Transportation Policy
Streetsblog Basics
40,000+ U.S. Buses Are Equipped With Bike Racks. None in NYC.
Via the National Center for Bicycling & Walking's Centerlines Newsletter, the National Center for Transit Research reports:
February 9, 2007
The Subway Should Be Free
George Haikalis of the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, with microphone. Environmentalist Theodore W. Kheel, seated next to him, at far right, would reduce the subway fare to nothing.
February 9, 2007
Another Free-Market Argument for Congestion Pricing
An opinion piece in today's New York Sun addresses the congestion-pricing incentives laid out in the Bush Administration's new budget proposal. The article, by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former chief economist at the US Department of Labor who is now with the conservative Hudson Institute, argues that "the only effective way to reduce traffic congestion is to use pricing," and that "Americans rely on prices for a
stable supply of food, clothes, water, energy, and telecommunications.
Why should roads be an exception?"
February 9, 2007
DOT: “Our Job is to Keep Traffic Moving, Not Pedestrian Safety”
Scribner Avenue, New Brighton, Staten Island, formerly two- and now one-way, looking up the hill toward Bismarck Avenue from Westervelt Avenue
February 8, 2007
Is a 1.3 mph Increase in Crosstown Traffic Speed “Innovative?”
The Staten Island Advance reports on Monday's press conference outlining the qualities that leading City Council members would like to see in the next DOT Commissioner. The Bloomberg Administration
responded to the Council with the following statement:
February 7, 2007
Driving Mrs. Kelly
Police columnist Len Levitt of NYPD Confidential has an interesting piece on Commissioner Ray Kelly's use of his official security detail to chauffeur his wife on personal trips at taxpayer expense. My first reaction would be a big "So what?" except for three things:
February 7, 2007
Disgruntled Drivers Responsible for UK Letter Bombs?
A letter bomb exploded yesterday at the offices of the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Swansea, South Wales, injuring a woman. It was the seventh such incident reported at a UK agency linked to traffic enforcement in the past three weeks, and the third in three days, according to an article in the Guardian. A total of six people have been injured so far, according to a statement issued just yesterday by police.
February 7, 2007
New York New Visions Tackles “Sustainable” New York Future
After Mayor Bloomberg's December announcement of his PlaNYC
initiative to prepare for a sustainable New York of 9 million people by 2030, New York New Visions, the group of architects and planners originally organized around Ground Zero rebuilding, announced it was expanding its scope to tackle the new challenge. Last night, in a stark white room in the basement of the American Institute of Architects building in Greenwich Village, a collection of almost equally stark white faces began reimagining the New York of the future.
February 6, 2007
Help Wanted at DOT: Creative Thinkers Encouraged to Apply
Chairman of the City Council Transportation Committee, John C. Liu, praised outgoing DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall and called for an innovative thinker as her successor.
February 6, 2007
Bush Administration Advocates for Congestion Pricing
Here's some more fodder for the debate that was prompted by today's earlier post about charging more for parking on city streets. This story, too, comes from the Wall Street Journal, and is available online to subscribers only. But you might want to run out and buy today's paper to read the whole thing, because the news is that in a budget blueprint to be released today, the Bush Administration is coming out in favor of congestion pricing:
February 5, 2007