Corzine Names Traffic Scofflaw
as AG
Governor Corzine has nominated Zulita Farber as his choice
for state attorney general.
"Safest Big City" Still
Features Mean Streets
A hotel worker, a graduate student, a philanthropist and a Holocaust survivor
were among the pedestrians killed by NYC drivers this week.
Kolluri on Hold?
Governor Corzine still has yet to announce the appointment of NJ transportation
commissioner.
Sell the Tappan Zee?
Though some news articles published beforehand made it seem as if Governor Pataki's
budget address would make a big deal of the idea of privatizing the Tappan Zee
Bridge, the governor did not in fact mention the span.
Spitzer for LIRR Third Track
NY gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer came out in support of the LIRR's trird
track project at a business breakfast Thursday, according to Newsday.
Regional and U.S. Reform - the Big Picture
The Surface Transportation Policy Project, 1000 Friends of CT, the Tri-State
Transportation Campaign, and others are sponsoring a regional workshop on transportation
policy reform and the provisions of the new federal transportation funding law, "SAFETEA-LU" in
New Haven on Feb. 9-10.
Waterfront Killing Highway May Morph Again
For years the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, residents of Trenton and planning
advocates railed against a plan to create a highway in Trenton that would dramatically
increase traffic and separate the city from the Delaware River waterfront.
Staten Island: the Edge of Gridlock
In his state of the city speech this week, Mayor Bloomberg told Staten Island
leaders he would organize the transportation task force they have clamored for
as the most traffic-ridden borough has ground ever closer to a halt.
London Pricing System to Evolve
The Economist reports that officials in London are experimenting with E-ZPass-like
tags to improve the efficiency of their congestion charging system.
Corzine Names Traffic Scofflaw as AG
Governor Corzine has nominated Zulima Farber as his
choice for state attorney general. State Senators at
Farber’s initial confirmation hearing queried
her about the 12 speeding tickets she has received,
and the various driver license suspensions imposed
on her after failure to appear in court following some
of the speeding citations.
Farber told the Senate panel she is embarrassed about
her driving record and would consider counseling to
remedy the situation. News reports said that former
governor James McGreevey considered Farber but passed
her over when the driving record issues came to light.
Farber’s nomination is a troubling sign of
the low regard driving laws are accorded and the extent
to which anti-social behavior at the wheel is seen
as normal throughout U.S. society. While other types
of crime are addressed obsessively by politicians and
press, dangerous, often deadly, driving behavior is
generally winked at by opinion makers (witness wide
NJ editorial support for Farber) and broadly tolerated
by the legal system, and the problem seems to be getting
worse.
Since the Campaign has tracked traffic deaths across
New Jersey, beginning in the early 1990s, we’ve
seen little improvement. Statewide traffic deaths predictably
exceed 730 per year. We recently called on officials
across the region to find ways to apply a “broken
window theory” to traffic crime (MTR #518b),
where zero tolerance for basic infractions can help
reduce the dangerous driving that takes such a high
death and injury toll across the region. Placing a
habitual speeder in the state’s top law enforcement
position hardly seems the place to start.
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“Safest Big City” Still
Features Mean Streets
A hotel worker, a graduate student, a philanthropist
and a Holocaust survivor were among the pedestrians
killed by NYC drivers this week.
The dead, all women, were:
- 49-year-old Haggar Frempong-Manso, crushed
Saturday by a backing beer truck on W. 44th Street.
- Hannah Engle, 25, killed by an allegedly
drunk driver at E. 14th St. and Second Ave. early
Sunday.
- Andrea Bronfman, 60, mowed down on Monday
in an East 65th Street crosswalk by a cab turning
from 5th Avenue.
- Eva Schweizer, age 81, run over by a
NYC Transit bus on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx on
Tuesday.
None of the drivers has been charged with more than
a traffic violation. Yet not even the death of Bronfman,
wife of billionaire Seagram’s heir Charles Bronfman
and arguably the most socially prominent New Yorker
in decades to be killed crossing the street, is likely
to ruffle the city’s “drivers uber alles” culture.
