Transit & Streets

Transit & Streets in New York

The MTA, congestion pricing, the redesigns, and the daily war over who owns the street. We follow the capital plans and the service cuts so you know whether the commute actually gets better.

Desks we analyze here: Streetsblog NYC, amNewYork (Transit), NY State DOT.

The coverage, newest first

13 stories

July 13, 2026 The Legionnaires' Outbreak Crosses Central Park An Upper West Side co-op just found the same bacteria in its own pipes, and most city landlords still haven't run the test the law requires. Manhattan
July 11, 2026 A Bronx Commander's Rape Indictment The commanding officer accused of assaulting his own subordinate allegedly warned her that accusers don't fare well against him, then kept his... The Bronx
July 10, 2026 Next Stop, Fast Buses, Better Service Six minutes back on your commute, and the free part of "fast and free" pushed to some other day. Brooklyn
July 10, 2026 The Upper East Side Legionnaires' Cluster Thirty-six cases in three ZIP codes, and the city still can't say which cooling tower did it. Manhattan
July 8, 2026 The Bus Plan For 2 million daily riders on some of the slowest bus routes in America, Wednesday's city-state plan is the first detailed commitment to fix the... Citywide
July 4, 2026 The Queens Blackout The Bronx
June 30, 2026 Independent Commission Recommends 18.2% Pay Raise for NYC Elected Officials Officials who said they did not want a raise got larger numbers than they had asked for, published on election day.
June 27, 2026 Fare Evasion Arrests Hit New High Under Mamdani The NYPD made more fare evasion arrests in the first three months of 2026 than any quarter under Adams, 94% of them people of color, and Mamdani's...
June 25, 2026 Mamdani's Congressional Sweep A year after taking City Hall, the mayor's machine ousted two sitting members of Congress and a borough president from his own party, and the general...
June 25, 2026 DSA Reshuffles Albany's Assembly Down-Ballot A dozen state legislative seats flipped in Brooklyn and Queens, clearing the path for housing and transit bills that Albany has blocked for years.
June 25, 2026 MTA vs. the Trump Penn Station Plan Janno Lieber says signing the Memorandum of Agreement would make the MTA a tenant at will in its own station. Andy Byford says they will proceed...
June 23, 2026 A teenager dies in Central Park, and a banned bill comes back An 18-year-old came to see New York, the horse bolted, and a fight the Council buried in November is suddenly alive.
Saturday, June 20, 2026 MTA confirms a full weekend L-train shutdown for signal work The line that rebuilt Williamsburg goes dark again, and the shuttle-bus map nobody loved is back.

Start here

Explainer How the MTA is funded Your swipe covers less than half the ride. The rest is a stack of taxes, tolls, and Albany deals, and the MTA's own budget documents lay it out plainly. Explainer How the subway decides service By the MTA's own guidelines, a train is supposed to show up at least every 10 minutes at rush hour and every 20 minutes overnight. Here is who sets that number, and what it takes to change it, from the documents.

Transit & Streets, explained

The questions New Yorkers actually ask.

Who actually runs the subway, the city or the state?

The state. The MTA is a New York State authority, so a fare hike, a service cut, or the congestion-pricing fight runs through Albany and the Governor, not just City Hall. It is the single biggest reason a city problem keeps turning into an Albany fight.

What is congestion pricing, and who actually pays it?

It is a toll on most vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street, meant to cut traffic and fund the MTA’s capital plan. Drivers into the core pay it; subway and bus riders are the intended winners, but only if the money actually reaches the trains. We follow whether it does.

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