Andrea Bernstein

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 11) In the movie Invictus, Francois Pienaar, the rugby star played by Matt Damon, gets a call from the President. Not the President of the rugby league, as his family first thinks, but the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. "You must tell" Mandela, says Pienaar's housekeeper, Eunice, "that the bus service is very bad, and too expensive. He must please fix it." Pienaar did not ask Mandela about the buses -- at least not in the movie, and fifteen years later, South Africa is still struggling to deliver quality, inexpensive bus service.

A year ago, Johannesburg attempted to do just that, by introducing one of the world's longest Bus Rapid Transit lines, the Rea Vaya. As profiled in the New York Times the new, clean, fast buses offered a measure of dignified transport for still-poor blacks from Soweto -- but at a price. The system up-ends the largely lawless taxi minivan network that had been the main mode of transit in Johannesburg, and government officials have been targeted by gunmen, who, many believe, work for the taxi industry.

That gun violence spilled onto the buses earlier this month. Then, there was a strike by the system's drivers, settled May 11. Now, Johannesburg's leadership is trying to hammer out a truce with the taxi industry -- in time for the World Cup, which starts a month from now, with South Africa vs. Mexico.

Sports, strife, buses. As in Invictus, as in real-life Johannesburg, today.

A four-year, $508 million renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge is underway. WNYC is watching -- and wants your help. To get involved, start here.

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A new report shows New York and San Francisco are the only two metropolitan areas in the country where more than a quarter of the population usess transit. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

REPORTER: The report by the Brookings institution shows that nationally, more than three ...

The Takeaway will be looking next week at commuting trends in the U.S. -- where transit use is up, where it's down, where it's a feeble pulse.  They're looking for your stories -- tell them!

(KUHF, Houston, Melissa Galvez, May 7) -- Intelligent Car Techies(and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood  Descended on Houston This Week to discuss car-to-car communication and other cars of the near and distant future.  KUHF's Melissa Galvez takes a look at how better technology can ease congestion.

Even as a judge has temporarily blocked the layoffs of 475 Station Agents (the hearing is now set for Monday), the MTA's CFO Bob Foran announces the agency is cutting 1000 more positions, mostly in subway clean up. Way dirtier trains are on the way -- subway cars will be cleaned half as often, every round trip instead of every run.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 6). As I posted earlier, NY has been experimenting with increasing parking rates to increase turn over during peak times. But now as Nathaneal Johnson reports, San Franciso goes even better, by putting in smart meter than can adjust prices on demand.

(Nathaneal Johnson, KALW, San Francisco, May 6) The East Bay is drilling down on plans for a new bus rapid transit system. Take a look here.

(WNYC, Matthew Schuerman, May 6) —Hundreds of laid-off MTA station agents who were expecting to turn in their uniforms are reporting to work instead. A judge issued a temporary restraining order around 2 a.m., halting the layoffs.

At issue is whether the MTA followed the proper procedures in closing the station agent booths. One of the side effects was to at least temporarily suspend the layoffs.

Layoffs have become common in transit systems around the country, as systems face crushing deficits. In New York, in addition to the hundreds of station agents, nearly 700 bus drivers are getting pink slips. The system faces an $800 million budget gap.

As the MTA has become increasing automated, the MTA says it can no longer afford the agents, though many New Yorkers say having an agent near a subway platform makes them feel safer.

The station agents were supposed to attend a session at a training center in Brooklyn to turn in their equipment and receive job placement services.

Now the workers are being told to call their operations managers to find out where they're supposed to report for duty.

"My wife has been crying for a week now because she's uncertain of what's going on," said Zack Kondrat, a former art store manager who became a station agent three years ago. "Everything was looking very bleak up until now."

A court session is scheduled for this morning. A spokesman for the MTA says he expects they will prevail. The agency says it needs to lay off these workers in order to close an $800 million budget gap.

Union officials are calling this a victory, albeit a small one.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) Ever wonder? So did we. When you buy your ticket? When you pass through security? When they scan your boarding pass as you enter the jetway? None of the above as it turns out. A TSA official tells us that agency requires airlines to check their passenger lists within 24 hours of a flight, before issuing boarding passes.

