Gothamist: Private Cars Cause Most Traffic,

nick

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:51:54 -0500

I live in Brooklyn and work in a place in Jersey where Jersey transit doesn't go; I'd have to include the price of a $15 cab ride on top of a $7 jersey transit and $2 subway fair if I was adding up the price of a one-way commute; $24 means it's cheaper for me to drive my car, unfortunately. (Luckily, sort of, I'm usually leaving the city fairly early and not returning until at least 10pm, and I'm only doing the commute three days a week, and I carpool with another guy when I can. I suppose I should just live in Jersey, but I can't bring myself to do it.) I truly think a lot of NYC congestion has to do with the mediocre Jersey transit system, which I don't think goes to enough places and/or connects well enough. Jersey is so packed with cars to begin with (I think the insurance rates there may be higher than the city), and no one has put enough thought into really revitaliving NJTransit, or at least keeping it up with the amount of sprawl. -n

igor

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 02:06:49 -0500

My guess - A cheap car: $199/month (this must be one bomb of a car!..a kia?) Civic with $0 down, good credit, %5 rate, and 60 mth trm lease is $281) average is usually about 300 a month..new.. Car insurance $100/month ???????? ($1600 yr no points) Gasoline $50/month (try again with the gas..$90 a month) Your math seems a bit low..I didn't include the maintenance..not saying your wrong or anything..With the $200 a month car I envision this old 98 honda with missing rims, a flooded headlight, cracked tinted windows and bashed in side mirror..

nisey79

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 21:20:15 -0500

I live in Midtown East and have a car; street parking in my neighborhood absolutely sucks because it totally caters to commercial vehicles, even though I live east of 2nd Avenue on a block that is primarily residential. I only use my car on the weekends--and not even every weekend; during the week, my dad keeps it in his company's parking garage in his parking space, since he takes mass transit to work leaves his car at a park & ride all day.

i drive alone

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:02:45 -0500

Have any of you considered that there is a large population that do not live anywhere near LIRR, Metro-North, PATH, Jersey Trasit...etc.??? I live next to a Metro-North station yet I choose to drive. Why? Because I save 45 minutes of commute time which works out to be about $300.

malatron

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:24:40 -0500

Re: Getting in and out of the city toll free. I imagine MT is speaking about that in regards to already living in one of the boroughs. As if you are coming from 95 north, you can indeed enter and leave the city without paying tolls. Re: Reducing traffic. What are all these people doing driving in Mahnhattan, especially single occupancy vehicles? Some might have to, on that particular day, for one reason or another. But what about the people who simply choose to, in light of other options? I simply don't understand why someone would choose to travel in nyc via car unless it was absolutely necassary. It doesn't make any sense, economic or otherwise, any way you cut it. No question about it, there should be an economic penalty attached to this, so as to more accurately represent the myraid costs involved in choosing to travel in nyc via car, unnecassarily.

MT

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 16:02:38 -0500

You're kind of screwed any way you do it ThinkTwice. If you take advantage of the "free" bridges and go through Staten Island, you still need to pay $8 to get on to Staten Island. If you think about it, there is no way to get in and out of the city in a car and avoid a toll. I think it's especially unfair for those of us who live on Staten Island. Everyone complains that we get free ferry service, but what other city residents have to pay for more than a subway ride home? Even if you choose to drive from any other borough it's free for you. It's never free for us.

dennis

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:26:16 -0500

I agree with those above who say that raising the price of tolls will have very little impact. How many drivers were deterred by gas prices that were rapidly approaching $4/gallon last year? Very few. I think strict HOV policies are the only way to go. Drivers survived the HOV rules during the transit strike, right? The City doesn't need to go THAT strict, but head in that direction. Perhaps sites like Gothamist could create online carpool-screening services, almost like a dating service. Pre-screen your passengers before arranging to give them a lift into the city. Lastly, I wonder if a group of bright young high-schoolers somewhere might take on the challenge of determining precisely how the timing of traffic signals affects our rush-hour traffic flow. Surely there is a way for the green lights to be perfectly in alignment so as to favor the direction of the rush-hour flow. Or what if there was a computer program that could, at the press of a button, slightly tweak the traffic signal timings along the entire West Side...

Think twice

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:16:37 -0500

Jen, The best example of a #5: the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. Why go to Jersey paying a toll when you can go over a free East/Harlem River bridge and a free trip through the tunnel, then take a free ride over the Verrazano back home. I wonder just how much influence the Manhattan garage owners have to keep the cars coming. The best congestion pricing plan I'ver seen is 'Gridlock' Sam Schwartz's

Ergh

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:27:08 -0500

Apparently everybody who complains about the cars has never had to ride the L train at rush hour. How about making public transit a little less horrifically godawful with some of this cash? I walk across Manhattan to get to work because I could no longer tolerate suffocating on some hipster's hairy armpit every morning.

timbnyc

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:47:59 -0500

I walk along the West Side Highway sometimes during the morning rush - the great majority of the vehicles have only the driver in them! That's really a sin. We don't need taxes - that just means rich people get to pollute the rest of us. They should have left in place the HOV restrictions that had been imposed after 9-11; somehow, people who are now driving by themselves managed to get to work when the HOV requirements were in place.

don't do the dew

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:35:07 -0500

Obviously Dew failed mathematics. MetroCard $76/month Metro North $184/month Car $0/month (Paid cash) Insurance $80/month Gas $50/month Maintenance $20/month

glennardo

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:34:38 -0500

Walking: Free. Pollution free. Good way of getting daily exercise. Biking: The Urban car. Go anywhere whenever you want, instead of waiting for the train or bus. Upfront costs = 1-2 metrocards and last for 2-3 years with low maintenance. Also pollution free. Eliminating the need to travel more than a block to get the necessities of life: Priceless.

dew

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:54:43 -0500

30-day metrocard: $76/month A cheap car: $199/month Car insurance $100/month Gasoline $50/month Maintenance $20/month (average) You do the math.

MT

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:52:53 -0500

I agree with Joe. I drive my car into work on occasion as a treat for myself (although I leave the house at 6:30 to avoid the crush and generally don't leave Manhattan again until well after rush hour is over when I do it). I usually take a bus, a boat and a train to get to my office in Midtown. A charge of some kind during the week may not be a bad idea. I doubt it will change the traffic volume, but it might make people stagger their travel times more. However, I think if they charged on the weekend as well, that might do damage to the economy as day trippers who come into Manhattan from the Metro area to shop and such may be discouraged and stay closer to home.

MissPinkKate

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:21:27 -0500

If people are driving out of "convenience" and "comfort", let's hit 'em where it hurts- the pocketbook. Charge drivers to come into the city during the week.