Spitzer Outlines Transportation Priorities
Leading
candidate for governor of New York Eliot Spitzer delivered
a speech on transportation Friday far more detailed
than most candidates for high office generally make.
An Agenda for Newark
We offer a five point plan for
the new Mayor.
NJ Transit Fare: Don't Do It
Last week the Newark Star
Ledger reported that the budget documents NJ Transit
submitted to the legislature last month discussed raising
transit fares in the spring of 2007 to match the rate
of inflation since last year's fare hike, an estimated
7%.
Suozzi Floats Roadway Pricing
Nassau County Executive
Tom Suozzi, Spitzer's challenger for the Democratic
nomination to run for governor, said he would consider
paying for transportation improvements by charging
congestion fees for motorists.
City's Bus Rapid Transit Study Gridlocked
Though NYC
Transit and NYC DOT documents from the Fall of 2004
state that the first five bus rapid transit lines would
be implemented in NYC this coming summer, an article
in Our Town said that the study is still at least another
year and a half away from completion.
NASCAR Retail Center = More Traffic
The proposed NASCAR
raceway in western Staten Island has raised considerable
debate among Staten Islanders (including a rowdy public
hearing that included a confrontation between a union
leader and City Councilman Andrew Lanza), mainly because
of the concern about 80,000 fans getting to the site
on race days.
Spitzer Outlines Transportation
Priorities
Leading candidate for governor of New York Elliot
Spitzer delivered a speech on transportation Friday
far more detailed than most candidates for high office
generally make. Spitzer whittled the list of big downstate
infrastructure projects to three top priorities and
pointed to a number of planning and institutional reforms
long sought by reformers. He gave the speech at the
Regional Plan Association’s annual conference
in Manhattan.
Spitzer said his top three project priorities are
the first segment of the Second Avenue subway, connecting
the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central and replacing
the Tappan Zee Bridge. In perhaps the most strident
portion of the speech, Spitzer also closely linked
the benefits of the LIRR-Grand Central connection to
construction of the LIRR Main Line 3rd track project,
currently part of the MTA capital program. Spitzer
said “parochial interests” were blocking
the project. The 3rd track project has been subject
to a vociferous NIMBY campaign in Nassau County, and
Long Island State Senators have attached special conditions
to its progress.
Spitzer was more circumspect about other big projects
on the New York planning scene. He said he supported
the extension of the #7 subway line to the far West
Side of Manhattan, but made clear that funding it was
city government’s responsibility. Of the LIRR
link to lower Manhattan hatched after September 11
and the long-discussed freight rail tunnel, Spitzer’s
position was essentially “let’s finish
the environmental studies.”
Spitzer made one of his most important points in
discussing the new commuter rail tunnel from New Jersey
to Manhattan. He stressed increasing cooperation between
New York and NJ on transportation issues, but said
his support for Port Authority funding for the project
would depend on “an equivalent level of funding
for a comparable New York project of regional significance” such
as Second Avenue or the LIRR-Grand Central connection.
Port Authority funding on the order of $2 billion – the
discussed PA contribution to the New Jersey rail tunnel
-- would be a huge shot in the arm for the big MTA
projects, since the 2005-2009 MTA capital program is
not fully funded and currently receives no funding
from the Port Authority.
Spitzer’s remarks on planning and institutions
pointed clearly in the direction of major reform. He
called for “incentives for counties and towns
to ensure that land use and transportation planning
are integrated…smart growth involves a planning
process with a vision of what we want our communities
to look like in a few years’ time, and then thinking
comprehensively about the housing, commercial development,
transportation and environmental infrastructure needed
to make that vision a reality.” He declared
that “For much of their history, organizations
such as the MTA, the Port Authority, New York State’s
own Transportation Department and the Thruway Authority
were world-class leaders in their field. Sadly, this
is no longer the case…We’ll appoint individuals
to executive and board positions based on professional
excellence and experience, not patronage. We’ll
create a downstate transportation cabinet that assures
that all the agencies are coordinating their initiatives
and integrating their respective transportation networks.”
Other elements in the address were:
· Spitzer’s stated that his greatest
immediate transportation concern is “the projected
$900 million MTA operating budget deficit in 2009.” He
blamed the situation on over-reliance on debt and said
the state would have to wean itself from its borrow-and-spend
habit.
· Support for bus rapid transit and better
connections in the region. He mentioned through trains
between NJ Transit and LIRR and a Staten Island bus
connection to the Hudson-Bergen light rail.
· A promise for a 90-day review upon taking
office of transportation and law enforcement agency
plans related to safety, with a view to accelerating
the decline of vehicle and pedestrian crashes.
Text of the address is posted at www.spitzer2006.com.
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An Agenda for Newark
Today Newark residents will elect a new mayor after
20 years with Mayor Sharpe James. The frontrunners
are Corey Booker and Senator Ronald Rice. We offer
a five point plan for the new Mayor:
1. Immediately launch a campaign
for livable streets. Such a plan could include creating a few great streets
with pedestrian safety improvements, biking, and streetscape
enhancements. Newark has exceptionally high rates of
pedestrian fatalities, most with young victims. The
mayor could start by opposing the widening of Route
21-McCarter Highway, and supporting the more modest
main street boulevard-style redesign NJDOT prefers.
The revitalization of Broad Street to accommodate light
rail is a good example for other large streets in the
city.
2. Improve bus routes. Newark has eight of the state’s
nine busiest bus routes. Bus riders make up 2/3 of
the overall transit ridership in the state, but rail
receives the lion’s share of funding. New buses,
updated routes, and better bus shelters could help
improve trips for riders. Modest improvements to speed
buses, like traffic signal retiming and pre-boarding
fare collection, could also transform streets into
more vibrant centers for development.