Seven years have passed since Killed By Automobile
identified “car turning into pedestrian in crosswalk” — the
m.o. in Bronfman’s death — as the city’s
Number One cause of traffic fatalities. Yet the Bloomberg
administration has no programs aimed at protecting
pedestrians’ right-of-way (see MTR #’s
212, 214 and 215 or www.panix.com/~jlefevre/cars-suck/research/kba.html).
Mayor Bloomberg this week announced sweeping changes
costing $25 million at the Administration for Children’s
Services following the beating death of Nixzmary Brown.
No shake-ups are reported at DOT or the NYPD, which
is expected to again arrest bicyclists at tonight’s
Critical Mass ride.
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Kolluri on Hold?
Although we confirmed Kris Kolluri as the Corzine
administration’s pick as state transportation
commissioner with several Trenton sources (MTR #518),
Governor Corzine still has yet to announce the appointment.
Current transportation commissioner Jack Lettiere
has reportedly been asked to stay on until a replacement
is named, which may suggest the administration is reconsidering
the Kolluri pick.
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Sell the Tappan Zee?
Though some news articles published beforehand made
it seem as if Governor Pataki’s budget address
would make a big deal of the idea of privatizing the
Tappan Zee Bridge, the governor did not in fact mention
the span. But the executive budget released last Tuesday
contains legislation authorizing “design-build” contracts
in which a single contractor undertakes multiple elements
of project execution, and another provision would allow
government agencies to form partnerships with private
companies on big infrastructure projects. The general
idea in a case like the Tappan Zee would be for the
state or its transportation agencies to collect a large
lease payment from a private operator in return for
the rights to operate and collect tolls (and likely
increase them) on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The lease
payment could finance the needed new bridge and mass
transit lines that are anticipated to cross it.
The Times Herald-Record of Orange County said firms
such as Australia’s Macquerie, which purchased
operating rights for a Chicago toll road last year,
and Bechtel Corp. had expressed interest in the Tappan
Zee, but provided no specific information.
Authorizing design-build is not a radical step – many
states and agencies use the procedure, including New
Jersey DOT and NJ Transit, and it is allowed under
the laws governing federal transportation aid. The
proposed legislation that accompanies the budget would
allow the NY State DOT and the Thruway Authority to
launch pilot design-build programs – 12 projects
for DOT and five for the Thruway. As its name indicates,
it combines project design and construction into a
single contract. Its main reputed benefit is speedier
project completion. Governor Pataki’s budget
bill claims the procedure will save money as well.
Some say design-build bidding processes, as opposed
to design-build projects contracted via a detailed
project negotiation, can yield less than optimal projects
because the “customer” – transportation
agencies and the public – has little control
of the project after an initial concept is floated
and an award made to a low bidder.
The public-private partnership section of the budget
bills authorizes the DOT, Thruway and MTA to enter
into “transportation development partnerships” with
private companies.
These would allow private companies to “acquire,
design, finance, construct, improve, operate and maintain
transportation facilities, provide transportation services,
and impose user fees for the use of the facilities
or services.” User fees – tolls or fares – would
only be permitted on facilities that already charge
them, or are altogether new roads or transit lines
or represent new capacity. Thus, the legislation could
allow a private company to build and operate a high-occupancy
toll lane over the Tappan Zee Bridge, as all of the
agency scenarios for the Tappan Zee corridor project
envision. It would not permit the state to lease out
rights to collect tolls on , for example, the Long
Island Expressway.
The governor’s memo in support of the legislation
claims that traditional means of financing transportation
infrastructure will be inadequate going forward, and
will burden taxpayers and travelers with “unsustainable” cost
burdens. It cites the recent sale of operating rights
of a Chicago toll-way and private financing for the
Dulles “Greenway” in Virginia. The legislation
provides that all environmental review and public involvement
procedures governing transportation agencies would
remain in place for public-private projects.
However, the recent history of public-private toll
road projects in North America has been less straightforward
than the governor’s memo suggests.
