A new report co-authored by a Cornell Tech expert offers technology strategies to do faster, more accurate transportation analysis in New York City and streamline approvals for housing development there. The report aims to help planners and engineers slash project approval times by 50% in the most densely populated city in the United States.

“How NYC Moves,” co-authored by Cornell Tech fellow Paul Salama, lays out the potential for technology solutions to support improved and streamlined transportation analyses, which slow down building approvals. Robert Holbrook, executive director of Mayor Eric Adams’ Get Stuff Built initiative, is a co-author.

“The ‘How NYC Moves’ report highlights how the right data and appropriate technology can be harnessed to address public challenges and transform the way we plan, review and deliver projects in New York City,” said Salama, a fellow at the Urban Tech Hub at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech.

The report also details how inertia in the building approval process – especially cumbersome transportation analyses that are required for every building project – has spawned delay and uncertainty in the construction of everything from housing to transit improvements and green infrastructure, translating into higher costs for residents.

The report stems from a January 2024 symposium, funded by a Fast Grant from The 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative. That two-day symposium brought together transportation experts and policymakers from academia, government, transportation firms and tech companies to discuss strategies to accelerate approval of large-scale projects.

Adams identified transportation analyses as the largest source of approval delays. The city’s review processes add “approximately 9% or $67,000 per high-rise apartment, translating into a rent increase of about $430,” according to the report.

Participants identified a host of strategies through which technology can shorten analyses, adjust requirements, eliminate steps, automate processing and transform methods. For example, current approval guidelines require a multistep tiered screening process to gather transportation data. Lengthy seasonal blackouts limit when data can be collected, adding further delays.

Instead, the report authors recommend establishing a “city-wide model for transportation volumes from best available data and sources, replacing months-long requirements to collect and process new counts with instantaneously available data.” Some of their other recommendations include:

• Using computer vision on city streets to count vehicles;
• Developing software to streamline routine agency procedures;
• Adapting latest practices and innovations to improve analysis methods; and
• Building technology capacity across the city.

“We’re proud to have supported this convening of key government agencies and technology firms to find opportunities to speed up the decarbonization of our built environment,” said Ben Furnas, executive director of Cornell’s 2030 Project. “Building our next generation of urban infrastructure faster and more efficiently is a critical part of how cities can tackle the climate challenge.”

Michael Samuelian, director of the Urban Tech Hub, said the report “outlines ambitious and realizable ways to help make New York City move better, faster and safer.”

“New York City’s struggles with traffic congestion are legendary,” he said. “And now advances in data science are giving us never before seen opportunities to measure, optimize and improve the traffic flow on our city streets.”

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.