Streetsblog New York City

Webster Avenue and Fordham Road, the Bronx

Congestion pricing is in trouble. With just weeks to go before the Traffic Mitigation Commission makes its recommendations to the City Council and State Legislature, public support is waning and opponents appear to have the upper hand. The one sales pitch that scored high in public opinion polls, using pricing revenue to hold down transit fares, was discarded this week when the Mayor decided to support the governor's fare hike.

Congestion pricing is struggling for two reasons. First, it has been framed as a revenue issue instead of a traffic-busting, quality-of-life-improving, environmental measure. Second, City Hall has not made a politically compelling case for how pricing revenue will be used. Politics demands that congestion pricing be about more than extending the 7 train and building part of the Second Avenue subway and LIRR connector -- projects that won't be completed for many years and overwhelmingly serve Manhattan.

In contrast to these mega-projects, the congestion fee is immediate and specific. This clash between specific, immediate costs and diffuse, long-term, benefit has produced a public discussion focused on who will pay the congestion fee and how, rather than what the benefits will be and for whom. Fortunately, there is still time for Mayor Bloomberg to turn things around by combining congestion pricing's broad social and environmental benefits with a package of short-term, highly visible, specific transportation and quality of life benefits that excite the public imagination.

Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, Downtown Brooklyn.

By January 31, the Traffic Mitigation Committee will present a new congestion pricing plan that will likely suggest tolls on East River Bridges and a fee to cross 60th Street. Once the Committee issues its new recommendations, City Hall should relaunch congestion pricing by proposing two major new benefits. First, the rapid implementation of neighborhood streetscape and pedestrian improvements on the city's busiest commercial corridors, especially outside of Manhattan. Second, a Paris-style, bus service expansion including the launch of new bus rapid transit lines and major improvements in local service accompanied by aggressive promotion targeted at bus riders and transit unions.

Read more...

Cartoonist, writer and former Ford Motor Company employee Bruce McCall offers this "Wouldn't it be funny if.." rendition of post-congestion pricing Manhattan, from Sunday's New York Times (click here for the full illustration). As with his confounding and flip Atlantic Yards illo from a year ago, it's hard to discern what McCall is trying to say here.

Or is it? One Streetsblog tipster, referring to the piece as "egregious," wrote of the Times: "They really don't get it." Yet the NYT has published numerous pro-pricing editorials as well.

What's your take?

From a Streetsblog tipster:

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get the City Council treatment?

Last night, NYC Councilmember David Weprin made an appearance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park to let the public know that he helped direct taxpayer dollars to support Shakespeare in the Park. But unlike the hundreds of theater goers who walked the two blocks from Central Park West to the theater, Councilman Weprin had his driver illegally enter the loop road -- which was closed to vehicles so joggers, walkers, and bikers could enjoy some exercise without being menaced by traffic -- drive to the theater, and park illegally on grass and pavers by the side of the road. The area where his car was parked was dense with pedestrians as they gathered for the theater.

Central Park is a big place and one car can always fit in the park, but if everyone were to use Central Park like Councilman Weprin, Central Park would be one big traffic jam and parking lot. I suspect that it never occurred to Councilman Weprin that his driving might damage the fragile fabric of Central Park. Most cars in the city drive without the slightest sense that they are surrounded by children and senior citizens and that their driving harms the neighborhoods through which they pass.

No one likes living in a traffic choked world. The people who drive in New York City need to be aware of how they contribute to the degradation of our communities. Our elected officials should serve as role models for the rest of society rather than sending the message that personal benefit is more important than public good.

Photo: Larry Greenberg, QCLDA

 

This is the third essay from Alex Marshall, who has written extensively on transportation issues as a journalist and author. He is a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, where he edits the bi-weekly Spotlight on the Region newsletter.

