Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 34th annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. For the uninitiated, this not your typical New York "tube sock" street fair. Sure there are some of the typical food vendors (gyros, roasted corn and Mozzarepas, natch). But unlike most other street fairs, there is a strong neighborhood presence in both food (including freebees from the new kid on the block Trader Joe’s) and vendors,......

A pilot program to keep subway stations cleaner on the No. 7 and L lines was a success, but transit officials are balking at the cost of implementing it citywide, which would be approximately $100 million. The test run increased the number of cleaners at all stations on two subway lines, providing round the clock service; an MTA analysis found that those stations had heavy litter just 10% of the time, down from 33% before......

Get ready for primal screams across the region, if the MTA decides to cut subway, bus, and rail service as it faces its nearly $1 billion-deficit next year. The Daily News reports that MTA CFO Gary Dellaverson said the agency "recently told its divisions to detail ways to cut spending by about 4.5% in the event the economy deteriorates beyond the MTA's latest budget projections - or if city and state funding isn't increased to......

The death of 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse, who was cycling with his father in Downtown Brooklyn on September 6th when a mail truck struck him while turning on Livingston Street, didn't come as a surprise to those familiar with the area, the Daily News reports. Michelle Dougherty, a Brooklyn Heights mother of three, calls the intersection "extremely dangerous. Last year I saw a boy who was hit by two cars." Transportation Alternatives spokesman Wiley Norvell agrees......

The MTA's new double decker bus prototype made its maiden voyage this morning, and the Daily News was on board to get the awe-inspired reactions from riders. Staten Island's Chris Maffeo doesn't seem to get out much: "This is unbelievable. Wow—look at the people down there. They look so far away." And 38-year-old Laura Liamero practically swooned: "This seat is first class—front row—the orchestra seat!" One drawback, though, is the cramped second deck, which is......

50-year-old Jonathan Milstein was struck and killed by a school bus in Park Slope yesterday morning, the second cyclist fatality in Brooklyn in less than a week. (On Saturday, 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse was fatally struck by a mail truck downtown.) The Brooklyn Paper reports that Milstein was riding west on President Street and was trying to make the light at Eighth Avenue, a block from Prospect Park, when the collision occurred. No passengers were on......

Ain't she a beaut? Making good on their promise last May, today New York City Transit officials unveiled their hotly-anticipated double-decker bus, the first municipal double-decker bus to cruise the streets since 1953. According to a press release, the 13-foot tall, high-capacity coach will run for the next 30 days along selected local and express bus routes in order to test its suitability for service. Howard H. Roberts Jr., president of New York City......

The experimental Bx12 Select Bus Service that runs between upper Manhattan and the Bronx has been a big hit according to New York City Transit, with a trip from end to end on the route taking an average 12 minutes less time than before. (One transportation advocate says her average 65 minute commute has been cut to 48 minutes.) You'll recall that the route now features more buses (up to ten more during peak hours)......

Maybe LIRR cell phone vigilante John Clifford should consider relocating to NJ, say somewhere along the utopian Lakeland Bus Lines route. The company is aggressively enforcing a cell phone ban, with drivers willing to pull the bus over to shame anyone who dares chat on the phone. On one occasion a driver even called for police backup when a passenger angrily refused to get off the phone. Now the Times reports New Jersey Transit and......

Ah, the NYC bus system, so forgiving of those who don't have change or Metrocards. Perhaps a little too forgiving? Last year bus hopping became all the rage, especially amongst the senior citizen set, and the trend is still going strong. WNBC notes that now city transit officials want to put an end to the madness, as "data they collected shows about 130,000 riders [a week] boarding buses without paying." That's millions of dollars that......

Gowanus Lounge points out the upside-down school bus roaming the streets of Brooklyn lately, and Brooklynians are abuzz about it. The White House Organic Farm Project explains--the group just purchased the Topsy Turvy bus from Ben & Jerry's own Ben Cohen, and tonight they invite one and all to "come support our version of Community Supported Agriculture." A little late notice, but if you can't make it you could still buy a share in TheWhoFarm......

We received an alert saying an MTA bus set off a radiation detector on lower Broadway, in the Financial District. The bus and its passengers were held outside 25 Broadway for further inspection. What could it be, besides potential for the worst commute ever? Well, the request for emergency services was canceled when it was discovered one of the passengers had an implanted pacemaker--some pacemakers do use radioactive material. Phew!......

The reviews are in! And the word on the street is that the Staten Island bus tour is, well, perhaps off to a slow start. When the NY Times visited, the bus had five passengers (Gray Line said "it often takes up to five years before a new tour catches on"). Most passengers aren't even leaving the bus during stops to explore; one said she only wanted to take the ferry over because she saw......

“Crushed by crowds? Have to wait for more than one bus to go by? It’s not your imagination. Transit officials have never caught up to the waves of new bus riders,” says Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. His group is reporting that despite an increase in average weekday bus ridership of 22 percent over the past ten years (to 2.45 million), weekday service on city buses increased less than 15 percent. In Brooklyn, the......

The Hampton Jitney's management became upset when it realizes a book it was helping promote --The Hampton Dictionary--actually called the bus to the Hamptons a "cattle car" and "bus for cidiots" (idiots from the city). Publishers Weekly says the dictionary's publisher paid Hampton Jitney for the book to be passed out with other free products to bus passengers, but now Hampton Jitney refunded the money. The book's publisher pointed out, "We sent them content in......

