(Source: Cooper Hewitt Design Blog)

Found this interesting article about NYC’s newly designed bike rack called NYC Hoop on the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum’s blog.

“Residents with an eye for detail will notice that the city’s newly designed bike rack, the NYC Hoop, is starting to make its presence felt on the streets, as the city tests various securing methods to both sidewalks and subway grates. Designers Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (of Denmark’s Bettlelab) won the 2008 CityRacks Design Competition, coordinated by theNYCDOT in collaboration with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,Google, and Transportation Alternatives.”  This beautiful, easy to use dye cast piece of work is not only easy on the eye but also comes with a very small foot print, making it very suitable for a space crammed uber-Urban environment like NYC.

Interestingly enough, the article posted by Laura Forde notes that the Big Apple is moving ahead with wide-spread deployment plans for the Hoop – nearly 3000 of them..  That must be good news for the ever growing biking population of New York, which has seen tremendous jump in biking recently.

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• Do-Good Design (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Bill’s Blog over at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum (core77.com)
• Design for the Other 90% (design-milk.com)
• The Best of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial (inhabitat.com)
• Cooper-Hewitt Showcases Design Projects That Could Change the World (treehugger.com)

(Source: Streetsblog)

Sure, knocking the MTA is a favorite local past time, particularly for the politicians and press who are practically guaranteed a “Hallelujah!” chorus for every barb (today’s scandal: fat cat transit workers poised to rake in cost-of-living allowance!!). But despite the MTA’s problems, as Michael Frumin points out on his Frumination blog, the city’s streets and highways can’t hold a candle to the subways when it comes to moving commuters into and out of Manhattan’s Central Business District.

Parsing data derived from 2008 subway passenger counts and the NYMTC 2007 Hub Bound Report [PDF], Frumin writes:

Just to get warmed up, chew on this — from 8:00AM to 8:59 AM on an average Fall day in 2007 the NYC Subway carried 388,802 passengers into the CBD on 370 trains over 22 tracks. In other words, a train carrying 1,050 people crossed into the CBD every 6 seconds.Breathtaking if you ask me.

Over this same period, the average number of passengers in a vehicle crossing any of the East River crossings was 1.20. This means that, lacking the subway, we would need to move 324,000 additional vehicles into the CBD (never mind where they would all park).

At best, it would take 167 inbound lanes, or 84 copies of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, to carry what the NYC Subway carries over 22 inbound tracks through 12 tunnels and 2 (partial) bridges. At worst, 200 new copies of 5th Avenue. Somewhere in the middle would be 67 West Side Highways or 76 Brooklyn Bridges. And this neglects the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, NJ Transit, and PATH systems entirely.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: CNN)

• Tunnel will link New Jersey with New York, doubles commuter rail capacity
• Part of project financed by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• ARC, Access to the Region’s Core, expected to create 6,000 jobs

Image Courtesy: Arctunnel.com

The new tunnel, said to be the largest commitment to any transportation project anywhere in the United States in the history of the Department of Transportation, according to administrator Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transportation Administration, will link New Jersey with New York and eventually will double capacity on the nation’s busiest rail corridor, running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts, officials said.

Officials participated in the groundbreaking for the $8.7 billion project as commuter trains passed behind them in North Bergen, New Jersey, before entering the existing train tunnel, which went into operation in 1908.

“As we start digging this tunnel, I think that what really it means, we are digging our way out of an economic crisis,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey. “As we’re getting under way, we’re seeing the dividends of the Recovery Act being paid right now.”

The project — known as ARC, for Access to the Region’s Core — is expected to create 6,000 design and construction jobs.New Jersey Transit says 170,000 passengers now travel through the existing train tunnel beneath the Hudson River to New York each day. When completed, the second tunnel will enable that figure to increase to 255,000 passenger trips. The additional passengers will disembark at a new concourse to be built at Penn Station in New York, 150 feet below street level.

