Two thousand nineteen was a year in which Not in My Back Yard groups fought vital transportation projects tooth and nail — often taking to the courts to stop them. Yet even so, the city’s Department of Transportation inaugurated some sterling additions to the urban landscape that will make New York safer, cleaner and faster-moving. Here’s a review of the most exciting transit projects of the year: The 14th Street Busway: At some points this year, the busway appeared mired in

The first thing you need to know is a too-long acronym, one that sits—almost literally—in the center of every US street: MUTCD. It stands for the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, which is the guiding light for the nation’s transportation engineers. Why are stop signs always red octagons? MUTCD. Why do traffic lights use the same colors; and highway signs use the same font (Highway Gothic); and “Do Not Pass” signs come in the same size on all

Bike-sharing has revolutionized urban transport over the last decade, and some studies are predicting that electric bicycles, which are easy to use in hilly cities, will become the go-to mobility solution, with forecasts of more than 130 million units set to be sold globally between 2020 and 2023. The number of bike-sharing options in cities around the world has doubled since 2014, and the number of bicycles in operation has increased twenty-fold. Cities like Seville and Pari

SEPTA is planning to make riders’ phones an alternative to its SEPTA Key fare system by adding Apple Pay and Google Pay as fare payment options at both its turnstiles and kiosks in 2020, writes Michael Tanenbaum for the Philly Voice. The transportation authority is adjusting its contract with Conduent, which manages the SEPTA Key fare system, to install Apple Pay and Google Pay-compatible hardware to fare boxes and turnstiles. As part of this upgrade, all 4,226 SEPTA Key vali

Gridlock Sam to Mayor de Blasio: Your busway really is working. Bus ridership along 14th Street is way up, bus speeds are way up, use of bicycles in the area is way up and car drivers are being inconvenienced in virtually no appreciable way as a result of auto restrictions along the crosstown street between Third and Ninth avenues, City Hall said on Wednesday, trumpeting the first official analysis of the transit-priority project by Sam Schwartz Engineering. And all the posit

The next decade is going to be defined by a revolution of battery-powered transportation, and the vehicle that will lead the charge won’t be the Tesla Model 3 or even the wildly polarizing Cybertruck. And it definitely won’t be an electric scooter. It will be an electric bike. For years, electric bikes were relegated to niche status in most countries. Between 2006 and 2012, e-bikes represented less than 1 percent of all annual bike sales. In 2013, only 1.8 million e-bikes wer

It's that time of year again, where we simultaneously look back at the year slipping away behind us and towards the shiny new year full of promise just ahead. There was a lot to celebrate in transportation in 2019. It was a big year for cities to buy electric transit buses and ban diesel cars from city centers (at least in Europe). Meanwhile, automakers such as Ford launched ever more enticing electric car models such as its new Mustang Mach-E. And e-scooter riding, which can

The new bike fix-it stations that are going to be installed along Schuylkill River Trail will make the lives of many riders traveling along the path a lot easier, writes Gina Tomaine for the Philadelphia Magazine. The first of the planned seven stations became available at the trail’s Walnut Street Trailhead in Philadelphia for regular use on Dec. 12. It features a bike rack, an air pump, and a full set of tools for minor bike repair. The remaining stations will be installed