"All SUV drivers are assholes," I've frequently found myself thinking as I face the grille of a Cadillac Escalade while crossing a street on foot or from the perch of my bicycle seat. Why would anyone drive such a vehicle in New York City, hardly a brutal wilderness calling for four-wheel drive? They sure don't need the space to haul a load of firewood.

It's undeniable that SUVs make life difficult for the rest of us street dwellers, simply by virtue of their sheer size. Their height impinges on the sight lines of everyone, even other drivers. And because SUV drivers can't see as well themselves -- the action is literally too far below them -- they are more dangerous.

But I try to keep an open mind. Who's an asshole depends on where one sits, and to the SUV drivers, I'm probably the asshole, darting in front of them on my bike like a pesky gnat they would like to swat away, while they are trying to savor another sip of coffee.

I am served a dose of humility when I remember my experience with strollers. Before having a child myself, I would chafe at the legions of "stroller people," as my now wife and I called them, who took up all the sidewalk space on the Upper West Side, using their child carriers like battering rams to get ahead of the pack. I swore not to become one of them.

Read more...

 

On Earth Day Mayor Mike Bloomberg placed transportation and environmental issues at the top of New York City's political agenda. He took a major step towards changing the conventional wisdom that traffic congestion is a sign of the city's vibrancy and economic health. And he joined the list of forward-thinking global mayors like London's Ken Livingstone and Bertrand Delanoe in Paris who have said that excessive automobile dependence is a drag on the urban economy, detrimental to public health, and a contributor to global climate change.

Proposing congestion pricing was clearly a big deal. But missing from the PlaNYC announcement were immediate physical changes that reveal the "Greener, Greater New York" that the mayors speech called for. Because, even if congestion pricing is approved by the state legislature, it will take time to put in place. The mayor needs a symbolic, yet tangible, action that matches the scale and ambition of his new vision.

That grand, green, gesture is a three month car-free summer for Central Park. With the stroke of a pen Bloomberg can deliver a premier car-free space for millions of people. The political legwork has already been done. Car-Free Summer already has the backing of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and four of the five City Council members surrounding the park (Lappin, Brewer, Garodnick and Viverito. Dickens has been non-committal). More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for a completely car-free park.

There is very little downside to a Car-Free Central Park. DOT traffic studies conducted during Christo's "Gates" installation suggest that the traffic impacts around the park would be virtually non-existent (Download the three-part study here: 1, 2, 3). And a soon-to-be released report by Transportation Alternatives indicates that closing Central Park's Loop Drives to private vehicles would help reduce the amount of through-traffic using Harlem's congested streets as a short-cut to and from Lower Manhattan.

Delanoe launched his ambitious transportation reform effort by converting a riverfront highway into a beach called "Paris Plage." London's Ken Livingstone had the power to impose congestion pricing without legislative approval. But he built public approval for pricing, and an overall transportation reform agenda, with tangible improvements that people could feel and see. One of the most visible was the conversion of the horrendous traffic sewer that was Trafalgar Square into a bustling public plaza.

Likewise, here in New York, PlaNYC 2030 needs to be transformed from rhetoric to reality. While there are many such opportunities, none is as big, as visible and as easy, as making Central Park car-free this coming June, July and August.

Photo: Greyscalefuzz on Flickr

 

As New Yorkers well know, sidewalks around subway stops and major transit hubs are often intensely crowded. Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC team is aware of this and buried on page 48 of the Technical Report supplementing PlaNYC's transportation recommendations is a new program called "Safe Routes to Transit" (SR2T). While the attention to pedestrian issues is welcome, given the scope of the congestion problem near major transit stops, SR2T is a fairly modest proposal and is best viewed as a good beginning, a point of departure for significantly improving the walking part of transit trips.

The new initiative -- which, notably, is focused entirely on the outer boroughs -- combines three existing programs under one umbrella and adds up to being the most specific and significant pedestrian improvement offered by PlaNYC 2030. SR2T has three elements:

Bus Stops under the Els - improve pedestrian and vehicle safety and circulation at intermodal stations located underneath elevated subway structures.

