Skip to main content

Cubic and Mastercard study shows impact of New York’s car free day

Following a request from New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez to measure the impact of Car Free Day NYC held in April, Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Mastercard have now published their report about transportation demand and retail impact assessment resulting from the initiative. Rodriguez organised the initiative with a strong coalition of local support towards the goal of reducing single-occupancy vehicle use and stimulating dialogue around environmental issues. The assessment leveraged
November 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Following a request from New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez to measure the impact of Car Free Day NYC held in April, 378 Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and 1756 Mastercard have now published their report about transportation demand and retail impact assessment resulting from the initiative.

Rodriguez organised the initiative with a strong coalition of local support towards the goal of reducing single-occupancy vehicle use and stimulating dialogue around environmental issues.

The assessment leveraged the Urbanomics Mobility Project, a Cubic-Mastercard co-developed data analysis toolset for fuelling smarter and more inclusive cities, based on public transportation data and insights derived from anonymised and aggregated transaction data.

Specific objectives of Councilman Rodriguez’s request included measuring changes in public transportation demand, traveller spend behaviour around car-free zones and the impact of redistributed traffic on business areas in proximity to car-free zones.

The one-day event resulted in an increase of more than 30,000 passengers than the season’s daily average on the MTA subway, while public data for other services like bike share also showed a statistically significant increase in usage.

For retail stores, there were no significant adverse effects on commercial activity in the surrounding areas, despite road closures created to facilitate and support the spirit of the event.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cubic and MTA win ITS-New York Project of the Year
    June 17, 2014
    Cubic Transportation Systems and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have been awarded the ITS-New York Project of the Year for MTA Bus Time, the customer information system for bus location and arrival times that was developed for the MTA. Bus Time was completed in March and covers more than 15,000 bus stops in New York City. Under a contract awarded in 2013, Cubic was selected to build and integrate the bus hardware system that includes the on-board computer and bus location device
  • Cubic and partners recognised for innovative and disruptive use of technology in Melbourne
    August 11, 2017
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS, the University of Melbourne and its project partners received the OpenGov Recognition of Excellence award from OpenGov Asia for the development of the Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem (AIMES), formerly known as the National Connected Multimodal Transport Test Bed. AIMES is Australia’s first large-scale, live ecosystem for implementing and testing connected transport technologies. The award recognises innovative and disruptive use of technology in the public secto
  • Cubic unveils refreshed brand and "Building Cities" campaign
    July 23, 2025

    Cubic is set to make a significant impact this year, leading with its “Building Cities” campaign—a vision dedicated to creating smarter, safer, and more sustainable urban environments, transforming mobility one intersection, community, and city at a time.

  • Asecap: get ready to rethink everything you know
    November 15, 2022
    How can we make our infrastructure ready for new sustainability challenges? What kind of investments are needed? And who will finance them? Tolling association Asecap has some thoughts. Geoff Hadwick reports from Lisbon