Results tagged “congestion”

It might not come as a surprise to anyone who's ever been stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel on a late Friday afternoon, but a new report from the Texas Transportation Institute shows New York drivers lost a staggering 380 million hours stuck in rush hour traffic in 2007, the second-highest rate in the nation. (Just think about the waste—that's enough time to build 11 full-size Great Pyramids or watch almost every episode of Law & Order!) No matter how bad that sounds, though, at least drivers idling on the Cross Bronx Expressway can be thankful they're not in Los Angeles. As Newsday reports, the TTI found the City of Angels had the nation's worst traffic congestion, costing its motorists more than 485 million hours and $10 billion in travel time and extra fuel. The other piece of good news from the report is that, while New York drivers themselves may not be improving, the traffic is. City congestion has fallen for two years now from its peak in 2005, a trend Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign chalks up to a strong public transit system: "People want to be on transit. They like having options and transportation choices, and that's reflected in these numbers."

E-Z Pass is coming to the Brooklyn Bridge after all—just not as part of any East River crossing toll plan. City officials announced that E-Z Pass transponders will be installed on the bridge, as well as several other spots throughout the streets of lower Manhattan below Canal Street in order to monitor the flow of traffic and come up with potential ways to ease congestion in that part of town. The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center will be in charge of the project, which they emphasize will not be able to detect either license plate numbers or the drivers inside the vehicles. An LMCCC spokeswoman says that the routes and travel times of lower Manhattan motorists they'll be collecting will simply allow the agency to know where to dispatch traffic agents to deal with problems.

Inrix, a company which provides real-time traffic information, released its latest National Traffic Scorecard and NYC is the second most congested city in the country, after Los Angeles. However, we do take top honors for having the most congested roadway—a westbound stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway/I-95 leading up to and including the Bronx River Parkway exit 4B interchange. The NYC area actually has of the worst bottlenecks—the others are Cross Bronx Expy WB @ I-895/Sheridan Expy, Cross Bronx Expy WB @ White Plains Rd, Harlem River Dr SB @ 3rd Ave, Van Wyck Expy NB @ Liberty Ave, and Harlem River Dr SB @ 2nd Ave/125th St. Check out the other horrible bottlenecks in NYC here and NY1 interviewed drivers on the Cross Bronx—one said, "It's difficult every single day. It needs at least another level."

Traffic agents wrote nearly 700 summonses on Wednesday as part of the city's crackdown on drivers who block the intersection during heavy traffic. But despite the increased enforcement of the city's box-blocking law— which is now punishable by a $115 fine—New York's boxes are still all blocked up! The Post sent a reporter to hang out at the intersection of West 54th Street and Broadway yesterday, where traffic agents were not handing out tickets. There the reporter counted 29 cars blocking the box over the course of an hour. But box block at your own risk; over at West 36th Street and Ninth Avenue the NYPD says they handed out 20 summonses an hour to drivers with a penchant for box blocking.

Red Hook seemed eerily quiet on Saturday, as we checked out the traffic flow on Columbia and Van Brunt Streets on the West Side of the neighborhood. Any prediction of overwhelming weekend gridlock seemed not to be panning out-- except for one Ikea bus ferrying people from Boro Hall, the scene seemed as quiet and bucolic as any summer weekend in years past. Indeed, maybe even quieter, as people who'd normally be out at the Van Brunt shops were checking out the Swedish wares. Local shops seemed to realize this-- we spotted a few signs like the ones above attempting to draw people away from the store.

A number of police unions representing different segments of the NYPD filed a joint complaint against the City with the Board of Collective Bargaining, saying that Mayor Bloomberg's effort to cut the number of park-anywhere-you-feel-like placards is an economic hardship and a violation of state labor laws. The suit does acknowledge that there is nothing in union contracts regarding the issuance of placards, however.

Stewart International Airport in Orange County, NY is losing one of its two major carriers--AirTran. The airline cited rising fuel costs, which are affecting all carriers negatively, as the reason for its ending of routes from Stewart. AirTran carried 315,000 passengers over the last year to Florida destinations and its Atlanta hub. In combination with Jet Blue, AirTran has been critical to the near-tripling of passengers at the airport in 2007.

Come next year, when you're flying in and out of JFK, your flight may be slightly less delayed than it's been in the past. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced a plan today to reduce the number of hourly flights at JFK International Airport to 82 or 83 flights, depending on the time of day. That would be down from 95 this past summer and what would have been 104 an hour next summer. Secretary Peters' agreement with the major airlines flying out of JFK will start on March 15th, 2008 and be in place for 2008 and 2009. By shifting flights from peak times of day to off-peak times, the number of daily flights at the airport would actually increase by 50. Currently, there are nearly 100 flights an hour, causing delays that affect the rest of the nation's air traffic.

Mike Bloomberg may end his tenure as the Mayor of Pothole Repair. Under Bloomberg's watch, the city has filled 1.25 potholes since 2002. While anybody that hits potholes with their bike or their car surely thinks the city missed a few, Mayor Bloomberg assures us that they are doing what it can to fix them. In his first public appearance since returning from Asia, Bloomberg said, "Now, potholes are as much a part of city life as hot dog carts and yellow cabs, although that hasn't stopped us from doing everything we can to fix them once they appear."