Started in 2003, four locations have been improved of the forty identified. Improvements consist of sidewalk islands, neckdowns and bus bulbs. Starting in 2008, DOT or DDC will build out three per year.

Subway/Sidewalk Interface - improve safety and relieve congestion on sidewalks and intersections adjacent to subway entrances

This subway/sidewalk interface project is a terrific DOT/ City Planning initiative begun at the urging of Transportation Alternatives in 2000. There are 468 subway stops in New York City and originally 29 were selected for a first look. Improvements at two subway stops have been completed and 24 more are planned. Starting in 2008 the city will complete two a year.

Read more...

 
When the Supreme Court held this week that the Environmental Protection Agency does, in fact, possess the latitude to protect the environment, the New York Times called it "a victory for a world whose environment seems increasingly threatened by climate change."

"It is a vindication for states like California that chose not to wait for the federal government and acted to limit emissions that contribute to global warming," read a Tuesday Times editorial. "And it should feed the growing momentum on Capitol Hill for mandatory limits on carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas."

The Times' editorial position on the landmark high court ruling is consistent with the paper's voluminous coverage of global climate change -- which, its reporters tell us, isn't going to happen, but is happening. Barely a day passes when the Times doesn't publish a story detailing a new angle of the crisis.

All of which makes its indulgent coverage of the New York International Auto Show more than a little perplexing. As usual, the Times has deployed an army of contributors to unleash a barrage of articles and special features hyping the New York event -- as it did the Detroit show in January, debuting a special car blog to mark the occasion.

In a story containing barely a passing reference to nuisance issues like heavy traffic and congestion pricing, the celebration kicked off with this paean:

New York motorists must be the nation's most ardent car lovers, considering the hardships they accept -- the scarce and exorbitant parking, the gridlock, the inevitable tickets and some of the nation's highest insurance rates -- for the pleasure of driving a car and the freedom to escape the city on a whim.

Such myopia might be excused in another time, back when serious discussion of global warming was still the province of junk scientists and Chicken Little fringe-dwellers. But now?

Granted, the Times hasn't always been consistent in its reportage (left hand, meet right hand), but the same editorial board that seemed to applaud this week's Supreme Court decision also recently came out in favor of a new DOT Commissioner "who promotes use of public transit, walking and cycling as not just a way to a destination, but as a way of life."

If only our paper of record would set the tone, rather than alternately condemning and glorifying the one consumer product most responsible for the environmental damage accounted in its pages on a daily basis.

Stay tuned for Streetsblog's own first-hand auto show coverage from Sarah Goodyear.

Theodore Kheel (pictured right), has been called by The New York Times "the most influential peacemaker in New York City in the last half-century" in light of the fact that he has participated in the resolution of more than 30,000 labor disputes. Kheel has founded several related foundations devoted to resolving the conflict between the environment and development, and has been an advocate for mass transit for over fifty years. He is a regular Streetsblog reader. A shorter version of this essay appeared in the New York Times this Sunday.

The three commemorative exhibits on Robert Moses, like the press articles covering them, have neglected the mass transit issue almost as seriously as Moses did. The New York Times mentioned in passing that he "championed highways as he starved mass transit" but said no more on the subject. Paul Goldberger, writing for the New Yorker, devoted a few more words to the matter, before dismissing it entirely. He reasoned: "[I]n Moses's day cities all over the country were building highways at the expense of mass transit. Some critics were complaining but most people didn't see [the problem] until long after the damage had been done."

Perhaps Moses was doing what everyone else was doing, or perhaps he was leading the others. Whatever our conclusion, it does a disservice to our city to ignore this piece of the Moses story, and what it has to teach us. With that thought in mind, I decided to share with New Yorkers my most notable experience with Moses.

Read more...