The Dulles Greenway example cited in the bill lost
about $30 million per year due to wildly inaccurate
traffic forecasts. The initial operator, Autostrade,
was forced to refinance the project, requested that
the state increase the negotiated toll ceiling and
then sold a majority stake to Macquarie, the Australian
leaseholder of Chicago’s Skyway. Macquarie claims
the project is a good long term investment. Tolls increased
on the road this month and are scheduled to rise again
in 2007.
Toronto’s Highway 407, built and run by Cintra-Macquarie,
has become a political thorn in the side of local government
thanks to five toll increases since 1999, for an overall
hike of 250%. Authorities are widely viewed as having
been sorely out-negotiated by the company, which paid
$3.1 billion for a 99 year lease of the 67-mile highway.
A private road in Texas failed due to poor traffic
projections and was sold at auction in 2004. Texas
DOT now owns it. To the extent the road has general
utility that exceeds its impacts and there are no hidden
subsidies, Texas taxpayers got the road for a bargain,
on the backs of its initial investors.
To be sure, traffic levels on existing roadways like
the Thruway or Tappan Zee are more predictable than
for new highways, provided growth rates are estimated
conservatively. The general rule for operating lease
projects is that they are impossible to evaluate without
knowing details of the specific deal. Does the up-front
payment allow the “public-private partnership” to
build a project that would otherwise simply not happen?
Why can’t public agencies raise tolls, issue
bonds and build the project themselves? Is government
so broken and hamstrung than it cannot execute big
ideas, or is that just the day’s political propaganda?
Is a private toll lease a good short-term deal for
politicians afraid to raise taxes, a good deal for
the public over the very long-term of many such leases,
or both?
Some Hudson Valley contractors seemed interested
in the idea’s application in the Tappan Zee corridor
if it could move projects into construction more quickly.
But a NY Times weekend editorial noted the potential
conflict of making “vital infrastructure hostage
to companies whose primary loyalties are to profits
and shareholders.” Others seem even less convinced: “Until
we know what it is they’re doing with the money,
we don’t know if we have a good idea, a bad idea
or a scam,” Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Greenburgh
told the Journal-News. “Our trains, buses, roads
and bridges are in pretty good shape, and the private
sector will try to pick off the cream.”
Design-build and public-private partnership legislation
was defeated in Albany in 2005. The NY State DOT is
reportedly holding a conference on public-private partnerships
this March.
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Spitzer for LIRR Third Track
NY gubernatorial candidate Elliot Spitzer came out
in support of the LIRR’s third track project
at a business breakfast Thursday, according to Newsday.
Spitzer said the project would help bring businesses
to the Island and improve transportation generally.
The project would build an additional track along the
LIRR Main Line from Bellerose to Hicksville, creating
a significant train capacity increase in both directions
of travel. It is opposed by NIMBY residents and local
politicians. It has been more quietly supported by
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Spitzer’s
likely challenger for the Democratic nomination for
governor.
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Regional and U.S. Reform — the
Big Picture
The Surface Transportation Policy Project, 1000 Friends
of CT, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and others
are sponsoring a regional workshop on transportation
policy reform and the provisions of the new federal
transportation funding law, “SAFETEA-LU.” in
New Haven on Feb 9-10.
The workshop will discuss the status of policy reform
in northeastern states and consider strategies for
progress, along with a look at new and continuing federal
programs. For details and to register, visit www.transact.org/2006workshops/
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Waterfront Killing Highway May Morph Again
For years the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, residents
of Trenton and planning advocates railed against a
plan to create a highway in Trenton that would dramatically
increase traffic and separate the city from the Delaware
River waterfront (see MTR #’s 172, 177, 218 and
282). The project, initially designed to remove trucks
from local streets, became a parody when truck traffic
was banned from it before its completion.
When the large road project was completed in 2002,
there was no ribbon-cutting ceremony; Governor James
McGreevey’s office and the state DOT “celebrated” its
completion with a press release that was more traffic
advisory then commemoration.
