Getting around in a New York minute
Public transportation gets a boost to make it even easier to navigate the city
NEW YORK— Navigating the crowded streets of New York may be getting easier for millions of business travellers as the city sees the biggest boost in public transportation in recent memory.
On Sept. 13, the city opened the first new subway station in 26 years, ushering conference goers to the doorstep of the once-isolated Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. A citywide ferry system will extend service to the city’s outer boroughs over the next three years. The city’s bikeshare program is rapidly expanding, expected to double by 2017. And an app, created by the company that provides payment technology to more than 60 per cent of New York City cabs, has become the latest to allow riders to hail a taxi with the tap of a button.
So many options, says Chris Heywood, spokesman for the city’s destination marketing organization NYC & Company, “just makes the city more appealing and is a huge selling point for us as we try to draw more business travellers, more convention delegates and more leisure visitation.” Last year, a record 56.4 million people visited New York City, 12.2 million of them on business, NYC & Company says.
Now, the 6.3 million people expec- ted to attend meetings and conferences here this year no longer have to trek blocks or hunt for a cab to get to the city’s convention centre, which lies a stone’s throw from the Hudson River. Last week, the 7 subway line began stopping at 34th St. and 11th Ave., the only subway stop south of 59th St. on the far West Side.
“The extension of the 7 line to the far West Side is a game changer in many ways, especially from a business-travel perspective,” Heywood said of the $2.42-billion project.
Citi Bike, New York’s bike-share program, will increase from 6,000 to 12,000 bikes in the next two years. Bicycles became available in Queens for the first time last month, and new stations will soon be popping up on Manhattan’s Upper East and West Side, and deeper into Brooklyn.
There are also plans to expand the city’s ferry service by 2018 to the Lower East Side, Astoria, Queens and other neighbourhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
For those visitors who prefer cabs to ferries and trains, there is now another app allowing a cab to be summoned via a tap on a smartphone. Way2ride’s hailing function launched in July. The app is from Verifone, which provides in-cab technologies to nearly 14,000 of the city’s 20,000 yellow and green cabs. It is joining more than 70 apps for taxis and hired car services, including Uber and Lyft, that are currently operating in New York City, according to the NYU’s Rudin Center.