Tunnels

Adding a congestion fee on top of the existing Midtown Tunnel toll will cause 8,000 inbound vehicle trips a day to divert onto local streets in Long Island City to access the cheaper Queensboro Bridge.

Whatever your opinion, let’s please debate the decision over who gets a credit based on dollar realities, not nightmares.

Activists and a transportation committee agree: Canal Street has no place in a modern, pedestrian-friendly city.

Earlier this week, BuzzFeed gleaned some fun facts about the Hudson River bridges and tunnels from a Port Authority data dump on the number of eastbound automobiles, buses, and trucks. If you took the numbers at face value, you might be left with the impression that cars are the most important thing moving around New York. But when you measure people instead of vehicles, the numbers look quite different.

With two unanimous 9-0 votes, Manhattan Community Board 2's transportation committee took one step forward and one step back for livable streets last night, voting for safety fixes at a problematic intersection while punting on a proposal for bike corrals after local NIMBY extraordinaire Sean Sweeney showed up to squash it.

Every day, thousands of drivers, including trucks too large for city roadways, cross from the Manhattan or Williamsburg bridges, through the streets of Lower Manhattan, to the Holland Tunnel – all for a free ride (often to avoid the westbound toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge).

The Department of Transportation presented the findings [PDF] of its five-year study of transportation in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood at a packed public meeting last night. The massive transportation analysis included many critical projects that have already been announced, such as the 34th Street Select Bus Service route and extensions of the protected bike lanes along Eighth and Ninth Avenue, as well as a full slate of new improvements for the neighborhood, from signal retimings meant to improve pedestrian safety to new plaza space and a continuous sidewalk by the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Canal Street, to put it mildly, is due for a makeover. The street is clogged with traffic from the Holland Tunnel and the un-tolled Manhattan Bridge. Pedestrians jostle for space on the packed sidewalks, and they're especially at risk of getting hit by a car, according to the city's Pedestrian Safety Study.

The state's top transportation officials delivered some tough news to the construction industry Friday: Public agencies are so cash-strapped they don't even have enough money to maintain existing infrastructure.