If you are on the no-fly list, you can't check in at a kiosk, you have to go to the agent, who presumably won't issue you a ticket. And what happened with the alleged Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad? From the TSA's point of view, the airline dropped the ball, though that is now under investigation. But the TSA did send out an alert, which they say, should have caused the airline not to issue a ticket.

All that changes now -- the TSA is requiring airlines to check lists every two hours. It will change again, this summer, on domestic flights, when airlines will start sending their passenger lists to the TSA for processing. All international airlines will begin doing the same, before the year is out.

Andrea Bernstein and Brian Lehrer discuss the controversy over bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, why US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is such a surprise, and what the new Times Square should look like. Listen Here.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 5) A New York City experiment found even small hikes in parking rates -- a dollar an hour -- increased turnover because people stayed in the spots for a longer period of time. Parking, says New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, is real estate that is way, way undervalued. Listen to marketplace story here.

WNYC reporter Andrea Bernstein discusses National Bike Month and her work with Transportation Nation.

WNYC is running a competition to design the pedestrian plazas in Midtown. Click here to enter the competition with your own vision for mid-town.

→ Is this your first bike month? Are you a new bicyclist in NYC? How do you think this city treats two-wheelers? Let us know!

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No one likes to pay more for parking, but New York City has been quietly experimenting with variable pricing in Greenwich Village and Park Slope to encourage drivers to leave spots more quickly. Now more cities are looking to increasing parking rates as a way ...

(Nathaneal Johnson, KALW) Check it out, one card that works on all systems. Transit experts say the more people forget about paying for transit, the more they'll ride (kinda like how it feels free to drive, because you don't pay for each trip.) Nathaneal Johnson of KALW reports.

Probably not, no one does. But as the Institute for Transportation Development Policy reports, an increasing number of municipalities are looking to variable parking rates as a way to get people to leave their spots more quickly. They say it can ease congestion, curb pollution, help merchants by making more parking available, and get more people to ride transit. But making people feed in a few more quarters? Fuggedaboutit! Listen to the full report, tonight on Marketplace.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 4) Since leaving his office as Bronx Borough President, Adolfo Carrion has been Obama's Urban Czar, logging lots of frequent flyer miles but not scoring much ink. (Except maybe, for this profile on WNYC News last December.)

But while Carrion has been busy promoting dense development, sustainable transit, and urban gardens, to New Yorkers, well, if he isn't doing it here, he isn't doing it all. Behind the scenes, high-profile New Yorkers, knowing I've been covering Carrion, have asked, not entirely nicely, "what's he doing?" (It sounds like, "what's he doing?")

In recent appearances in New York, Carrion has been not ruling out running for Mayor ever more strenuously.

Now Carrion has a new job, the New York-New Jersey regional director of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's arguably somewhat less high-profile than Bronx Borough President, and does not come with an elected base, but it does allow Carrion to interact with all kinds of New York elected officials, doing things like bringing affordable housing to their districts, always a good chit to call in later.

His new boss is his old friend Shaun Donovan, Mayor Bloomberg's former Housing Director. The two share genuine affection, and the job gives Carrion a chance to answer critics who ask: what has he accomplished? Accomplished.?

(Minnesota Public Radio, Laura Yuen, May 5) The final two installments in Minnesota Public Radio's in-depth look at the new light rail line examine the politics and the racial ramifications of building the new line. View a slide show, and listen here.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation, May 4) Tim Tompkins, the head of the Times Square Alliance, emails there are no changes in the Times Square design contest -- the city is still going ahead with processing requests for proposals for the graphics underfoot at the pedestrian plazas. The plan still stands to announce a winner later this month.

This should come as no surprise. I was in Times Square on Sunday -- as I've been after other international incidents -- the Afghanistan War Declaration in the fall of 2001, and the London subway bombings of July 2005. Each time, Times Square was a magnet -- people gathering for the sake of human contact, a need to affirm they're part of something. Bombs or no, it's the place people want to be, particularly when something is happening.

BTW - WNYC also wants to know what you think the new times square should look like...tell us here.

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The General Electric Corporation is arguing that its clean-up of PCBs from the upper Hudson River is making the pollution worse. GE is telling a panel of scientists meeting today that phase one of the dredging stirred up the toxic chemicals into the river. But ...