One of the things Mayor Bloomberg has done was creating more bike lanes to encourage more people to bike in. It’s not enough though which is why congestion pricing would really ease the pollution in NYC

There’s another way. Make driving expensive. Peak oil will do that eventually.

(I enjoy your Walking Is Transportation blog.)

I live smack in the middle of that dark brown spot, St. George, at the northeast corner of the island. It’s the most walkable neighborhood in the borough, where fewer residents depend on private cars to get around. It’s also the neighborhood where commuters from other parts of the island park their cars and catch the ferry. This, in a neighborhood that is the island’s civic and transportation hub–the ultimate destination of our entire bus system and SIR, the island’s one rail line.

The only way to get people out of their cars is to MAKE MASS TRANSIT FREE. Which means, socialize the cost and pay for it through our taxes. Retire the anachronistic fare structure, distribute the cost fairly, and watch the air quality improve.

Dan Icolari
St. George, Staten Island

The 72nd Street cut-through is not (and never was) a transverse. It’s just another gift to drivers long after the park was designed. It looks to me like the darkness encroaching around the perimeter of the park follows the loop (and the 72nd Street cut-through, which is part of the loop) perfectly. Even the transverses don’t seem to show up, which makes sense, since they were designed for traffic, and are below ground level for that purpose.

You’re eagle-eyed. And the darker area just north of Central Park is undoubtedly where cars from NJ & elsewhere funnel in to take advantage of the free speedway down the Central Park Loop. If the loop were made completely off-limits to regular car traffic, those cars would spew their asthma-causing pollution on the FDR and the Henry Hudson and keep it out of the neighborhoods north of the park.

That’s some pretty impressive resolution for only having 150 data points – to impressive. I think they just darkened areas where there are freeways. I’m sure it’s to a certain extent true.
Looking at the map, you can sort of see where the data points are. Then they must have a gradient algorithm to connect them all.
It looks to me like it fails in the southern tip of the bronx. The data point seems to be north of 138th st. Whereas just across from Manhattan near Bruckner blvd you have the Deegan, the third and willis avenue bridges and the freakin’ triboro. That area should almost certainly be dark red

The Bronx also has just about everyone from Westchester to Canada driving through it to get to Manhattan. That makes a huge difference. Craytor is right; this is a huge injustice to the residents of the Bronx, most of whom don’t drive to Manhattan or anywhere for that matter.

The neighborhoods where residents contribute least to motor vehicle related air pollution are those which suffer the most pollution from drivers coming from elsewhere.

I’ll bet someone will make the point that everyone should drive to improve their health based on that map. Here would be the low pollution model:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadacre_City

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/10/29/council-raises-unattended-idling-fines-will-nypd-enforce/

I’ve often suggested that Council Member Garodnick’s (dormant?) bill 881, which would enable TEAs to ticket for idling is exactly what would finally get the job done. All motorists know that cops don’t write a lot of tickets, but TEAs pounce. Maybe in light of this report, Garodnick stop waiting to see if TEAs are given the job without his bill. (if that’s what’s going on–I understand that that’s what it is).