Quiet transportation upgrades are moving New Yorkers forward

A friend visiting New York City from Ohio for the first time in several years was riding the subway with her children and reflexively took her phone they were playing a game on when the Q train went under a tunnel.

To her surprise, her phone had uninterrupted wireless service while they were underground and her kids could keep themselves occupied for several more minutes.

“When did that happen?” she asked.

The city’s street grid, subway stations and tunnels, and airport terminals have undergone substantial upgrades to install wireless and broadband networks and state-of-the-art technologies over the past decade.

Some of these infrastructure improvements are designed for New Yorkers and tourists to use frequently, including real-time bus ridership trackers at bus stations and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s OMNY contactless fare system that allows riders to tap their phones and credit cards instead of swiping their soon-to-be-discontinued MetroCards or paying cash to board buses and subways.

But many advancements, often tested and piloted through the Partnership Fund for New York City’s innovative Transit Tech Lab, are practically invisible to the public while becoming essential to their continued mobility. New sensors and software in rail cars, buses and escalators tell maintenance workers when key components are breaking down and need to be replaced. Other sensors can monitor extreme weather conditions like rapid downpours or excessive humidity in subway stations, track and scan baggage at airports, and measure whether commercial trucks have too much weight to cross bridges, which can trigger penalties.

New Yorkers have benefited for the most part once new technologies are fully deployed in real-world settings.

“The way these technologies can prove their value is if they show they can save time and save money and those are the analyses we are doing right now,” said Stacey Matlen, senior vice president of innovation at the Partnership for New York City. “If the technologies are saving money, then that’s a reason they should continue.”

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s multiyear reconstruction of major terminals and roadways at its three international airports has transformed travel through New York, reversing their once-notorious reputations.

Airline passengers have celebrated the terminal redesigns that have brightened concourses and added amenities, but its state-of-the-art wireless upgrades are nothing to sneeze at either.

“It is challenging when working in government to consistently have the courage to make transformational differences in the lives of New Yorkers,” Port Authority Chief Technology Officer Rob Galvin said. “These are significant investments, they present risk and they are all aimed at the public good.”

The Port Authority worked with Boingo Wireless to provide high-speed internet access as well as private networks that power smart devices for security cameras, checking and tracking baggage, providing real-time flight updates and tarmac support.

And savvy travelers may also notice other mobile-supported solutions to make paying to enter the AirTrain, checking in and boarding flights and ordering food faster. There’s also an app that allows taxi drivers to join the dispatch line at JFK virtually so they don’t cause traffic queuing up on nearby offramps. And the Port Authority is currently testing new accessibility technologies that use augmented reality for better wayfinding systems that tell you where you can go, Matlen said.

On top of that, a new batch of technological upgrades powered by artificial intelligence are coming soon if not already operating in some cases. The Port Authority is using an AI-based departure tool to manage the flow of aircraft during the critical initial phases of their departure from the runway as well as AI camera analytics that could help ensure that planes arrive and depart with fewer delays.

“The goal is using AI analytics to predict, optimize and streamline the departure process, enhancing both efficiency and safety,” Galvin said.

The technology may even be applied in lower stakes operations inside terminals too. The Port Authority has been working with Transit Tech Lab to embed escalators, HVAC systems and compressor plants with internet of things sensors and software to indicate when they’re not working. Soon stalled people movers may be a relic of the past.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

When the “Summer of Hell” led to a myriad of breakdowns in 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched a new process to modernize the technologies that operate its subways, buses and commuter rail lines.

The following year, the MTA worked with the Partnership for New York City to form the Transit Tech Lab to work with private sector firms in order to find solutions to train delays, equipment breakdowns and protection from extreme weather events. So far, the lab has had 1,000 applications from companies from around the world, tested 70 products and moved forward with 13 contracts.

Matlen has noticed that the innovations that work best enabled remote diagnostics and provided real-time information of a problem, such as a signal failure, occurring in the system.

“For a very long time with transit agencies, there were a lot of manual processes that were happening, a lot of tools that required maintenance crews to go out and do manual inspections,” she said. “But we’re seeing a new trend for how different sensors and IoT technologies are the first step in gathering data that was previously only gathered by in-person inspections.”

Last fall, the MTA worked with several private companies to install environmental sensors in a dozen facilities that would warn workers when extreme heat or flooding occurred and vibration sensors on bridges to monitor when they need maintenance.

At the same time, the agency also installed 5G wireless technology on its 42nd Street shuttle and is in the midst of adding that service on the crosstown G, and two sections of the Nos. 4 and 5 lines.

The wireless technology benefits MTA workers as well as passengers who have come to depend on countdown clocks, security cameras, help points and the newly phased in OMNY payment system.

“As we build out fiber throughout this system, we’re enabling much better communications connectivity for our customers,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction & Development. “The same systems are feeding information into the MTA app, as we build out our communications backbone, that information becomes much more timely and accurate.”

In addition, the MTA has embedded IoT hardware in rail cars to determine when parts are breaking down and alert when they need maintenance. It has also been experimenting with lidar and Edge AI to automate and analyze data of how the city utilizes its curb space. 

But the most important technological innovation may be expanding its use of modern signal technology, known as communications-based train control, throughout the system to reduce delays that can occur.

“In the first 20 years the technology was available, we only got the L and No. 7 trains done, but now we’ve got five other lines in progress and a whole bunch more funded in the capital plan,” Torres-Springer said. “That technology enables us to run more frequent and reliable service.”

City agencies

Other city agencies have embraced a myriad of 5G technologies to make their public outreach more efficient, respond to emergencies faster and beef up surveillance.

In February, the city signed a deal with T-Mobile to provide 5G broadband service for 911 calls to help first responders navigate “one of the most congested and demanding environments” for connectivity in the nation, according to the company. A few weeks earlier, the New York State Police partnered with Verizon to provide its cruisers with mobile broadband service that provided faster uploads. Now the troopers are looking to add 5G to their radio communications towers.

Not every innovation has worked as intended. The city partnered with LinkNYC to install 2,000 5G towers in 2021 to provide free Wi-Fi and 5G service over a broader swath of the city, but few poles had 5G equipment inside several years after they were installed and major carriers weren’t using them.

Moreover, the NYPD’s reticence to disclose how it uses surveillance technology, including drones, robot dogs and ShotSpotter, has been scrutinized by the City Council and Department of Investigation.

Other tools have not delivered what they have promised to the public. The Adams administration’s much-touted MyCity portal, an online hub designed to provide better access to city services, is barely functional 2 1/2 years after its launch despite spending $100 million on contractors to build it out, according to a New York Focus report.

Matt Fraser, New York City’s chief technology officer, has urged patience with new programs as the city has reorganized its technology offices and rolled out its portal.

“We expect within the next two years for multiple services to be brought in, including financial benefits, HRA and other core systems as well as a jobs portal,” he said. “Right now, NYC.gov is one of the most poorly designed digital experiences that exists. It’s built to focus around pushing an agency-specific identity. MyCity will start to simplify the New York City digital experience and make it more of a service portal.”