NYC is behind other major metropolitan areas in implementing mobile ticketing so we hope this announcement is quickly followed up with the introduction of mobile ticketing throughout the city's public transit system.
The significant increase in subway ridership underlines the importance of public transit today and highlights the city's responsibility to respond with improved service and features that make the NYC system on par with transit options offered around the world.
Introducing a next-generation transit pass, especially one accessible on smartphones, will significantly improve New York City's transport infrastructure and its bragging rights.
Super Bowl attendees will need more than this map to navigate the region's far from well-designed transit network. However, this and MTA's Weekender map show a slowly improving design sensibility within the transit agencies.
MTA's Flickr page started attracting fans last year with rare photos of an empty city during Hurricane Sandy. It has since chronicled the current-day construction of the NYC transit system, a digital time capsule that will surely be looked at for generations to come.
Problems with the tunnels impact hundreds of thousands of local commuters as well as those visitors that head east during the summer. The improvements are one step towards improving the city's overall transit infrastructure.
New York City deserves a lot better local transit apps than the choices now. The ultimate multi-modal real-time local transit app is still some ways off, but tons of progress is being made, as Citymapper shows.