3. Support urban rail projects: The mayor should fight
for funding for urban rail projects, like the Newark-Elizabeth
rail link from Newark Penn Station to Liberty Airport,
rather than suburban or rural rail projects like the
Lackawanna Cutoff that will not see many riders.
4. Work with other cities to
increase transit funding and revitalizing efforts
in urban areas: The new mayor
should work with the mayors of Trenton, Jersey City,
and other cities to oppose transit fare hikes and direct
more state transportation dollars to urban projects.
5. Relief from truck traffic: Truck traffic is anticipated
to increase 50% in the next 15 year causing significant
health and quality of life impacts. Existing truck
routes are mainly unmarked and unpublicized. The new
mayor should launch a truck route study analyzing the
routes that do exist, and move trucks to more appropriate
routes where necessary. New routes need better signage,
increased enforcement, and changes in street design
to discourage truckers from driving down local streets.
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NJ Transit Fare Hike: Don't
Do It
Last week the Newark Star Ledger reported that the
budget documents NJ Transit submitted to the legislature
last month discussed raising transit fares in the spring
of 2007 to match the rate of inflation since the last
year’s fare hike, an estimated 7%. If tolls on
the Garden State Parkway were adjusted to reflect inflation
from the time the tolls were instituted, the base toll
would cost $1.25 instead of $.35.
In this era of rising gas prices and having just
passed on an opportunity to increase tolls, it would
be disingenuous for a government that claims to be
emphasizing alternatives to the car to raise fares.
State officials denied a fare hike is in the works
for this year, though it’s unclear if they mean
calendar or fiscal year (fiscal year ends June 30 2007).
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Suozzi Floats Roadway Pricing
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, Spitzer’s
challenger for the Democratic nomination to run for
governor, said he would consider paying for transportation
improvements by charging congestion fees for motorists.
In his remarks on the subject, which apparently took
place in conversation with reporters after Elliot Spitzer’s
speech on transportation at the Regional Plan Association’s
conference last Friday, Suozzi gave the Long Island
Expressway as an example of a road that would benefit
from congestion- relieving tolls. “Everyone talks
about how upset they are with the traffic, and everyone
talks about how they want to do something about global
warming,”
Suozzi told Newsday on Saturday. “I think this
is a proven idea that has worked in other places.”
Some media outlets predictably pounced on the statement – 1010
WINS, for instance, interviewed L.I.E. drivers, asking
if they wanted to pay a toll without mentioning that
the point would be to un-jam the highway. Suozzi said
in follow up remarks that the L.I.E. was simply an
example, and that he would like a debate on congestion-relief
pricing to further develop in the metropolitan region.
One way to introduce pricing to the Long Island Expressway
would be to allow solo motorists to use the car-pool
lane if they pay a toll – a so-called HOT or
high-occupancy/toll lane. Anyone who doesn’t
want to pay can sit in traffic in the general lanes,
while a paid congestion-free option is preserved in
the special lane. Connecticut is considering such a
system for the HOV lanes around Hartford.
Suozzi’s ideas are less formed than this. The
NY Post reported that Suozzi said he was against East
River bridge tolls, but what he would support beyond
his L.I.E. example and general references to the congestion
charging system in central London is unknown.
Suozzi criticized Spitzer for not specifying how
to pay for the transportation priorities he had outlined,
although Spitzer’s proposal for a major Port
Authority contribution toward New York transit projects
would mark a departure from past MTA capital program
financing schemes.
In a statement issued following the conference, Suozzi
also criticized Spitzer’s strong statements in
favor of building a third track on the Long Island
Rail Road main line, saying that the process was working
and that Spitzer’s allegation that state legislators
from Nassau County are delaying it is an exaggeration. “I’m
in favor of the third track, but I am opposed to the
idea of condemning people’s property in their
backyards to accomplish it. What I've said to the MTA
and the Long Island Rail Road is that they should explore
using the existing track bed before they make any proposals,” Suozzi
said in a statement on his campaign’s web-site:
www.tomsuozzi.com.
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City's Bus Rapid Transit
Study Gridlocked
Though NYC Transit and NYC DOT documents from the
Fall of 2004 state that the first five bus rapid transit
lines would be implemented in NYC this coming summer,
an article in Our Town said that the study is still
at least another year and a half away from completion.
City officials blamed the delay on New York’s
complexity. They would not say whether Mayor Bloomberg
would help speed the study by making bus rapid transit
a vital component of his strategic land use plan, to
be released in the next few months. The article noted
that it took Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan only
18 months to implement bus rapid transit.
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NASCAR Retail Center = More
Traffic
The proposed NASCAR raceway in western Staten Island
has raised considerable debate among Staten Islanders
(including a rowdy public hearing that included a confrontation
between a union leader and City Councilman Andrew Lanza),
mainly because of the concern about 80,000 fans getting
to the site on race days. International Speedway Corp.
has at least attempted to create a plan focused on ferries
and buses, and limited car travel to the site.
Even though it’s gotten little attention, the
planned 620,000 square foot neighboring mall may in fact
be a more troubling aspect of this project, since it
will generate additional car trips every day of the year.
The mall will include big box stores and large parking
lots, not the type of land use S.I. needs to help curb
growing traffic congestion. Jonathan Peters of the College
of Staten Island criticized the NASCAR traffic plan recently
because it only accounted for trips generated by the
racetrack, not the new mall or other nearby destinations.
Interestingly, the Staten Island Advance has reported
that ISC is lobbying NY state legislators to establish
a Transportation Improvement District, to ensure that
NASCAR-generated tax revenue would fund transportation
improvements in the area. It is unclear how state and
city leaders will respond to the loss of public tax revenue
to help fix the transportation impacts of a private development.
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