(Source: NY Times)

London taxicabs were ranked the best in the world in a survey conducted by the travel site Hotels.com. Voters thought London cabbies were the friendliest, safest and had the best knowledge of their city.  But like many things in this world, you get what you pay for. London cabbies were also considered to be the most expensive.

The survey was conducted among 1,400 travelers from several European countries in May. Last year, London cabbies also topped the voting.

London cabbies must undergo years of training before they get behind the wheel. The All London Knowledge (most often referred to simply as “the Knowledge”) entails a dizzying array of routes, landmarks and the quickest way point-to-point. On average, it takes three to four years for an applicant to learn the Knowledge.

Blueprint America: Road to the Future, an original documentary part of a PBS multi-platform series on the country’s aging and changing infrastructure, goes to three very different American cities – Denver, New York and Portland, and their surrounding suburbs – to look at each as a microcosm of the challenges and possibilities the country faces as citizens, local and federal officials, and planners struggle to manage a growing America with innovative transportation and sustainable land use policies.

Over the next 40 years, America’s population will grow by more than an estimated 130 million people – most will settle in or near the country’s major population centers. At the same time, an unprecedented multi-billion dollar public works investment has just been made by the federal government to rebuild both the weakened economy and stressed national infrastructure. And, Congress is about to consider a transportation bill that will determine the course of the nation’s highways and transit for years to come.

(Source: The City Room – New York Times)

Will New York City be left behind in the era of the electric car? Or will it perhaps become the first to embrace it?

Image: Reuters - Would New York City install charging stations like the one above, in London? The Bloomberg administration has commissioned a study on electric cars in the city.

With all the hubbub over electric cars of late (covered very well by our compatriots on the Green Inc. blog), the Bloomberg administration found that the strategies that electric car manufacturers were presenting to them did not apply well to New York City. “None of them felt like they were really tailored to New York City,” said Rohit T. Aggarwala, Mayor Bloomberg’s adviser on green issues. “The fact is that most drivers live in circumstances and use their cars very differently from New York drivers.”

As a result, the Bloomberg administration plans to commission a survey to understand the dynamics of New Yorkers and electric cars, as The New York Post reported Wednesday.

One of the key differences is that many American families live in a house with a garage, which gives them a place and opportunity to charge cars when they are parked at night.

“That works most places, but at least for a large portion of New York, they don’t store it in a garage,” Mr. Aggarwala said. Many New Yorkers park on the street (and contend with alternate-side-of-the street parking rules) or in shared garages.

In addition, average Americans may use their cars almost daily, but a large number of New Yorkers own cars but do not use them every day. “Our conjecture is that for local travel, many New York auto owners use public transit,” Mr. Aggarwala said.

Mr. Aggarwala also noted that perhaps the survey could find that the regions of the city that do have homes with individual garages may prove the most fertile for electric cars, as in the rest of the country. “That would mean you wouldn’t target it in Manhattan,” he said.

At the same time, if New Yorkers largely drive within the city and use their cars for errands, they may not mind the limited range and power of the current generation of electric cars.

Different circumstances are prompting communities to embrace electric cars at different rates. China, for example, also has very different driving dynamics — short distances, lots of traffic — and the government there has gambled that those factors create a fertile environment for introducing electric cars.

 (Source: The Transport Politic)

State Senate finally comes to agreement on system’s adequate funding; will vote today

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has been threatening huge fare increases and drastic cuts in service, will be able to rest easy tonight, because its multi-billion-dollar budget deficit will be covered by a new, more stable source of revenue: a region-wide payroll tax. There will be no bridge tolls, but a small fare increase. Though this is no panacea, and more funding is still needed, but this is huge news for New York City and means that the city will continue to be able to offer its citizens high-quality transit at a reasonable price.

The solution — held up for weeks by the demands of a few Democrats in the Senate (no members of the GOP are willing to vote for the program) — was found by agreeing to reimburse school districts that are affected by the tax. 

