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.
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Explainer How alternate side parking actually works The sign with the broom is a schedule, and the posted hours run in full even after the sweeper has passed: pulling back in behind the truck is still a ticket, as of August 2026, and double parking to wait it out is illegal at all times. Sundays are off, meters included. From the city's own pages: the two ways the whole thing gets called off, and the two rules, the hydrant's 15 feet and the citywide tow-away zone, that never take a day off. Explainer How the MTA is funded Fares and tolls cover 40% of the MTA's operating budget; the other 60% is taxes, subsidies and Albany deals, and the 2025 to 2029 capital plan is $68.4 billion. The stack, laid out plainly in the MTA's own budget documents. Explainer How to fight a NYC parking ticket You have 30 days, the city says showing up in person will not help you, and the photos it wants are more specific than you think. What the Department of Finance actually tells you to do. 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. Explainer Who runs the subway, the buses, and the LIRR Not the mayor: a 23-member state board sits over the subway, the buses and both commuter railroads, the mayor recommends four of its voting members, and the city runs the ferry. The org chart, from the law itself. Explainer How congestion pricing actually works now Nine dollars to bring a car into Manhattan below 60th Street at peak, a quarter of that overnight, cameras instead of booths, and a schedule that ratchets to $15 by 2031. The toll, from the MTA's own page. Explainer The NYC bus speed plan, explained A 20 percent speed target on 50 slow corridors, five of them rebuilt as bus rapid transit, all-door boarding in 2027, and the campaign promise of free fares it leaves for later. Explainer How a yellow cab fare is set Three dollars to start, 70 cents for every fifth of a mile, and a stack of surcharges that can add more than seven dollars before the cab moves. Plus the one trip where the meter stays off: JFK to Manhattan is a flat $70, as of August 2026. The rate card, from the Taxi and Limousine Commission's own page. Explainer What the bridges and tunnels cost, and which ones are free Three agencies run the crossings, and only one of them charges nothing: the city's four East River bridges are free, the MTA's seven bridges and two tunnels cost $7.46 by E-ZPass for a car as of January 2026, and the Port Authority charges $16.79 at peak to drive in from New Jersey. Which crossing is whose, what each one costs, and what happens if you skip the E-ZPass. Explainer Why the Staten Island Ferry is free It costs nothing because the law says it has to: since 1997 the Administrative Code has barred any fare for foot passengers on the city's ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island, which ended a 50-cent ride whose fares had covered $6 million of $25 million in operating costs. As of August 2026 the boats carry over 16 million passengers a year on a 5.2-mile, 25-minute crossing, around the clock. Explainer How OMNY fare capping actually works OMNY's fare cap pays for itself: ride the subway or a local bus 12 times in any 7-day period and every ride after that is free, capping a full week at $35, or $17.50 on the reduced fare, with no unlimited card to buy upfront. Express buses, group trips and the free leg of a transfer do not count toward the 12, and the $35 cap held steady even after the base fare rose to $3.00 in January 2026. Explainer How the MTA actually raises fares The MTA Board sets fares by a majority vote of its full membership, with the chair breaking any tie, and state law requires a public hearing first for any fare or toll change. The board last used that power on September 30, 2025, adopting an 11-0 vote, with two abstentions, that raised the base subway and bus fare from $2.90 to $3.00 effective January 4, 2026, after a six-week public comment process. Explainer Who owns which New York City bridge Three different agencies own New York City's bridges and tunnels, and ownership is what decides whether a crossing is free. NYC DOT owns more than 800 bridges and tunnels and charges no toll on any of them; MTA Bridges and Tunnels operates seven bridges and two tunnels, tolled to help fund transit; the Port Authority operates the six crossings into New Jersey, tolled only entering New York. The three landmarked exceptions, and why High Bridge belongs to neither DOT nor a toll agency at all. Explainer How speed and red light cameras actually work Speed cameras in school zones and red light cameras at intersections run under two different state laws, and both carry a flat $50 fine mailed to the registered owner, not the driver, plus $25 more if it goes unanswered for 30 days; neither adds points to a license. Speed cameras run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across up to 750 authorized school zones, while red light cameras, capped by statute at 600 intersections, are being expanded citywide from the 150 that operated for three decades, a buildout NYC DOT says will finish by the end of 2026. Explainer How to actually fight a camera ticket in New York Fighting a camera ticket runs on the same 30-day clock as a parking ticket, but the similarities mostly end there: a camera violation defaults to judgment in about 75 days, against about 100 for a parking ticket, and the only defenses New York City recognizes are the narrow set state law writes in, that the vehicle or plate was reported stolen, that a lessee has been identified, or that the camera malfunctioned, not a broken meter or a missing sign. Explainer How TLC's minimum pay for Uber and Lyft drivers works TLC sets a minimum per-trip payment for drivers of Uber and Lyft, New York's only high-volume for-hire services, built from a per-mile rate and a per-minute rate, each divided by a fixed utilization rate, 68.5% for the mileage rate and 53.3% for the time rate. As of March 1, 2026 that works out to $1.283 a mile and $0.681 a minute for a standard vehicle, figures the TLC adjusts every year by the change in the Consumer Price Index, a 3.36% increase this year.
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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