​The Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP) at NYU Tandon and Transit Techies welcome you to attend two presentations: Aaron Gordon, Surya Mattu, and Marie Patino on "NJ Transit is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail" and Elif Ensari and Benjamin Arnav on "Eye in the Sky"!

Connect with NYU Tandon CUSP and Transit Techies NYC at this talk; attendees are welcome to bring their own food.

The event will be held at 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY in Room 1201. We hope to see you there!

​​About the Talks

​NJ Transit is NYC’s Least Reliable Commuter Rail

​NJ Transit, Metro-North, and the LIRR are crucial arteries into Manhattan, moving hundreds of thousands of commuters into the Financial District and Midtown every day. As New York City faces a housing affordability crisis, the railroads are critical to the city’s future as the region seeks to build more densely near train stops. But one of those commuter railroads, NJ Transit, is significantly less reliable than the others. To understand the frequency of significant delays on New York commuter lines, Bloomberg tracked more than 190,000 trains this summer using live transit feeds, the kind used by navigation apps such as Google Maps. The results show NJ Transit riders had more issues than their New York and Connecticut counterparts. About one in every 18 NJ Transit trains was delayed by at least 15 minutes or canceled completely in May, June and July. For an average commuter, that meant a bad commute roughly every two weeks, versus once every three months or more on the more reliable lines to New York and Connecticut suburbs. 

​Eye in the Sky

​Elif and Benjamin will present “Eye in the Sky: Harnessing AI to Monitor Police Response to Illegal Parking Complaints,” co-authored with Benjamin Arnav. Illegal parking clogs travel lanes, worsens gridlock, and blocks critical infrastructure, yet enforcement remains inconsistent. Using artificial intelligence and New York City DOT’s public camera feeds, the team developed an automated system to file 311 complaints and monitor police responses citywide. Their analysis revealed that over half of complaints were closed while vehicles remained illegally parked, and that only 3% resulted in tickets. These findings expose major enforcement gaps and point to the potential of automated ticketing and smarter street design to address chronic violations.

​​About the Speakers

​Aaron Gordon, Surya Mattu, and Marie Patino are reporters at Bloomberg News. 

Elif Ensari is a Research Scholar at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, where she works with the Transportation and Land Use group. Her research focuses on the costs of building passenger rail, ridership estimation, transit-oriented development, and New York City’s walking and cycling infrastructure.

Benjamin Arnav is a Fellow at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, where he works with the Transportation and Land Use group. He applies machine learning to study  urban governance issues related to transportation, government responsiveness, policing and use of public space. He is also a contract researcher at OpenAI, where he works on model evaluations.

​​Visitor Information

​​Please visit the NYU Tandon website for directions and a campus map. Advance registration through Luma is required for campus access at NYU for external guests. Attendees who are not current students, faculty, or staff at NYU, including alumni, are asked to register using a personal email address.

​About CUSP at NYU Tandon

​​The Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP) at NYU Tandon is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to applying science, technology, engineering, math, and social sciences to serve urban communities worldwide.

​​Founded as a partnership between NYU and the City of New York, CUSP leads research, educational, and entrepreneurial initiatives that advance the science of cities. By applying novel insights to urban issues, we develop data- and technology-driven approaches that drive positive impact. With an additional focus on training future leaders, CUSP offers interdisciplinary academic programs in applied urban science and informatics for graduate students and professionals.

​​CUSP also engages with stakeholders across city agencies, start-ups, industry players, community-based organizations, and nonprofits to address urgent socioeconomic, environmental, and infrastructural challenges. The center’s ultimate objective is to improve urban quality of life by using data to innovate and refine inclusive, equitable, and sustainable practices for cities everywhere.​

​About Transit Techies NYC

​​Bringing together the technologists who love transit and the transit enthusiasts who hack! We'll have speakers present transit-related projects. Presenters may be household hackers, data scientists, researchers, product developers, or you! All presentations will be technical and awesome. Learn more about Transit Techies NYC and join the MeetUp Group.