This weekend's City section of the New York Times featured a mind-blowing essay by children's-book writer Sarah Shey about her habit of taking her one-year-old son out for drives in the city -- drives with no destination or purpose in mind, in which she crossed and recrossed the Brooklyn Bridge endless times.

Shey, who is originally from Iowa, writes that she missed "the pristine geometry of vacant blacktops, where a car can travel at least mile a minute, stair-stepping from field to unclothed field and not meet a patrol car." So she decided to try to recreate her family's bygone post-supper aimless-driving ritual here in the big city. You really have to read the whole thing to believe it, but here are some highlights:

Supper hour didn't work for us in Brooklyn. We had both traffic patterns and my son's schedule to consider. So early Saturday morning it was. My son and I got to escape our cavelike apartment. My husband got to lounge in bed for a few extra hours. And the best part of the deal: I got to concentrate on the road - not, for a change, on my family.

Our nondestination of choice was the Brooklyn Bridge. Back and forth we'd drive - sometimes 10 or 12 times - as if we were on autopilot. I leaned back into the bucket seat of my hatchback, whose posture recalled a dromedary. My hand squeezed the automatic clutch as if it were a stick shift, and for the first time in a week I felt in control.

My destiny was clear: to span the East River. The green light flashed above Tillary Street. I smashed down the accelerator, and with its 130-horsepower engine, my car attacked the 1.5-mile route with exhaust streaking behind us, I imagined, like a contrail.

Read more...

With DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall set to depart city government in three weeks, sources say that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is close to announcing her replacement. The Mayor's choice will have a profound impact on day-to-day neighborhood life as well as the City of New York's long-term future. Though the DOT commissioner job search has barely been covered by the local press, this may very well be one of the most important decisions of the last 1,000 days of the Bloomberg Administration.

Last week, Annie Karni of the New York Sun reported that Janette Sadik-Khan and Michael Horodniceanu are the top two candidates for the job. Sources quoted in Karni's article described Sadik-Khan as the "people-first" candidate and Horodniceanu as "cars-first." While that characterization is, clearly, an oversimplification, there is no question that the two candidates present Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York with two very different options.

On the one hand, there is Sadik-Khan, 46, a senior vice president at the planning and engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. During the Dinkins Administration, Sadik-Khan (left) was the director of a now-defunct New York City department called the Mayor's Office of Transportation, which was responsible for long-term transportation planning and the coordination of the various agencies and authorities with power over New York City transportation policy and infrastructure. (Rudy Giuliani disbanded the office.)

In her municipal capacity, Sadik-Khan was the liaison to the MTA and the overseer of the Port Authority's Airport Access Plan, the development of the Farley Post Office Rail Station and a 42nd Street light rail plan that nearly came to fruition. With the Second Avenue subway, Bus Rapid Transit, the Fulton Street transportation hub and a number of other mega-projects planned, underway or envisioned, New York City government is once again in need of an individual with the ability to coordinate the work of disparate agencies and, as Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said last week, think in "bold and creative" terms about what is possible for New York City transportation policy.

Sadik-Khan, who declined to be interviewed for this article, brings expertise in transit and land use, finance, and communications. She is intellectually curious and in touch with her field's global innovators. An editorial board member of NYU Rudin Center's New York Transportation Journal, Sadik-Khan recently published interviews with Bogota's Enrique Penalosa and Copenhagen's Jan Gehl. She was a driving force behind the Partnership for New York City's congestion pricing study, Growth or Gridlock. Mayor Bloomberg knows that she is qualified for the job. According to "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz, in 2001 Sadik-Khan was the Bloomberg administration search committee's top choice for DOT commissioner -- before the Mayor decided to stay with Giuliani's transportation chief, Iris Weinshall.

Sadik-Khan has professional transportation experience on the federal, state and local levels and a law degree from Columbia University. But her biggest and most important qualification for the DOT Commissioner's job is what is not on her resume. Sadik-Khan is not a traffic engineer.

Horodniceanu, on the other hand, is.

Read more...