US systems, the NYC subway system is truly the biggest bang for your buck:

Even if the base fare is raised to $2.50, you’re still able to go about six times farther on a MetroCard than the MBTA Charlie Card, WMATA SmarTrip or any other city fare. As Americans’ commutes get longer, NYC Subways remain one of the best bargains in the country.

Well, it happened. We hit $2.50, and WE ARE GOING TO BE OK. The only reason I am upset about the fare hike is that now with the additional $1 charge for a new MetroCard, where’s the incentive for my friends to give me their empty ones?

Viva High Speed Rail!

Reblogged from CityRegionGlobe, March 10, 2013:

Contrary to its title, Aaron M. Renn’s “Let’s Face It, High Speed Rail Is Dead” is actually not as gloomy as it sounds. Sure, Americans do not value the concept of high-speed rail (HSR) as much as those in Europe and Asia value its existence, but the truth is that we need to take baby steps if we are going to make the best of the fairly open policy window before us. The $8 billion in Obama’s stimulus plan may seem like a generous down payment for a huge transportation opportunity, but it is pennies compared to what this country will need to make a real dent in HSR. It is for all of these reasons that we should turn to the Northeast Corridor (NEC) for direction (pun intended), as the economic and political powerhouse of a region certainly understands the value of getting people from NY to DC as quickly as possible.

According to a recent DCist article, Acela and Northeast Regional trains serve over 10 million passengers a year, making Amtrak the most popular intercity travel option in the Northeast. The railway corridor is in such high demand, that Southwest Airlines actually stopped offering flights between its Baltimore-DC hub and La Guardia/Newark airports. If we can take HSR seriously in the NEC and prove that it is a real contender in interstate travel, then other regions will be forced to take it seriously as well. Those officials who said “thanks, but no thanks” to federal rail funds have no idea what they are giving up on. It is backwards thinking like this that will keep the US in the stone ages of HSR, and keep transportation innovation out of states like Wisconsin and Ohio.

Acela may have a nice fast-sounding name, but is 150 mph really the best we can do? Even with that capability, the train’s average speed is actually half of that. And at an average cost increase of $80 per ride, it is no wonder that most rail riders do not make it their first choice; for shaving an average of 30 minutes off your ride, it is often simply not worth it. Renn is absolutely right that if we do not rethink the current approach, we may never see a successful HSR system here in the US. We should be learning from Europe and Asia, setting up the NEC to be the hopeful trendsetter that it already is in other important industries, and adapting our successes to regions across the country. The potential economic impact for more efficient travel between DC and Boston is in the billions of dollars, and as Americans quickly lose patience for just about everything, shorter travel time might actually give us one less thing to complain about.

Open Data Case Study: Interviewing Danny Hertz

Reblogged from Open Transportation, February 24, 2013:

Gov 3.0 has already exposed us to some awesome innovators and their innovations; among others, we have had the pleasure of listening to interviews with Leif Percifield of Don’t Flush Me and Peter Levin of Blue Button. When given the task to record our own interview, I thought about the most innovative guy I know, Twitter Font End Enginner and my very own brother, Danny Hertz.

When he’s not using his brainpower to give us basic Twitter users new avenues to discover information, Danny is coding away on side projects, taking full advantage of open data and combining his passions for programming and music. In our interview we focus on his two latest projects SoundReady.fm and Synco.fm, the latter of which was created as a solution to a problem involving transportation. How exactly? You’ll have to listen to find out.

The following interview was recorded with iPhone Voice Memos and edited using Audacity. Please forgive my amateur editing skills, they are young but ambitious. Enjoy!

Click and listen: http://soundcloud.com/malahertz/danny-interview

Russia’s Open Government Action Plan: No Love for Transportation

Reblogged from Open Transportation, February 13, 2013:

Still under the radar in most places that are not our classroom, open data can be a scary thing. To many of its fans, Open Government is the solution to creating greater and more impactful civic engagement; getting the uninvolved involved and creating a two-way street for government and the public to get things done. The Open Government Partnership is a step in the right direction to creating this dialogue, but at this stage, it is merely a vision. To create a global open system will take more than getting countries to sign on to a non-binding agreement – the real change needs to start at the local level, with regions, cities, villages, groups and individual citizens embracing open data and making the best use of it for themselves.

