Co-hosts Brandon Lewis and Jessica Parks lead this episode of the ITP, joined by Mass Transit's Noah Kolenda. They examine one year of congestion pricing and its impact on traffic patterns and urban mobility in New York City and beyond. 

Brandon also sits down with Penn State student Jorge Diaz to explore the future of transit through the lens of an emerging professional — from data analytics and machine learning to the growing need for more multimodal, people-focused infrastructure.

To close out the episode, Jessica quizzes Brandon and Noah on project pricing from Roads & Bridges' 2025 Top 10 Bridge Awards. 

Jorge Diaz - Penn State University 

Jorge Diaz is a transportation engineering student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State. His studies focus on transit systems, with research spanning the impacts of transit policies on ridership, security incidents, accessibility and equity. 

Noah Kolenda - Mass Transit 

Noah Kolenda is the associate editor at Mass Transit, where he specializes in data-driven coverage of transit operations, ridership and urban mobility trends. 

Episode length: 44:34 

Timestamps: 

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