(Source:  The Brookings Institute)

Transit agencies across the US are facing service cutbacks and fare increases in order to close their budget gaps. The largest, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is no exception. In its 2009 budget, the agency proposes painful service cutbacks and fare increases to help cover a projected deficit of around $1.5 billion. Meanwhile, the state senate failed to unite around a rescue plan last week. And while Washington did provide $8.4 billion in stimulus funds for transit this year (with over $1 billion allocated to the MTA), this money can be spent only on capital improvement projects and not to finance gaps in day-to-day operations.

An op-ed by the Brookings Institution’s Robert Puentes and Emilia Istrate offers recommendations for closing the MTA’s budget gap. They recommend raising state support to national levels and urge the federal government to step aside and empower metropolitan agencies to spend their federal money in ways that best meet their own needs, such as operating expenses. Over the long term, some form of federal competitive funding for operating assistance also might provide the right incentive – or reward – to states and localities to commit to funding transit.

Extract from the op-ed:

Why the disconnect?

The response in Washington is predictably stubborn: Recovery money cannot be used for operating expenses because operating is not a federal role.

You would think that the pressure of this policy would lead to transit agencies that are self-sufficient – where passenger fares pay the full costs of operating the system. 

But large metropolitan transit agencies generally “recover” only about one-third of their costs from subway riders and about one-quarter from bus passengers. The MTA has the highest cost-recovery ratio among all subway operators – its fares pay for two-thirds of operating costs. 

For large bus systems, the MTA’s New York City Transit ranks second only to New Jersey‘s in terms of the share of operating costs paid for by riders. The Long Island Rail Road is the seventh among the 21 commuter rail systems in the country, recovering from fares close to half of its operating costs.

So what should be done to close the MTA’s budget gap?

For one thing, lawmakers in Albany need to recognize that the state contributes a lower proportion of the MTA’s budget from its general revenue than other states provide to their transit agencies from general revenue. In New York, about 4 percent of all the MTA operating costs are covered by the state budget; in other states, transit agencies are getting closer to 6 percent.

Raising state general fund support to national levels would be a good place to start helping the MTA. 

Another idea is to get Washington to help. Not in doling out more money, but in stepping aside and empowering metropolitan agencies to spend their federal money in ways that best meet their own needs.

Click here to read the entire article.

(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.”

(Source:  Wall Street Journal Blog  – The Juggle)

I just had the fourth day in a row where I stood much of the way on my 40-minute subway ride. I’m 6.5 months pregnant–and it’s obvious–and not a single person offered me a seat. What’s more, sometimes I have had people literally push past me (I’m not as speedy as I used to be) to get the last seat on the train.

It’s not just me. Recently, a woman with a cast from foot-to-knee got on about 15 minutes into my ride. Nobody offered the casted woman a seat. So I did–it was a rare day that I’d snagged an empty seat. She refused because I am pregnant. I took the opportunity to shame my fellow passengers by saying, “It’s pretty bad when the pregnant lady is the only one offering someone with a cast a seat.” Nobody budged.

As a courtesy, I have always offered a seat to pregnant women, older people and anyone who was disabled, on crutches, or the like. It just seems like the human thing to do. (On some Japanese trains, a uniformed “manners squad” patrols cars to make sure that the elderly, disabled and pregnant have seats.)

Click here to read the entire blog. (Subscription Reqd.  Free Registration available). Also, if you have an extra minute, answer a quick poll @ Sodahead on this issue.

(Source:  Autobloggreen)

Click above for a high-res gallery of the smart fortwo

Question: Should you only pay half the price for a parking spot if your car only takes up half as much room as other vehicles? According to Central Parking System, Inc., which owns more than 350 parking garages in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and New Jersey, the answer is yes. CPS has partnered up with smart USA to offer drivers of the fortwo half-price parking in all of its garages.

Click here to read more. 