According to Gotham Gazette (via 2nd Ave Sagas), the plan to be voted on this afternoon will raise a total of $2.26 billion a year for the transit agency. This plan will cover the $1.8 billion MTA’s budget gap for FY 2009 and the $2 billion gap for 2010 as well as provide a small amount for capital expenditures. The New York Timesclaims that the taxes will be enough to cover the first two years of the agency’s 2010-2014 capital program. The state is likely to have to get going over the next few months to shape a funding system for necessary subway and commuter rail repairs as well as expansion needs.

Here are the basic conditions:

• 34¢/$100 payroll tax in all 12 MTA counties, with no differences between them (meaning people in Manhattan pay the same amount as people in Nassau County, even though people in the former clearly are more likely to take advantage of the transit system than those in the latter): $1.5 billion/year.
• 10% fare increase, will likely raise the cost of a single ride to $2.25 from $2 today; monthly unlimited cards will go from $81 to $89: $500 million/year.
• 50¢ surcharge on taxi rides: $85 million.
• $25 vehicle registration fee on the MTA region: $130 million.
• Increase on car rental fee: $35 million.
• Increase on driver’s license fee: $10.5 million.

The plan also foresees fare hikes of 7.5% in 2011 and 2013 to keep up with inflation.

In this image taken with a cell phone by Jason McLane, the primary presidential aircraft, a Boeing 747 known as Air Force One when the president is aboard, flies low over New York Harbor, followed by an F-16 chase plane during a federal government photo op Monday, April 27, 2009. A low-flying Boeing 747 escorted by two fighter jets as part of a federal government photo opportunity over lower Manhattan caused a brief panic among workers near ground zero on Monday. (AP Photo/Jason McLane) (Jason Mclane - AP)

(Source: Washington Post)

NEW YORK — A Boeing 747 used by the president was escorted over lower Manhattan by two Air Force fighter jets Monday as part of a government photo opportunity, causing a brief panic among office workers near ground zero.

 (Source: Autoblog & Detroit Free Press)

As in a basketball game when players are yanking on jerseys trying to block each other out under the basket, General Motors and Chrysler’s creditors have officially begun jockeying for position. 

Michigan’s Attorney General, Mike Cox, has sent letters to the CEOs at both companies to ask that, if they file for bankruptcy, they do it in Michigan. Why? Because that would be more convenient to the creditors that GM and Chrysler have in Michigan.

“I am gravely concerned about the impact of any bankruptcy filing in a jurisdiction outside Michigan,” Cox wrote in separate letters to GM CEO Fritz Henderson and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli. 

Cox goes on to say that the financial health of both companies and Michigan have been intertwined for decades.

The state is a significant creditor for each of the troubled automakers through the Michigan Business and Single Business Tax obligations, workers’ compensation claims, unemployment insurance and environmental regulations. 

“The costs for many of these creditors (in Michigan) to participate in a New York or Delaware bankruptcy is overwhelming and would undoubtedly lead to unjust bills,” Cox said.

While Cox does not say that either company should file for bankruptcy, neither does he acknowledge that they might not need to if they meet certain criteria set by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“If you ultimately decide to choose bankruptcy as the vehicle to a stronger (company), I respectfully ask that you and your representatives meet with me before any filing is made,” the letter concludes. “Please feel free to contact me at any time, day or night, to discuss this matter.”

(Source: Streetsblog)

Police Say No Criminality Involved In Case of Cabbie Who Plowed Into Restaurant Injuring Seven – “the cab was competing with another car to make a turn when it careened, skidded and hit a pole, then veered into the pizzeria”

The horrific death of a young mother in Midtownwasn’t the only instance of curb-jumping mayhem on Friday. Shortly before Ysemny Ramos was pinned against a building by an allegedly drunk driver on E. 37th Street, a yellow cab lurched off Amsterdam at W. 106th, plowing onto the sidewalk and into a pizzeria.Though seven people were hurt, with one in critical condition as of Friday, and though witnesses told the Post “the cab was competing with another car to make a turn when it careened, skidded and hit a pole, then veered into the pizzeria,” Gothamist reports that “The police told us no charges were filed because there was no criminality involved.”