Today, the DOT has admitted to serious problems with
Route 29 and wants to perform another do-over. In part,
the move responds to constant complaints from Trenton’s
government, and in part it reflects a new point of
view at NJ DOT.
The latest plan for Route 29 would change it to an
urban boulevard, complete with bicycle and pedestrian
access to the riverfront. The boulevard would connect
to a new local grid system, so that at rush hour (or
the end of a minor league hockey or baseball game)
the road doesn’t back up. There is also direct
economic gain for the city. The road-slimming plan
will free up 18 acres of land for commercial and residential
redevelopment.
The new plan is one of several “smart growth
corridor studies” being advanced by NJ DOT’s
Office of Project Planning and Development. The Route
29 example was highlighted on a piece on transportation
reform in last October’s Governing magazine (MTR
#512); but when the project for the new Route 29 is
completed, the real winners will be the residents of
Trenton.
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Staten Island: the Edge of Gridlock
In his state of the city speech this week, Mayor Bloomberg
told Staten Island leaders he would organize the transportation
task force they have clamored for as the most traffic-ridden
borough has ground ever closer to a halt.
Rapid growth, lack of planning and little investment
in transportation infrastructure have made Staten Island
the corner of New York City where traffic congestion
is routinely a front-page item.
It will be interesting to see what the task force
yields. Some of Staten Island leaders’ demands
will help. They include additional express bus service
(and an additional bus depot to support it), new fast
ferry services, new rail cars for the S.I. Railway
and a bus route to better link the Island to the Hudson-Bergen
light rail line in Bayonne.
However, these measures alone do not constitute a
comprehensive plan, and there are other impulses at
work that will make Staten Island traffic worse before
it gets better.
Consider Bricktown Center, the 42-acre suburban style
big box development in Charleston, on the South Shore,
which is likely to be accompanied by other nearby large
commercial and residential developments. Assemblyman
Vincent Ignizio asked the State Department of Transportation
in November to study solutions to the traffic nightmare
the development will create, and DOT agreed to start
the 9-month study in March. But Borough President Molinaro,
a strong supporter of Bricktown, has more recently
devised his own $100 million solution: build more roads
to and from the site.
Further north, other officials want to open the new
Staten Island Expressway bus lanes to cars, effectively
widening the highway and inviting more driving overall.
Tackling (or at least containing) traffic congestion
on Staten Island is probably going to require a consensus
around three main points:
1. Resisting the impulse to build or widen roads,
which just extends today’s problem.
2. Planning some higher density areas to absorb growth
in an efficient way, rather than plunking it down on
available car-dependent land on the South Shore. This
can support the next point:
3. Developing a real mass transit system—bus
rapid transit is likely the only way to do this anytime
soon. BRT is a good choice because it has the flexibility
to serve both on-Island and express-bus commuter markets,
and is relatively inexpensive to implement. But it
will require some tradeoff of street space between
cars and room to allow the buses to move. Leaving the
S.I.E. bus lanes intact would be a good first step
in this direction.
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London Pricing System to Evolve
The Economist reports that officials in London are
experimenting with E-ZPass-like toll tags to improve
the efficiency of their congestion charging system.
Currently, cars entering or driving in central London
have photos taken of their license plates, and are
subject to the congestion fee. The camera system apparently
successfully identifies about 95% of vehicles, but
that “leaves several thousand vehicles per day
whose details must be checked by hand.”
Additionally, the current London payment system is
not overly popular – the charge is paid
manually, by phone, internet or via a pay-point in
a local shop, with steep fines for those who forget.
Toll-ags that deduct payments automatically would eliminate
this cumbersome element for most users. It would also
allow officials to refine how the London charge is
levied. Currently, drivers pay one daily flat fee.
London authorities would like to charge users each
time they enter the central zone, and tailor charges
to most congested times. The Economist says the current
system has cut jams the most at mid-day, when they
are least onerous.
The new system in Stockholm (MTR #518) has some of
these features. It uses a combination of toll tags
and cameras. If New York is ever to move to some form
of central-area and/or congested artery pricing, it
should take advantage of the strong presence of E-ZPass
in the region.
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