Newsflash: Baghdad Has Better Roads Than Queens

Eric Ulrich

Remember this guy? He's the Council member who made headlines with his idea to make cyclists get licenses. (At the time, he told us, "The people on bicycles brought this on themselves by behaving this way.") Our favorite young Republican, Eric Ulrich, is back with more insights into the city's transportation system. This time his ire aimed at the DOT for planning more pedestrian plazas, which Ulrich says shouldn't be built until every street in NYC (or at least his district in Queens) is in mint condition.

At a City Council hearing yesterday to discuss the pedestrian plazas, the esteemed gentleman from Ozone Park told the committee, "As I was driving to the hearing today, I couldn’t help but think that we’re living in the Twilight Zone, because as I’m driving on the BQE, and the roads are in horrendous condition, I’m driving to a hearing talking about pedestrian plazas, I just say to myself all the time — this is a constant criticism that I’m always applying to the department — is that why can’t we just get back to basics and worry more about paving the streets than we are about installing bike lanes and putting in pedestrian plazas even if people don’t want them."

And for good measure, Ulrich spoke with CBS 2, declaring, "The roads in Baghdad look better than the roads in Queens." We're not sure when Ulrich went on his last fact-finding mission to Iraq, but at this point he's got about as much credibility as Judith Miller. Of course, he's not alone in piling on the DOT for its supposedly anti-motorist agenda. Streetsblog reports that Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca asked the DOT rep at yesterday's meeting if the department was simply trying to “drive car owners crazy.” (As if they needed any help.)

"What traffic-mitigation plans do we have?" Vacca asked. "How do we make sure that we're not just shifting and diverting traffic and that the problem that we had in one spot moves to another? My worry is that when we have instituted pedestrian plazas, we have only moved traffic to other surrounding streets." Assistant DOT Commissioner Andy Wiley-Schwartz maintained that after officials reconfigured the signals near the Times Square and Herald Square pedestrian plazas, traffic moves more efficiently.

Assistant DOT Commissioner Andy Wiley-Schwartz patiently explained that the pedestrian plaza process is "a community-driven, application-driven process." The DOT—which is currently working on constructing 14 plazas around town—actually has more requests than it can fill, and Wiley-Schwartz assured the community board the DOT isn't "flying over at 30,000 feet and plopping them down where a map tells us is a good spot." To put it in terms Ulrich can understand, the DOT isn't carpet-bombing New York—this isn't Iraq or even Vietnam; there are rules.

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By John Del Signore in News on May 5, 2011 11:21 AM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

Baghdad might have smarter politicians than Queens.

randomtransplant

Step One: straw man comparison between roads & pedestrian plaza's

Step Two: Baghdad. Its mentioned alot right after the local news but the constituents have mostly never been there.

My guess for step three: Pedestrian Plaza's breed a nascent insurgency of bearded men & home-made bombs.

HIPSTERS have beards and BIKES can be pipe bombs!

"JUST ASKING QUESTIONS", hmmm, Ulrich?

Now if Ulrich lobbied to get some covered bus stops to go with those plaza's, his mostly senior constituents might actually have something to get behind him about.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

So why don't he just move to Baghdad?

Guest

Of course roads in those countries are better, they were probably just built.

nicemarmot

The roads in Michigan are actually worse than the roads here. How sad is that.

Guest

it would have to be a bunker-buster bomb crater to be worse than Willets Point.

Eric Gordon

The guy does have a point. But does the money for pedestrian plazas come from the same fund that road repairs do? Because if they do, then he has even more of a point. Every time I've driven over the Kosciuzko towards the williamsburg bridge I'm worried the road is going to fall out from under me.

luke_1

He does not have a point because he is using the simple formula of: "Ped plazas are for people who walk, bike lanes are for people who bike, and roads are for people who drive. Hence I should yell a lot about roads."

What he says is completely nonsensical. Take bike lanes. Often they are put in as a stipulation for road repair funding. Hence if you get a bike lane you'll also get a shiny nice new road.

This guy is a professional politician and a professional idiot.

splicernyc

I want to see this guy's birth certificate proving he's not twelve years old because his ideas sound like they come from one.

shocktheday

When we invaded Iraq and saw the tanks on the highway, I thought to myself ... shit, their roads are better than ours in NYC.

Roger_the_Shrubber

Having driven in plenty of third world countries and found their roads in good condition, I believe this 100%.

BoogieDown

Agreed. I traveled on plenty of roads in China and Mexico, and most were better than here. Lots of terrible roads in Central America though, mostly because they can't keep up with repairs to hurricane-related damage.