Bridge safety, real-time infrastructure monitoring targets of NYC Transit Tech Lab’s 8th annual competition

New York area transit authorities on Thursday announced the launch of the eighth annual Transit Tech Lab competition, inviting technology companies to help modernize public transit across the region.

This year’s challenges — led by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York City Department of Transportation and the Partnership Fund for New York City — seek technologies that can monitor infrastructure in real time, detect safety risks, track construction progress and manage bridge strikes, or when a vehicle, its load or equipment collides with a bridge.

The competition also calls for data and workflow solutions, such as tools that improve workforce scheduling, reduce bus delays or combine large volumes of transit data into analytics platforms. Applications for the 2026 competition are open through Feb. 27.

“This NYC DOT is going to be aggressively delivering on our Vision Zero goals, with ambitious, bold projects to make our streets safer. Doubling down on this work will require looking at every opportunity to become a more efficient and organized agency,” Mike Flynn, commissioner of New York City’s Transportation Department, said in a press release.

New York City operates the largest public transit system in the country, and one of the biggest in the world. The system, managed by the MTA, has a daily ridership of around 3.6 million people. It includes more than 6,500 subway cars, roughly 500 subway stations, more than 650 miles of track and nearly 6,000 buses, which travel about 150 million miles a year.

The city’s subway has been plagued by issues for years, including a lack of consistent funding, signal slowdowns, degrading infrastructure and increased criminal activity.

The MTA recently began exploring whether the city’s transit system can use artificial intelligence to detect weapons, monitor unattended items or even anticipate subway stampedes.

A 2025 report by the city comptroller’s office, which analyzed the city’s bus performance using speed, on-time rate and reliability, revealed poor performance systemwide. The report found that bus speeds have not meaningfully improved over the past 10 years and fail to reach stops at their scheduled times 30% of the time.

Since its launch in 2018, the Transit Tech Lab has reviewed more than 1,000 applications, tested more than 80 technologies that led to 16 commercial procurements. Past participants have introduced tools that improved bus route planning, reduced fuel use and made transit systems more accessible to riders with disabilities.