I don't think you'll find too many people here that won't agree that though we have a reasonable mass transit system on the NYC region, it is still substandard and doesn't meet the needs of the population. Having been on other systems all over Europe, I can say NYC's rates poorly.

I complain constantly about (and to) NJ Transit in particular - if I was a NJ resident, I'm sure that my state legislators would get to know me!!

Impossible? No, it wouldn't have been impossible. But I'm not talking about what's possible and not possible, but rather about what was the path of least resistance for a trip that I was making once or twice a week. Consider you're in the car driving toward the city. An hour gets you to Princeton for a train to the city. Then you have another, what, another hour once you're on the train (not including the time you're waiting for the train), which takes you to Penn Station, then a subway ride to wherever you're headed. And trainfare is generally more expensive than a bus ticket. Can you say, giant pain in the ass?

I agree that congestion pricing needs to be implemented, and that should be incentives to get people out of their cars, but all I'm asking people here on Streetsblog to understand that, unless mass transit is massively (pardon the pun) improved and expanded, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get all those coming into the city to leave their cars at home.

If only there were a rail system in suburban South Jersey (and please don't say that the Princeton station is in South Jersey).

Say "Yes!" to MOM!

http://www.sayyestomom.com/

For many years, I lived in South Jersey and traveled into the city once or more a week. I initially tried to "do the right thing" and took the bus. However, I quickly grew tired of, A. fitting my schedule to the bus schedule, B. having to go downtown (typically) from Port Authority, C. paying more for the bus ticket than I would for the Turnpike/tunnel tolls (as I recall), D. drive a half-hour from my house to the bus station, and E. sitting on a bus for hours.

If I were still driving into the city from South Jersey currently, I would probably pay the extra $8 to drive into Manhattan. The reality is, mass transit doesn't fit everybody's needs. If only there were a rail system in suburban South Jersey (and please don't say that the Princeton station is in South Jersey).

They offer essentially everything AAA does, minus some of the discounts (no Amtrak discount, for instance) and minus the short-sighted and destructive policy positions.

Also, the above statistics don't much address the question of the "nonresidents who work, shop, dine, attend school or have other legitimate reasons for parking in the area" (which, of course, presupposes that all these things are "legitimate reasons for parking"). But I can refer you to the Schaller SoHo study at , which found that pedestrians in SoHo who arrived by subway or taxi accounted for 80% of total spending in the area.

21% is still a lot of people. Plenty enough to arrive at the hundreds of regional fatalities a year that we see as a consequence of the American auto fetish.

But the question is not so much one of blame. It doesn't really matter who is behind the wheel, because the problem is not the driver per se -- yes, some people drive more or less safely than others, but the main thing to take away from all this is that driving is /inherently unsafe/ and should be reduced regardless of the driver's residence.

So if only 21% of New Yorkers (including the American Boroughs of Queens and Staten Island) own cars who exactly is doing all this killing?

Certainly not New Yorkers.

Makes you wonder why we bother with drug dealers in Columbia and Gun dealers in Florida and South Carolina when so many are killed here by Lawn Guyland and New Joisey car murderers.

Car ownership per 1000 residents:

Copenhagen: 225
New York: 210
London: 356
Paris: 383
US as a whole : 750

This is simply astounding. New York has fewer cars per person than bike-land Copenhagen, congestion-pricing-land London, and freedom-bike-land Paris. Meanwhile, putting in a bike lane in New York gets huge opposition because of the perception that it takes away the ability of people to park illegally.

Where is the livable streets political will here, people?

(Yes, yes I know it's getting a lot better, but sheesh. We have the potential numbers, obviously)

- 14% of trips to the Central Business District are by car, 42% transit and 38% foot.

According to 2000 U.S. Census data 54% of NYC households do not own or lease a motor vehicle. Broken down by borough:

- Manhattan: 78% of households do not have a vehicle.
- Bronx: 60% are car free
- Brooklyn: 54% are car free
- Only in Queens and Staten Island do more households have more cars than not: 34% and 20%

Car ownership per 1000 residents:

- U.S. as a whole: 750
- Paris: 383
- London: 356
- Copenhagen: 225
- NYC: 210

Thanks to Paul White at T.A. for compiling this data.

Wait a minute, New York is the third most populous state and the fourth in terms of ped fatalities. And we have more pedestrians per capita than those other big, auto-dependent states. So even though Florida has fewer people it has more people hit by cars.

This argument by the AAA is so amazingly weak that it is actually disingenuous to print it as if it were some sort of academically rigorous, researched argument.

"People who tout the safety of walking have obviously never lived in New York."

WHAT?????

Do you have numbers to back up that statement?

Ridiculous. I've lived in Baltimore and Boston, both of which are cities that had resident permit parking systems. In fact, I've long been shocked that NYC doesn't already have it, since it's so common everywhere (of course, NYC also felt the need to pilot those walk signs that count down rather than just implement them, because just because it works in the rest of the USA doesn't mean it'll work in NYC...) Not that I really think this is much of an issue myself, but just look at any other American city: there are many ways to implement a non-resident parking plan. This is a non-objection.

Let's say it once again: almost no one needs to drive into Manhattan. It's going to be a lot safer, cleaner, and more pleasant for everyone if they just get over their fear of public transportation and get on the subway.