Current edition: Mobilizing the Region #480
November 8, 2004
NY Transit Still Deep in the Woods
New York transit advocates won a partial victory when the MTA recently announced it would reduce its proposed fare hikes and service cuts. The MTA said a sudden $330 million transit budget windfall primarily comes from previously underestimated revenues from real estate taxes.
Bill Would Suspend New Jersey Rail Freight Spending
Last week, the NJ Assembly Transportation Committee approved legislation that would suspend any state funding for short line rail projects for over a year while a comprehensive short line rail plan for the state is created. Almost all of those who testified on the measure, including transportation experts and rail freight industry officials, opposed it.
Americans Willing to Pay for Transit
Decision makers in New York may want you to believe that Albany’s dysfunction and bad city-state politics make it impossible to raise taxes, tolls or fees to keep the metropolitan transportation system from sliding into the abyss of disinvestment.
NYC DOT recently announced pedestrian safety and bus improvements to Fulton Street from Fort Greene to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. There is now a reversible bus only lane on Fulton east of Flatbush Avenue. It runs toward downtown in the morning and east-bound in the evening.
Drivers on the Tappan Zee Bridge aren’t the only ones going slow. Next meetings on the Tappan Zee replacement study have been postponed until January, because the consultants and officials are "still reviewing project alternatives." However, the hold-up has gone on since summer and seems worse than the usual bureaucratic delay.
Truck Routes are a Study in Inertia
There’s not much to report about the NYC DOT’s citywide truck route impact study since we last visited the subject in May (MTR #459).
New Trash Plan Could Mean Cleaner City
Mayor Bloomberg estimates his new trash plan will save the city 3 million truck miles per year. New York City produces around 50,000 tons of trash and recyclables each day. Commercial trash (70% of all trash) is managed privately; residential waste is handled by the city’s Dept. of Sanitation (DOS).
| Each week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign publishes Mobilizing the Region, or MTR. MTR is a bulletin on New Jersey, New York and Connecticut transportation news and opinion from the perspective of advocacy for sustainable transportation. |
| MTR #480 printable format (PDF) file (requires Adobe Acrobat).
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GO TO INDEX of past issues of MTR, since Fall 1994.ll M
Recent editions:
MTR 479-November 1, 2004
MTR 478-October 25, 2004
MTR 477-October 18, 2004
MTR 476-October 11, 2004
