Last week, mass transit, business, environmental and civic groups, joined by five former top city transportation officials, called on NYC mayoral candidates to back a comprehensive plan to improve transportation in New York City.

The plan — “Unclogging New York” — urges the next mayor to aggressively attack New York’s nightmarish transportation problems by:

1.Winning real progress on major projects such as the Second Avenue Subway and the LIRR-Grand Central link, pushing a “fix-it-first” policy for roads and bridges and challenging the state to give NYC its rightful share of transportation aid.

2.Pressing for more, faster and less crowded transit by demanding a maximum 4-minute rush-hour wait on all subway lines and a seat for every rider off-peak.

3. Improving the quality of life and safety on our streets by cracking down on speeders and other dangerous drivers and widening overcrowded sidewalks. 

The plan was backed by past NYC transportation commissioners from the Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch and Lindsay administrations, including Elliot Sander, Lucius Riccio, Ross Sandler and Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff. “Gridlock” Sam Schwarz, NYC DOT deputy commissioner during the Koch years, also endorsed the platform.

The Mark Green campaign was quick to announce its support for the plan. Last Friday, an official at Michael Bloomberg’s campaign told MTR that the “Unclogging” plan was a “good blueprint” that Bloomberg was “very supportive of.”Alan Hevesi released a statement saying he could not “make specific financial commitments” to transportation improvements at this time, but endorsed the 2nd Avenue Subway. On Monday, as we went to press, Peter Vallone delivered a statement in which he agreed that "the next Mayor must take the lead in improving our cities roads, rails, bridges, and bus routes" and "applauded" the "commonsense" platform. Other mayoral campaigns did not offer substantive comments in response to calls on Thursday and Friday.

Groups backing the plan ranged from the Straphangers Campaign to the General Contractors Association.The full “Unclogging” plan is available on-line at www.straphangers.org.

Straphanger's Campaign: Unclogging New York mayoral platform

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