Common sense dictates that each government that has signed on to the OGP will approach open data differently. How they present their data, what kind of data is made available, or simply how they get the public to embrace the general concept, will all vary by country. Here in the US where the words transparent and efficient fly out of our mouths every time we try to talk about the future, Open Government means something completely different than it does in most other countries around the world. For Russia, Open Government means involving a larger group of stakeholders in the decision-making process, giving the public an opportunity to be a part of political dialogue, instead of being at the tail end of it. It also means addressing issues facing the nearly ignored middle class and crowdsourcing legislative ideas. Since the Open Government initiative was introduced in Russia just over a year ago, a good deal of progress has been made, but Russian citizens still remain extremely skeptical. While many citizens are not sure that opening up data to the public will have any real, let alone positive, impact on their lives, most people do not understand what the concept even means.

A world away here in New York City, a lot of open data talk revolves around transportation and the myriad possibilities that it presents. In Russia, very much in its nascent Open Government stage, things like improving the state internet portal and increasing support for socially oriented nonprofit organizations take a front seat. This simply means that it may take time for the Russian government to fully identify and appreciate the possibilities for open data to create smarter transit applications and more interactive maps for its citizens. Russia’s top five priorities for Open Government make no mention of transportation, but the concepts highlighting competition, entrepreneurship and the promotion of openness and accountability are a great start. Working to improve the “delivery of key services, transform social relations, expand rights and opportunities of individuals and communities,” Russia’s OGP plan has all the right ingredients for transportation innovation down the road.

To be fair, the National Action Plan for the US does not mention transportation either, but it does specify initiatives to improve public services; so perhaps both plans could benefit from more attention to detail. On the bright side, and in breaking down impact on the regional and municipal level, smaller governments in Russia are beginning to utilize newly open transportation data to improve the lives of their citizens. The city of Moscow has introduced a portal called “Moscow Roads” that enables citizens to provide ratings and feedback on road conditions in their city. This information is not only useful for making quicker repairs, but also for evaluating the performance of the contractors behind those repairs, to make better business decisions in the future. This is promising information, especially coming out of a city that ranks third in the world for worst traffic jams. So while I would have liked to see some mention of transportation in Russia’s Action Plan, I also understand that in a time when you can be arrested for hooliganism, innovation in transportation may not be the most important item on the agenda.

Thank you, Urban Horse

Reblogged from CityRegionGlobe, February 8, 2013:

Why do we even use the term ‘horsepower’?
Is that to further humiliate the horses?
The space-shuttle rockets have 20 million horsepower.
Is there any point in still comparing it… to the horses?
Any chance of going back to using rockets with horses,
Trying to keep track of how many we’re gonna need?
“Hey, horse. There’s a rocket engine that broke down.
Can you get 20 million friends together really fast?”
“20 million? That’s a lot.”
– Jerry Seinfeld

On a recent rush hour journey from 45^th street to 79^th street, I found myself wondering if I could have arrived at my destination faster had I taken a horse instead of the M103 bus. In “From Horse Power to Horsepower,” Eric Morris gives us a glimpse into New York City in the 19^th century, where the main topic of debate at the world’s first international urban planning conference was horse manure. It was at the height of the Urban Horse, and the beginning of transportation innovation as we know it. The Urban Horse brought us the stop sign, traffic lights and crosswalks. It even led to the creation of the ASPCA, after Henry Bergh became outraged by the cruel treatment the animals were receiving while on duty in the NYC streets.

It’s a funny thing to think about horses riding through the streets of Manhattan, and I couldn’t help but think about their modern day counterpart, the taxicab. If you have ever visited any other city in the United States, or the world for that matter, you know how impossible it can be to catch a cab at the exact moment that you need one. But on the island of Manhattan, usually the opposite is true. No matter what your preferred mode of transportation is for getting around NYC, you can rest assured that if you really needed a cab, you could find one – maybe even two, competing for your business.

The first NYC cab company began in 1869, running just 12 electric hansom cabs. Today, there are more than 13,000 taxicabs riding around the city. While taxicabs are operated by private companies, they are licensed and regulated by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, maintaining their strong presence in the city’s transportation arena. So for now, as we await the Taxi of the Future, we have to give thanks to the Urban Horse for leading the way in transportation innovation, and to the pioneers along the way who have made our ride more enjoyable, and a little less smelly.