All New Yorkers have their transit fantasies: Finishing the 2 train, making the L less of a purgatory, finding a way to get from Queens to Brooklyn that doesn’t involve Manhattan.
Keep dreaming big, NYC. For some smaller fixes – like knowing which elevators are working before you have to use the escalator on your crutches because you didn’t mind the gap – there’s App Quest. The competition, in its third year, has 43 new apps designed to improve the experience of riders on the subway, bus and rail lines through real-time MTA data, including an experimental wireless hotspot set up at Grand Central Terminal that can pinpoint a user’s location within the station. At stake is $50,000 in prize money, provided by AT&T. Submissions came from homegrown talent, but also developers from across the world, including Australia, Morocco, France, Hungary, the U.K. and Switzerland; 25 percent address accessibility issues. Voting for the people’s choice award opened today and will last through Feb. 25.
Here’s your chance to improve your daily commute
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