Tuesday’s Headlines: Fuel for Thought Edition

I’d say “three cheers for the city!” but only one is due.

On Monday, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services was all excited to announce that the city fleet has reduced fossil fuel use by 67 percent over the past 13 years. The agency said it replaced gas guzzling fleet vehicles with electric or “renewable diesel” versions, “cutting fossil fuel use by millions of gallons every year and driving down emissions.”

More than 75 percent of the city fleet is now running on electric or alternative fuels.

Kudos … I guess?

The problem is, emissions are just one of the dozens of ways that cars adversely affect life in New York City — and if you think merely shifting them to batteries is going to save our city, we’ve got a pedestrian bridge to sell you.

So as the city is saving money at the pump, the city fleet grew again (albeit slightly) from 28,706 in fiscal year 2024 to 28,768 in the 2025 fiscal year that ended in June, according to the Mayor’s Management Report.

All those cars and trucks have an additional cost: their cost. Beyond their fuel use, sticker prices or the congestion they cause, the city fleet costs taxpayers tens of million dollars in crash settlements every year. According to the City Comptroller’s claims dashboard, taxpayers paid out more than $155 million in fiscal year 2025 in claims against the city for car crashes. Motor vehicle crashes involving the city fleet are typically at the top of the claims every year.

So forgive me if I’m only mildly excited at hearing that the city is changing the fuel that’s powering all these death machines. (No one covered the announcement, so I’ll link to the city press release.)

In other news:

• DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez is still peddling a daylighting report with serious methodology flaws in his bid to get the Council to shelve a bill to remove parking spaces from corners. … (NYDN)
• … And Streetsblog’s Kevin Duggan shows that it’s working — with Council Member Gale Brewer bailing from a Council bill to mandate daylighting at every corner. Brewer’s bail came after Double-Duty Duggan showed earlier this year that DOT’s lobbying against the safety bill is working.
• On the plus side, DOT says it’ll get the 34th Street busway done this year, though that’s a lot of paint to get down before it turns too cold. (NYDN)
• Hey, Met fans, you know where team owner Steve Cohen can shove his apology. (NYDN)
• The Times has finally realized that people like bikes.
• A scooter rider was injured at the same Manhattan intersection where a Citi Bike rider was killed last year. (W42St)
• NoMad and Flation plazas could be permanent. (Crain’s)
• Wow, what happened to state Sen. Jessica Ramos? I mean, other than what she brought on herself with her non-sensical endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for mayor (the same man she hounded from office as governor). (City and State)
• The MTA says it will improve R train service with a little tweak …. (NYDN)
• … and the F and M lines will switch places on their routes between Manhattan and Queens. (Gothamist, amNY)
• Subway service is getting better. (amNY)
• A kid was badly injured by the driver of a school bus in Boro Park. (BoroPark24, NY Post)
• The Coney Island casino is dead, but the one in the Bronx is moving forward. (NY Times, The City)
• Travel to the Ryder Cup on Long Island was annoying for all of us who spent the weekend under rich people’s helicopters, as Council Member Shahana Hanif pointed out on X.com. (Front Office Sports)

• You only have three more days to check out “The White House Effect” at DCTV, the old firehouse (now a documentary film production center) on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan. I saw it over the weekend and gave it two thumbs up. The Bonni Cohen-Jon Shenk-directed film stretches from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, and provides a gripping look at why politicians fail to address climate change. (DCTV)
• Finally, at Streetsblog, we love singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy (and his band Wilco), but we felt a bit triggered when Tweedy released his new triple album, “Twilight Override,” with an accompanying video of him driving around and around and around. (On the plus side, he does appear to be a conscientious driver.) Watch the full two hours on the road with Tweedy here: