Big CT Spending Bill
Emphasizes Transit
Both houses of Connecticut's legislature have approved
a $2.3 billion funding package that will advance
a number of significant new projects, but the measure's
broad policy impact remains to be seen.
New Jersey's 2006-7
Budget Boosts Cycling, Walking, Bridge Repair
The New Jersey Dept. of Transportation released its
$1.6 billion Capital Program to the public in mid-April,
just hours before Commissioner Kris Kolluri gave
the keynote address to the annual transportation
conference in Atlantic City.
Legislating More Room
for Metro-North
Legislation that was recently approved in the NY State
Assembly and was given thumbs-up by the CT legislature
last year would amend the compact between the MTA
and Connecticut, allowing Metro-North to operate
rail lines in addition to the New Haven Line in the
state.
Changing Law Faster Than
Challenging It?
Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro recently sued NYC Transit over
its refusal to run bus service from S.I. to the NJ Transit light rail terminal
in Bayonne. Transit says it cannot legally pick up or collect passengers in New
Jersey. Whatever the merits of the suit, it seems like a good subject for remedial
legislation in Albany, especially with the State Senate Corporations Committee
Chair-ship residing on Staten Island in the person of Senator John Marchi.
NJ Transit's Outline for 2006-7
An extension of service on the Northeast Corridor
Line to Atlantic City and Philadelphia is the big surprise
in NJ Transit's 2007 capital program.
Car-Free City Parks in NYC Council's Hands
A bill scheduled to be heard by the NYC Council next
Tuesday would direct the city to close the Central
Park and Prospect Park loop drives to motor vehicles
from June 24 to September 25 of this year.
Brookhaven's Stamp of Approval for Smart Growth Corridor
Calling it the beginning of the end of suburban sprawl,
Brookhaven Councilman Connie Kepert and other local
officials announced the approcal of a new land use
plan for a 6-mile section of NY Route 25/Middle Country
Road between Coram and Ridge earlier this month.
Atlantic Yards: Planning Problems Still at Stake
The Empire State Development Corporation released
an updated scope of work for the environmental review
for Brooklyn's big Atlantic Yards basketball arena,
residential and commercial complex.
Bronx Station a Big Plus for Neighborhood
On April 3, the Municipal Art Society gave a Neighborhood
Catalyst Award to the newly renovated Gun Hill subway
station in the Bronx.
Truckers and Route 21
The NJ Motor Truck Assoc. wrote recently to repudiate
our statement in MTR # 526 that the trucking industry
supports a widening of Route 21/McCarter Highway in
Newark.
Big CT Spending Bill Emphasizes
Transit
Both houses of Connecticut’s legislature have
approved a $2.3 billion funding package that will advance
a number of significant new projects, but the measure’s
broad policy impact remains to be seen. Governor Rell
is expected to sign the bill.
The funding level represents a compromise between
a giant $6 billion bill sought by House Speaker James
Amman and a far more modest mass transit financing
bill proffered by Governor Rell. State leaders say
the financing requires no new taxes because public
coffers are reaping a windfall from the recently increased
petroleum gross receipts tax as gas prices and fuel-related
business revenue trend upward. The 10-year capital
program attached to the funding may have to be revisited
if this optimistic revenue scenario fails to play out
in coming years.
The legislation seeks to advance the big project
list developed several years ago by the state Transportation
Strategy Board. This is largely a “more of everything” menu,
but funding in the bill seems to emphasize new transit
lines — New Haven-Springfield commuter rail,
express bus service from New Haven to Bradley International
Airport, and a bus rapid transit line linking New Britain,
downtown Hartford and points between. It also seeks
to expand rail passenger service on the Metro-North
Danbury branch, and study commuter rail service from
New London to Worcester, MA.
Though few are mentioned explicitly in the bill text,
highway projects could include any of those recommended
by the Transportation Strategy Board. Different news
articles and press releases pointed to different projects,
including an extension of Route 11 from its terminus
in Salem to the intersection of I-95 and I-395, widening
I-95 from Branford to Rhode Island, widening I-84 between
Waterbury and Danbury, and improving Route 2 and 2A
to alleviate casino traffic in Preston to Montville
area.
The bill’s main institutional feature is to
relocate the Transportation Strategy Board to the state
house’s influential Office of Policy and Management,
and to create of a new “Undersecretary of Transit
and Growth” to run the board. The mandate of
this new position seems to be to ensure that transportation
investments can leverage economic opportunities. It
is not at all clear that it will move in the direction
of smarter growth or the traffic-minimizing town and
city planning now being executed by the New Jersey
Dept. of Transportation.
We agree with the Hartford Courant that “the
bill affords little policy direction for the planning
effort. In other words, what kind of plans are the
planners supposed to be preparing? Smart planners will
connect housing to transportation in a way that will
revitalize the town centers along the rail and bus
lines.” The bill directs the new undersecretary
to “refine” project lists with a “build-out
study,” but the intent of this provision is unclear
to us.
The creation of the undersecretary position potentially
sets up bifurcated transportation leadership within
the state, and leaves the strong institutional bias
toward highway-engineering and non-cooperation with
local governments at ConnDOT largely untouched. At
some point, reforming transportation in CT will have
to move new methods and perspectives directly into
ConnDOT instead of setting up separate budgets and
executive positions that seem to be designed to rival
it.
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New Jersey's 2006-7 Budget
Boosts Cycling, Walking, Bridge Repair
The New Jersey Dept. of Transportation released its
$1.6 billion Capital Program to the public in mid-April,
just hours before Commissioner Kris Kolluri gave the
keynote address to the annual transportation conference
in Atlantic City.
Highlights of the program include a 3% cap of total
spending on highway capacity expansion with concomitantly
high levels of repair and maintenance outlays, and
a near doubling of pedestrian and bicycle funding.
However, about 35% of the bike/ped money is from one-time
congressional allocations, rather than more sustained
funding sources. The budget also doubles the allocation
for the popular transit village program to $2 million.
Overall, the program allocates 46% towards road and
bridge reconstruction (up from 42% last year), 16%
for local aid (up from 15%) and 13% to congestion relief
projects like intersection improvements. The remainder
pays for staffing for the capital program and other
categories such as freight-related and traditional
road safety projects.
It is encouraging to see the state further hike road
and bridge repair. Since the state set goals for the
Transportation Trust Fund in 2000, hundreds of millions
of dollars have been spent to shore up New Jerseys
pavement and bridges. But in recent years the number
of roads in poor condition has trended upward (MTR
#524), so the state must dedicate even more fix-it
money in future programs.
Funding for the controversial Route 206 widening
in Byram Township was postponed for at least one year.
Construction is now scheduled for 2008.
An area where the program falls short is public funding
for rail freight projects, which remains static at
$10 million. Despite the eye-popping projections for
growth in truck traffic in the coming years, the DOT
has been slow to roll out rail capacity projects that
can directly relieve highway jams.
Transportation reformers can’t ignore that
the positive program is built on a mountain of new
debt. The state transportation fund would have zeroed
out in July, and Governor Corzine and the legislature
relied on additional borrowing to avoid raising money.
Starting in July 2011, transportation will be broke
again, with billions more in debt to pay off.
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Legislating More Room for
Metro-North
Legislation that was recently approved in the NY
State Assembly and was given thumbs-up by the CT legislature
last year would amend the compact between the MTA and
Connecticut, allowing Metro-North Railroad to operate
rail lines in addition to the New Haven Line in the
state.
Amtrak is currently under contract with CT to operate
Shore Line East, which offers service primarily between
New Haven and Old Saybrook, but has some trains that
reach as far east as New London and as far west as
Stamford. Connecticut is also considering new service
between New Haven and Springfield, MA via Hartford.
The authorization is rooted in regional unease over
the future of Amtrak, and in thinking that better integrating
Connecticut’s railroads could lead to better
service. New rail cars under order by the state will
reportedly be capable of running under the several
power systems in use between Old Saybrook and Grand
Central Terminal. Amtrak is under contract to run Shore
Line East until 2007.
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Changing Law Faster Than
Challenging It?
Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro recently
sued NYC Transit over its refusal to run bus service
from S.I. to the NJ Transit light rail terminal in
Bayonne. Transit says it cannot legally pick up or
collect passengers in New Jersey. Whatever the merits
of the suit, it seems like a good subject for remedial
legislation in Albany, especially with the State Senate
Corporations Committee Chair-ship residing on Staten
Island in the person of Senator John Marchi.
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NJ Transit's Outline for
2006-7
An extension of service on the Northeast Corridor
Line to Atlantic City and Philadelphia is the big surprise
in NJ Transit’s 2007 capital program. The record
$1.3 billion spending plan includes $150 million for
the new passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson River
into Penn Station (ARC) along with funding for new
rail stations and buses.
At New Jersey’s state-wide transportation conference
in April, Warrington announced that NJ Transit has
had private discussions with Amtrak for nearly a year
to create the Trenton-Philadelphia-Atlantic City route.
Currently the use of tracks between Trenton and Philadelphia,
owned by Amtrak, are off limits to NJ Transit trains.
The plan would run direct NJ Transit trains from
both Hoboken and Newark’s Penn Station to Philadelphia
and Atlantic City. Stops along the way would include
Princeton Junction, Hamilton and Trenton.
Transit has also said Newark’s Broad Street
light rail project, connecting the Broad St. and Penn
station, will be done and operating this summer.
Other notable 2007 projects include the construction
of a station in Mt. Arlington on the Montclair-Boonton
Line, fixing bridges on the North Jersey Coast Line
and extending the platforms for NJ Transit trains in
New York Penn Station.
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Car-Free City Parks in NYC
Council's Hands
A bill scheduled to be heard by the NYC City Council
next Tuesday would direct the city to close the Central
Park and Prospect Park loop drives to motor vehicles
from June 24 to September 25 of this year.
The mandate would represent the “summer test” of
car-free parks long sought by Transportation Alternatives.
The bill, authored by Manhattan Council Member Gale Brewer,
directs the city transportation commissioner to study
the areas surrounding the parks for any traffic impacts
of banning cars from the loop drives, and to submit the
report to the mayor by year’s end.
For years, city administrations have offered a litany
of excuses for allowing a small handful of motorists
to use the city’s two most famous parks as high-speed
shortcuts. Threatening traffic chaos is the most persistent
reason — Transportation Commissioner Weinshall
recently said Central Park was a key commuting artery
for the city even though the amount of traffic handled
by the loop drive is negligible in relation to Manhattan’s
street grid and perimeter highways.
City traffic managers made similar arguments in the
1950s when a citizens’ movement in Greenwich Village,
which included Jane Jacobs (see story on final page),
not only defeated a Robert Moses plan to expand the extension
of Fifth Avenue that then ran through the middle of Washington
Square Park, but went on to demand that traffic be diverted
and permanently removed from the park.
City government argued that closing the park to traffic
would flood the surrounding area with cars. But public
pressure was strong enough so that in October, 1958,
the Board of Estimate ordered a temporary closing of
the park to test whether traffic would lessen or become
worse.
On October 30, 1958, the park was closed to cars. The
New York Times noted that, “Observation during
different periods of the day revealed no congestion.
The police reported no trouble.” A community leader
at a traffic-closing ceremony noted that where the park
was once a potter’s field, it had now become “a
burial ground for certain individuals with antiquated
notions of city planning.”
We expect that a similar test of car-less Central and
Prospect parks to yield similar trouble-free results,
and to reveal the incredible persistence of antiquated
traffic engineering perspectives at the NYC DOT 50 years
after Fifth Avenue was removed from Washington Square
Park.
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Brookhaven's Stamp of Approval for Smart Growth Corridor
Calling it the beginning of the end of suburban sprawl,
Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert and other local
officials announced the approval of a new land use plan
for a 6-mile section of NY Route 25/Middle Country Road
between Coram and Ridge earlier this month.
The Middle Country Road Renaissance Project, under
the leadership of locals like Kepert, has worked for
five years for alternatives to sprawl development and
road widening along Route 25. In response to NY State
DOT plans to widen the route, the group conducted public
planning sessions in 2002 for an alternative. Brookhaven
imposed a building moratorium along the study area in
July 2003 to give the town time to re-do its master plan.
Many of the smart growth features supported in the
community visioning process are now in the official land
use plan. It seeks to establish future zoning for traditional
neighborhood design, encourage pedestrian and bicycle
access and reduce commercial sprawl. It designates four
areas as denser, walkable hamlets by encouraging multifamily
housing, dense commercial uses and street grid connections.
Developers who choose to build according to the Town's
guidelines will receive density bonuses that can make
projects more profitable. The plan also regulates curb
cuts, parking and landscaping.
The plan calls on NY State DOT to consider alternative
improvements for Route 25, stating that the town will
do as much as possible to avoid land uses that generate
additional driving and congestion.
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Atlantic Yards: Planning Problems Still at Stake
The Empire State Development Corporation released an
updated scope of work for the environmental review for
Brooklyn’s big Atlantic Yards basketball arena,
residential and commercial complex. The project now contains
3,800 new parking spaces, hundreds more than originally
proposed. Critics also noted that the project is still
600,000 to 1 million square feet larger than when first
proposed in December 2003, despite announcements that
the project had been “scaled back.”
The document does little to assure transportation reformers
that the project will fit well into the transportation
needs of booming Brooklyn. Perhaps most alarmingly, it
calls for the creation of an “interim” 2,000
space surface parking lot on the eastern side of the
project between 2010 and 2016 (during Phase I of the
project). In other words, phase one would knock down
buildings in favor of parking lots. Around 2016, phase
II would turn the eastern portion (including the surface
parking lot) into offices and residential units and an
additional 1,800 structured parking spaces would be added.
The project now calls for the widening of Flatbush,
Atlantic and 6th Avenue and Pacific Street to either
accommodate “drop off lanes” or two way traffic.
Forest City Ratner representatives have made it clear
in public meetings that these drop off lanes will be
for car services, not buses.
The transportation analysis will study 93 intersections
and a larger area than originally proposed, but will
not reach Grand Army Plaza or the BQE. Sidewalks will
be widened along portions of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues,
but there is nothing that indicates that these thoroughfares
or their infamous intersection will become any safer
or more pleasant for those not in cars.
The study will look at on street parking utilization
rates, which could point toward residential parking permits
to save nearby areas from basketball game traffic. However,
NYC DOT officials have said the idea of parking permits
is a no-go in nearby Brooklyn Heights (MTR #526). The
ESDC notes that it will override certain aspects of the
NYC zoning code, including parking requirements. We encourage
project managers to further reduce the parking supply
to reduce car trips and increase mass transit’s
competitive edge at the site.
Transit advocates will closely monitor analyses of
the project’s impact on subway capacity in the
context of rapid growth elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Urban planners have noted the monolithic nature of
Frank Gehry-designed buildings and the towers-in-parks
layout of much of the proposed project will lack street
life and offer lifeless open spaces. Many have suggested
changes, such as providing new street connections between
Prospect Heights and Fort Greene, developing great, pedestrian-attracting
streets with shops and other activity generators on street-fronts,
building appropriate scale and density (rather than all
large buildings), and creating a good balance between
new and old housing. Forest City Ratner would be wise
to take such criticisms seriously, and orient its plan
around these ideas.
Additionally, we hope the environmental impact study
will evaluate innovative solutions that discourage driving
to the site, like:
¨ Shuttles to the arena from remote parking sites.
¨ Traffic calming on residential streets to slow
through traffic and prohibit inappropriate trucks.
¨ Residential parking permits.
¨ A pedestrian-oriented site plan that promotes
and better sense of place and contributes to the Brooklyn
context.
¨ Bus rapid transit along Flatbush Avenue.
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Bronx Station a Big Plus for Neighborhood
On April 3, the Municipal Art Society gave a Neighborhood
Catalyst Award to the newly renovated Gun Hill subway
station in the Bronx, noting its contribution to the
revitalization of the surrounding community. A modern
station house was built at the intersection of Gun Hill
and White Plains Roads, the station was made ADA compliant
and received a new public address system and art installations.
The award was one of five in the society’s annual
MASterworks Awards ceremony, which recognize good urban
design and serve as a reminder of the advantages of integrating
form and function.
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Truckers and Route 21
The NJ Motor Truck Association wrote recently to repudiate
our statement in MTR #526 that the trucking industry
supports a widening of Route 21/McCarter Highway in Newark
because “Route 21 is a North-South alternative
to the New Jersey Turnpike and its tolls.” In
fact, the NJMTA has not commented at all on the Route
21 project.
However, NJ DOT report it is hearing pro-widening sentiment
from individual truckers and insists some of the congestion
issues on Route 21 are caused because it is a free alternative
to the Turnpike. Not all truckers are members of the
NJMTA. Still, we appreciate the clarification.
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