Andrea Bernstein

Health care, health care, health care. It’s all you see on the news, read in the papers, and hear on the radio. Will it pass? When? What will it look like if it does? What will thing...

With summer coming to a close, the United States is preparing for autumn's flu season. The Department of Health and Human Services said only 45 million doses of the vaccine against H1...

Campaigning for the upcoming presidential election has officially ended in Afghanistan. Amidst continued security problems, the country is preparing for the vote on Thursday. It's har...

Is the recession ending? Lakshman Acuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, thinks it is. He spends his days poring over economic indicators in order to mak...

For many inmates in American prisons, the U.S. Supreme Court is their favorite pen pal. Prisoners have been known to write weekly (or daily) letters begging the justices to intercede ...

The facts. The skinny. The straight dope. If you're talking about health care reform (and who isn't, these days?), the truth has been thoroughly muddled lately with a lot of buzzwords...

The Army is starting a new program to help improve the mental health and mental strength of its soldiers. Every one of the Army's 1.1 million soldiers will be required take part in t...

Hunts Point, the Bronx

Under the federal stimulus bill, areas suffering economic distress are supposed to get the most help. But while Bronx County has the highest unemployment and the most poverty in New York, 13 other ...

New York, NY —

Under the federal stimulus bill, areas suffering economic distress are supposed to get the most help. But while Bronx County has the highest unemployment and the most poverty in New York, 13 other counties are getting more stimulus funding per capita. That’s according to the ...

If you've been to Paris, or Rio, or Barcelona, you might have noticed denizens swiping cards, getting bikes, and tooling merrily through the streets until they leave their bike where they're going. A Zipcar, but for bikes, and no reservation necessary. Such systems have long been the apple of Transportation ...

New York, NY —

New York City Transportation officials are looking at bringing a Paris-style bike share system to New York, and for the next three Saturdays, New Yorkers will have a chance to try it out.

In Paris, Montreal, and Barcelona, residents and tourists alike can swipe a card, ...

New York, NY —

Now that it's August and summer travel season is kicking into high gear, more and more people are taking the AirTrain. It connects JFK airport to the New York City subway system and the Long Island railroad. As WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein reports, five years after ...

As July slips into August and summer travel season kicks into high gear, more and more passengers are taking the AirTrain. It connects JFK airport to the New York City subway system and the Long Island railroad. Five years after its inception, the AirTrain has drawn five million passengers a year, despite confusing signage, insufficient information, and a bumpy transfer into New York’s transit system.

It starts, or maybe doesn’t, when you get off the plane.

Bernstein: "The AirTrain."

Passenger: "I don’t know what it is."

At the Delta airlines terminal at JFK, information is hard to come by.

Woman: "I’d take the AirTrain but I don’t know anything about it. I don’t think they do a good job of getting out the information. Where is the information about the AirTrain?"

That the AirTrain exists at all is a bit of a political miracle. About 15 years ago, Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to kill it because it didn’t meet his vision – a non-stop train from the airport to Manhattan. But Governor George Pataki pushed it through. The result is essentially a shuttle from JFK that links passengers to the New York City subway system and the Long Island railroad.

The trains are clean, the seats are wide, the views are cool. This speechwriter from Los Angeles, was pleasantly surprised.

Man: "It was very easy. Not a problem. And I’m very bad at public transportation."

It’s also WAY cheaper than the other options.

Man: "I think it’s great. It’s either this or pay $45 for a cab to Manhattan and back."

But to get on it – you have to study up, like this PhD from Estonia, traveling with five friends.

Estonians: "To Manhattan? Brooklyn, Queens no."

The problem? There are two possibilities: They can connect to the A train at Howard Beach, or the E, J, or Long Island Railroad at Jamaica.

Bernstein: "Did you figure it out?"

Estonians: "No, we didn’t figure it out…but we will."

And after a few more minutes, they do.

Estonians: "Jamaica train! Ja, Jamaica!"

Signage is both art and science. Ask Sue Labouvie is the head of the design firm Studio L’Image. She’s working on a project in San Francisco to use signs to help people transfer from one transit system to another. So I asked her to evaluate the signage at the JFK AirTrain. She has a mantra.

Labouvie: "Integrated. I can’t help but stress the word integrated, so people feel even though they have to go on different modes, they feel they can find their way and its going to be a smooth transparent thing."

As we take the escalator up to the AirTrain platform, we’re disgorged into minimalist space with the feeling of an empty art gallery.

Labouvie: "This is an area, that I even being in signage, I am always confused."

The Digesting Politics podcast goes live as WNYC reporters Andrea Bernstein and Bob Hennelly talk with Brian Lehrer about the corruption scandal in New Jersey and other local politics over breakfast.

New York, NY —

The New York City Council is expected to pass a bill today, requiring commercial building owners to allow tenants to bring in bicycles. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

REPORTER: The bill, which will take effect in three months, removes a major obstacle to bike commuting: the ...

New York, NY —

One of JFK Airport's runways will be shut down for four months next year for renovations, that are intended to reduce delays. Governor Paterson says the slowdown caused by the renovation, will be well worth it in the long run.

PATERSON: As long as there are ...

Back in March, St. Cloud, Minnesota was excited. Vice President Joe Biden was in town to announce that the town would be receiving an influx of money from the stimulus plan. The money...

New York, NY —

All three of New York's statewide elected officials have websites that help track federal stimulus funds, but as WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reports, none make New York's stimulus spending completely transparent.

REPORTER: The newest addition to the transparency canon comes from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose openbook.ny site ...

New York, NY —

As travellers take to the roads this holiday weekend, a new study finds poor U.S. road conditions contribute to half of all traffic deaths. And New York and New Jersey pay some of the highest costs for those accidents in the nation. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein ...

New York, NY —

As of Wednesday, all three statewide elected officials have websites that help track stimulus funding, but none make New York's stimulus spending completely transparent. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

The newest addition to the transparency canon comes from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose www.openbooknewyork.com site allows ...