(Source:  Streetsblog;  Photo Courtesy: Transportation Alternatives)

There’s a speeding epidemic on New York City streets, but does NYPD know how big the problem is?  The Times recently launched a couple of new blogs devoted to neighborhood coverage, and today the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill outlet, The Local, posted an interesting Q&A with officers at the 88th Precinct. Here’s a revealing answer from Captain Vanessa Kight about traffic enforcement:

Q: Can you please let us know what the 88th is doing to keep the streets safe from criminal drivers? We regularly see drivers flying through our streets (perhaps especially along Washington Park, right along the park, where there is no stop light for two blocks). Running red lights is also common. I live on Clinton between Myrtle/Willoughby and it seems that that block is a continual double-park fest. I’ve lived here since 2000 and cannot recall ever seeing a police officer issuing a traffic violation — I don’t doubt that it happens from time to time, but clearly it doesn’t happen enough to deter dangerous behavior from drivers.

A: We’ve never heard that we don’t give enough summonses. I do have a summons officer and will send him over to Clinton and Willoughby if that’s an issue. But so far this year, we’ve already issued 1,200 violations in the precinct for hazardous driving, including running red lights, speeding, talking on a cell phone and backing up unsafely. That’s in addition to many summonses for less hazardous moving violations. We’ve also issued 2,400 parking violations so far this year.

Citing the number of summonses handed out is typical of how NYPD measures traffic enforcement, and it doesn’t come close to telling the whole story. Consider that nearly 40 percent of New York City motorists were clocked speeding in Transportation Alternatives’ report Terminal Velocity [PDF]. Or that drivers burn through red lights in the city more than a million times every day, according to a 2001 study conducted by the city comptroller [PDF]. It stands to reason that those 1,200 citations issued in the 88th comprise only a very small fraction of all hazardous driving violations committed in the precinct this year.

Click here to read the entire article. 

(Source: StreetsBlog)

We want mass transit in American cities, right? Right. So how are we going to pay for it?

(Source:  PBS Blueprint for America)

(via Editorial – A Smart Way to Help Commuters – NYTimes.com)

It’s been clear for months that only Albany could really rescue New York City commuters from the drastic service cuts and major increases in tolls and fares threatened by the deficit-ridden Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That seemed a hopeless prospect — until this week, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Albany’s most powerful Democrat, announced a compromise plan that could help both the authority and its riders. What is even more encouraging, Mr. Silver is probably the only one in Albany with enough clout to sell such a compromise.

The Silver plan is adapted in part from an excellent proposal outlined last year by Richard Ravitch, the authority’s former chairman. Mr. Ravitch and a commission established to find new ways to finance mass transit proposed two changes: a modest payroll tax for employers in a 12-county area and new tolls on bridges to Manhattan along the Harlem and East Rivers.

Click here to read the entire article.

New York’s Times Square to Become Pedestrian Plaza (temporairly, at least)

(Source: New York Times)

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Streets Blog)

Bogotá’s TransMilenio carries 1.4 million riders per day. This bus- and bike-only transitway operates in the historic city center. Photo: Shreya Gadepalli/ITDP.

New York City made a major public commitment to Bus Rapid Transit in 2006 when, after years of discussion, the MTA and DOT put forward plans for pilot routes in each of the five boroughs. In the meantime, the city’s BRT agenda has encountered a few setbacks in Albany and made a partial breakthrough on Fordham Road, with a service that incorporates some nifty bus improvements, but not enough to merit the BRT designation.

Perhaps no one knows the ins and outs of BRT better than Walter Hook (right). As director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Hook has advised cities on four continents about BRT implementation, including Jakarta’s seven-corridor network, the first full-fledged BRT system in Asia.
Streetsblog caught up with Hook — in between trips to Cape Town and Mexico City — for an email Q&A about why New York City needs Bus Rapid Transit, common misconceptions of BRT in America, and what will make BRT succeed here. This is the first of four installments.

Streetsblog: Is BRT the right mode for New York City at this moment in time? A lot of folks think that BRT is no substitute for light rail or a subway system. How would you pitch the idea of BRT to New Yorkers?

Walter Hook: I was in Philadelphia a few months back, which is a real rail and streetcar-loving town, and I took a lot of heat for suggesting BRT had a place in U.S. cities like New York and Philadelphia, particularly from my friends in the sustainable transportation advocacy community. I understand why a lot of folks in the U.S. see BRT as some sort of marketing trick to pawn off low-quality bus improvements as mass transportation. I think it’s because we don’t really have a full BRT system in the U.S. Not very many people have been to Bogotá, or Curitiba, or Pereira or Guayaquil to see the best BRT systems. These are not exactly tourist Meccas.

Click here to read the rest of this interesting conversation.