Google: ‘MTA’ 2011’s top New York City search term

For online information junkies, the annual release of the Google Zeitgeist is a much-anticipated December event. This year, amidst top global searches for Rebecca Black, Fukushima and the iPhone, New Yorkers showed their true dedication to transit as the top three local search terms in NYC all focused around transportation. The MTA emerged as the reason’s clear top search term followed by NJ Transit and HopStop.

For the MTA, it was quite the year. Between hurricanes and snow storms, the authority withstood some tough weather while end-of-year politicking has left the authority looking for more funding sources. Meanwhile, Select Bus Service continued to spread throughout the region, and the abrupt departure of its CEO and Chairman left many fearful for the MTA’s long- and short-term future. I’ll wrap up the year in a few days, but as the Google searches show, for better or worse, the MTA is never far from the minds of the millions of New Yorkers who ride the rails everyday.