A bus crashed into a building, possibly a bank, near Canal and Bowery in Chinatown. Apparently a dump truck first hit the bus, which caused the bus driver to lose control and swerve into the building. Three people on the private bus were injured, as one person from the dump truck, and WNBC says a pedestrian was hit. One victim was reportedly in traumatic arrest. A reader points out that the Fung Wah bus......

New York City bus riders could soon be commuting just like the tourists if the MTA follows through on their tall talk about bringing double-decker buses back into circulation. The Post reports that NYC Transit President Howard Roberts floated the idea before the MTA board yesterday; the double-deckers are appealing because they fit more passengers and, according to transit officials, actually cost less to maintain. And if the dream becomes reality, the city won’t have......

A Greyhound bus' roof was sheared off when the driver ignored signs about an overpass that was lower than the bus' height. Passenger William Tedeschi said, "All that we heard was a big rip coming from the front to the back. I thanked God I was alive -- I was so scared." The bus was stuck at the overpass on the Henry Hudson Parkway around West 252nd Street. Six passengers were injured by the debris;......

Jersey based pizza fanatic Scott Wiener (pictured) may have found a way to turn his appetite into a career with his just-launched Pizza Tours of New York City. Every Sunday, Wiener will escort up to 32 ravenous adults on a pizza tasting odyssey to half a dozen pizzerias stretching from Lombardi’s on Spring Street to Louie & Ernie’s in the Bronx. The licensed New York City tour guide is charging $55 a person for the......

Back in 1933 Popular Science reported on New York engineer Walter H. Judson's new railway which would have trains running from San Francisco to New York in 18 hours, and Chicago to New York in 5.5 hours. Now it's the buses battling it out to have the quickest times and cheapest fares to and from New York. Earlier this month BoltBus announced fares from NYC to DC and Boston starting at as low as $1.......

The NYC-DC bus fare wars have a new player: Greyhound division BoltBus will be launching service on March 27 and has started to sell tickets for as low as $1 (plus a 50 cent booking fee). DCist explains BoltBus "operates on the EasyJet principle, where tickets start out dirt cheap and get more expensive as the bus gets fuller. I just purchased a ticket for $7, and if I had been willing to leave on......

The MTA's various fare hikes for the NYC subways and buses, as well as its railroads, went into effect this weekend. Today, subway and bus base fares still cost $2, but higher-value pay-per-ride Metrocards have less of a bonus discount while weekly and monthly unlimited ride Metrocards are more expensive. You can read more about the fare hikes here, but two important notes: (1)Unlimited ride Metrocards purchased before March 2 are still valid as......

The MTA's various fare hikes are starting to go into effect next month (aka tomorrow). Tomorrow, Long Island Railroad and Metro-North fares are going up. Bridge and tunnel tolls are going up on March 16. And the doozy will be the NYC Transit subway and bus fare hikes which go into effect on Sunday, March 2. Expect tons of confused riders and weary MTA workers on Monday and for the next few weeks. The......

Early yesterday morning, a 1992 Thunderbird crashed into an MTA bus on Hillside Avenue in Queens, killing the car's two occupants. Christopher Boyd, the driver, and passenger Eric Richmond were pronounced dead at the scene. The bus driver and one of the passenger suffered minor injuries. Boyd had received the Thunderbird as a Christmas present, and police believe he was speeding when he lost control of the vehicle as he tried to make a turn.......

An argument between two men on a Manhattan bus this morning ended in a homicide, as one man stabbed the other to death. The incident occurred at 9:40 a.m. on the M101 bus that runs northbound on 3rd Avenue. A 52-year-old man was arguing with a 40-year-old man, when the bus stopped at 96th St. on the Upper East Side and the older man stabbed the younger in the leg. The victim was taken to......

Last week we learned that all New York taxis will soon be held to higher fuel efficiency standards; starting next October new cabs must get at least 25 miles per gallon. But the cab changes don’t stop there – in addition to upcoming GPS and touch-screen video technology, the Taxi and Limousine Commission is considering selling an unlimited card for cab riders, which may feature “fare integration” with buses and subways. Over half the city’s......

It’s that time of year again when New Yorkers debate how much to tip the – deep breath – doorman, super, handyman, locker room attendant, trainer, baby sitter, dog walker, beauty salon, cleaning person, day care center, garbage collector, mail carrier, paperboy and parking attendant(s). Sewell Chan, the Times’s Man on the Web, has tied himself to the tipping post with a 1,780 word monograph on the subject, largely sourced from Doorman, a book by......

Ahead of tomorrow's vote on a proposed fare hike, the MTA finance committee committee has approved an increase in fares for subways, buses and commuter trains as well as bridge and tunnel tolls. The committee voted 5-1 in favor of the MTA's proposed 2008 budget, which includes the increased rates. The increase comes despite the authority's projected $521 million surplus at the end of the year and the possibility of another large surplus next year......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: three pedestrians struck on 65th St. and 7th Ave. in Brooklyn, a tourist bus vs. building incident on 51st St. and Broadway in Manhattan, and a train derailment on East 239th St. in the Bronx. 47 years ago, two planes bound for Laguardia and JFK collided over Miller Field on Staten Island in mid-air. As body parts, Christmas presents, and debris rained from the sky over Staten Island, 132......

A nine-year-old girl remains in critical condition following surgery yesterday at Long Island Jewish Hospital after an unregistered van carrying school children was struck by a city bus. The accident occurred Friday morning allegedly after the passenger van cut off a Q46 bus in Fresh Meadows, Queens. The bus clipped the van, sending it into a spin, shattering its windows, and ejecting a bench seat into the street. The van was carrying seven children, six......