Jewish & World News

The Citi Bike program is racking up the miles. The city Department of Transportation says riders have already traveled more than 263,000 miles. There have been more than 90,000 total trips since the program launched May 27.

Delivery cyclists are facing new rules of the road today. The city Department of Transportation has updated the laws for commercial bicyclists in an effort to make the streets safer.

New York City straphangers will really want to hang on as there are many twists and turns ahead. New MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast told the New York Daily News that he believes avoiding another fare hike in 2015 is unlikely.

City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn said this morning in a speech at LaGuardia Community College that the city should be in charge of its own mass transit system. Speaking in the Long Island City section of Queens, Quinn said she wants mayoral control of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board and a board member that represents the riding public.

The number of travelers requesting kosher meals continues to rise with one source here saying that the request for glatt kosher meals has more than doubled in the past five years. The requests are filled by Hasmabia Caterers, under the certification of the Badatzof the Eida Hachareidis. Several travel agents reached by KosherToday concur that the number of travelers requesting kosher food has risen throughout the world and the airlines and the airline catering industry are apparently responding.

A New Jersey Transit train was forced to make an unscheduled stop after a large brawl broke out inside 1 of the cars, leading to the ejection of several passengers. It's not yet clear what sparked the brawl, which broke out shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday on a northbound Bergen/Port Jervis line train.

An Arkia Israeli Airlines passenger plane, which served the Defense Ministry, landed at the Ovda airbase in the Negev on Sunday after it struck a bird. After the pilot reported that the plane had struck a bird, Israel Air Force ground crews positioned ambulances and fire trucks near the runway. Arkia stressed that the plane's original destination was Ovda and that it did not make an emergency landing.

The chorus is growing louder against the Transportation Security Administration’s new carry-on guidelines that will allow knives on board airplanes. Just days after the TSA released new guidelines that will allow travelers to bring small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks and other sports gear on planes, Sen. Charles Schumer has called on the agency to reverse itself.

So who would you like to sit next to on your next flight? A survey dealing with the Israeli passenger's in-flight habits reveals that President Shimon Peres is Israelis' favored seat mate (14.3%), followed by supermodel Bar Refaeli (11.9%). The survey, which included a sample of 504 respondents over the age of 18, was conducted recently by the Daka 90 website, and examined Israeli passengers' vacation and flight habits.

Airlines aren't the only companies getting stingy with loyalty programs. Changes at three major hotel chains mean that it's going to be more costly for travelers to book rooms using reward points.

Knives, golf clubs and some other currently prohibited items will soon be allowed to be carried on to airplanes, the Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday. Box cutters, larger blades and knives with molded handles will still be banned from carry-on luggage. According to the federal agency, the move will help agents better focus on finding higher threat items like explosives. The TSA released the following statement Tuesday afternoon: “Through TSA’s layered approach to security, and to align more closely with International Civil Aviation Organization standards, effective April 25, 2013 TSA will allow knives that do not lock, and have blades that are 2.36 inches or 6 centimeters or less in length and are less than 1/2 inch in width, novelty-sized and toy bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs as part of their carry-on baggage. This is part of an overall Risk-Based Security approach, which allows Transportati...

Straphangers can now keep using the same MetroCard, even if they want to switch to a different payment plan. MetroCard vending machines will now let you convert an expiring seven-day or 30-day MetroCard to a Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard — or convert a Pay-Per-Ride card to an unlimited pass.

El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. today announced that it is firing 200 non-tenured workers and employees with personal contracts, and making structural changes.

El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. today began a spring offer with special prices to a large range of destinations in North America, Europe. The offer is valid between February 11 and February 21 for flights leaving Israel between April 10 and May 31.

One of the approaches to the world’s busiest bridge is going to be replaced. The George Washington Bridge is 82-years-old and the helix approach from the southbound Palisades Interstate Parkway is 70-years-old and has outlived its lifespan.

If you’re an experienced business traveler, the last thing you want to hear after cramming yourself into a small seat on an overnight flight is a child’s screaming. Now one more airline has officially launched a solution for those who want to stay away from kids on flights. Air Asia X, the long-haul branch of budget carrier Air Asia, is offering a child-free seating zone on some of its flights. Beginning this week, kids younger than 12 are “strictly off-limits” in the first seven rows of the economy class on the company’s flights to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and Nepal, CNN reported.

Few people would choose to spend the equivalent of a week at work stuck in traffic every year, but that's exactly what the average American commuter experiences, according to Texas A&M's annual mobility study. In a review of 2011 traffic patterns, researchers concluded that, "congestion caused urban Americans to travel 5.5 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel." This adds up to 56 billion unnecessary pounds of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by idling commuters.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has introduced a new way for E-ZPass users to pay for their trips. A new payment plan called E-ZPass Pay-Per-Trip will deduct tolls from drivers' checking accounts on the day the trip is taken.

The “old” Tappan Zee Bridge will be out of commission in 2016. That is one piece of new information that came out in a meeting Monday night in Tarrytown. There’s no timetable for an official groundbreaking, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s adviser on the project, Brian Conybeare, said the span’s design build team would like to have staging areas and other assets in the area starting in March.