Comments on: Q & A With Charles Komanoff on Kheel Plan 2

By: J. Mork

J. Mork — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:43:56 +0000

Thanks, Komanoff.

I will do that.

By: Komanoff

Komanoff — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:42:13 +0000

Ian -- Because the price-elasticity of driving is almost certainly less than 1.0 (i.e., an X% increase in the out-of-pocket cost of a car trip provokes a less than X% drop in the number of car trips), raising the toll rate will always raise more revenue from the pool of drivers. Moreover, the "time-elasticity" helps by increasing the number of trips as the time required drops (due to less traffic); this factor is one of the reasons the Kheel Plan sequesters a fraction of the effective increase in street capacity and reserves it for non-motorized uses.

So far as exclusive bus lanes are concerned: your idea is solid, but the real catalyst to improving bus speeds and productivity is eliminating the fare so passengers can easily hop on/off, eliminating the time-killing human gridlock in boarding and exiting.

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:45:56 +0000

So, what happens to the private bus companies, known as the "Mexican buses"? They provide a good, affordable service in New York and far superior to the cities buses in frequency.

Please tell us more about these Mexican buses. All I know about are the Jersey vans, the Caribbean vans and the Chinese buses. Where can these Mexican buses be found?

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:06:40 +0000

So, what happens to the private bus companies, known as the "Mexican buses"? They provide a good, affordable service in New York and far superior to the cities buses in frequency.

Are they really supposed to compete with free buses, paid for by motorists, and what happens if the scheme is too successful? How do you then pay for the subway and buses? If you move to free buses, what happens in the longer term if there is a need to charge passengers? People will see free public transport as a right?

Introduce the bus lanes now and strictly police them, and then tell people that the charge is so that other people will use buses... thus solving the congestion problem - and affording further street closures to private vehicles.

By: Komanoff

Komanoff — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:37:47 +0000

Hey Mork -- Glad you're fiddling w/ the BTA. Sorry that it's tricky in spots. It could definitely use a few days of restructuring to be made reasonably user-friendly. It's hard for me to deduce where you changed what. I suggest you download a fresh copy of the spreadsheet and read the instructions under "Switches" in the Summary tab. Then work the switches.

By: J. Mork

J. Mork — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:19:09 +0000

Oops, there's no BTA link in this story. Here it is:

http://nnyn.org/kheelplan/BTA_1.1_7_Dec_2008.xls

By: J. Mork

J. Mork — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:17:39 +0000

That BTA is pretty fun -- and complicated.

I tried the "Mork Plan", which is like the Kheel plan (the BTA default) but with $2 rush hour subways and $1 off-peak subways (buses remain free at all times).

That comes out to $1.85 billion, which is close enough to $2 billion for me (where's my checkbook?).

(But it says $0 for Weekend Subway revenue in F15 on the Revenue tab -- so maybe I am doing something wrong. I put in $2 for the shaded Proposed Fares on the Subways tab, and $1 for everywhere else.)