The Independent Budget Office released a report examining who might be affected by congestion pricing. The report, "Behind the Wheel: Who Drives Into The Proposed 'Congestion Zone'" can be read here (PDF) but the topline is that drivers are middle-class and over half are from Nassau County, Westchester, NJ, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The report states, "Looking at the extremes of the earnings distribution for all congestion zone commuters, motor vehicle users were less likely...

Just the kind of thing needed for everyone to continue questioning in the current air traffic control situation at area airports. Two planes almost collided on Sunday at JFK Airport. Senator Charles Schumer said that an air traffic controller said, "That was the closest I have ever seen two airplanes get together." According to the NY Times (also, see image at right), a "37-seat commuter jet" almost collided with a "Boeing 747 cargo jet on...

Tomorrow, a new state task force will convene to talk about the threat of mold to the health of New Yorkers and what can be done about it. The New York State Toxic Mold Task Force was formed at the urging of health experts, who are concerned that there isn't enough being done to combat an organism that wrecks properties and endangers the lives of tenants and homeowners. According to state senator Liz Kreuger representing...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a stabbing at Ft. Hamilton H.S. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim on 88th St. in Queens.
• Hillary and Rudy initially attempted to settle things by seeing who would yell "uncle" first as they tried to crush each other's hand.
• A 31-year-old NJ man says that he throttled his mother with his bare hands after she criticized him for his messy housekeeping, but it was an accident that he actually killed her.
• The NYPD gets serious about gun control when maintenance workers find two missing service pistols stashed in the ceiling of the 90th Precinct.
• A new venue for identity theft: cloning license plates for congestion pricing. It's happening in London and is one more potential headache for NYers.
• A college senior badly injured in a car accident saved the lives of at least four people through the donation of his organs.
• The "The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition" is demanding that the woman they drummed out of a job apologize for accusing them of making "anti-Muslim and anti-Arab comments."
• Save yourself a trip to the mall. Design your own holiday sweater online!

The Thanksgiving Day and Thanksgiving Day Eve have emerged as some of the busiest travel days of the year. While the media shows shots of crowded airports and train stations on the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving (like today), the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that when personal vehicle travel is included into calculations, "Thanksgiving Day is actually a heavier long-distance travel day [to and from a destination more than 50 or more miles away] than...

Remember when all anyone could talk about was congestion pricing? Well, now that the city is officially in holiday gridlock mode, Quinnipiac University released a new poll showing growing opposition to congestion pricing, with 61% of New Yorkers against the plan. Back in July, 52% of voters were against congestion pricing, and then that grew to 57% in August. Most notably, the number of Manhattan voters opposing congestion pricing has risen 11%, from 36%...

Realizing that air traffic congestion is terrible and will be even worse next week during Thanksgiving holiday, President Bush announced that the FAA is working on new ideas, plus military airspace will be opened up for five days to civilian planes. If using military airspace (the "Thanksgiving Express Lane") works well this time around, it may reopened for the Christmas holidays. The other measures the President announced were: FAA will focus on preventing delays...

Citing the unsightly damage that pigeon poop does to the city, City Council Member Simcha Felder announced a bill proposal to fine people $1000 for feeding pigeons. Some of Felder's key remarks and findings: "Stop feeding pigeons!" "If people like pigeons... feed [them] in your house and let them crap all over the place in your living room." A pigeon creates about 25 pounds of poop annually. "[The pigeons] may go elsewhere. Let them...

On December 1, 2006 around 9:30PM, 22-year-old Eric Ng was biking north on bike path by the West Side Highway. Around the same time, 27-year-old Eugene Cidron, leaving a party at Chelsea Piers in his BMW, mistook the bike path for the actual highway, drove south on the bike path and fatally struck Ng near West Street - at least a mile from Chelsea Piers. Ng was hit so hard that his bicycle and shoe...

Tonight, the MTA will hold public hearings in Long Island and Queens about the proposed fare and toll hikes. And if Monday night's hearing in Brooklyn is any indication, things will probably be rollicking. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz earned applause when he said, "Ladies and gentleman, fuhgeddaboutit!" (the Post reported the agency reaction: "MTA board members sat stone-faced") while the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff brought a life-size cut-out of Governor Spitzer. Markowitz and Russianoff...

City officials changed their mind after citizens raised a hue and cry over a proposal they feared would give law enforcement the right to harass almost any person with a camera. The New York Times reports that the city will make an effort to inform the public, government offices, and law enforcement about the now-clarified rules on public photography. We'd like to thank all the people that loudly protested against the city's proposed rules against public photography.

Just what everybody needs to end the day...a subway shutdown! No, it's not due to the system flooding, but because of a police investigation.

H. Dale Hemmerdinger, Gov. Spitzer's nominee to replace Peter Kalikow as chairman of the MTA, relinquished his membership in the Harmonie Club, a private social club that some accused of excluding minorities. The club has a membership of 1,100 and none of them are minorities. Mayor Bloomberg is a former member, but he also resigned when the club's complexion came under scrutiny.

No one thought congestion pricing would be easy but now some of the economic reality is sinking in. The MTA announced that it would need $767 million to upgrade service if people shift from cars to mass transit.

Mayor Bloomberg continued his Transatlantic trip, heading from Paris to a couple stops in Britain. And if you believe the billionaire isn't running for President, well, get a load of what he said while speaking to Britain's conservative party:

“The Conservative Party in the U.K. is much more fiscally conservative than many American politicians who call themselves conservative. Too many of our conservatives in the United States want to run up enormous deficits and hope that some way, somehow, someone else will pay for it. That’s not conservatism, that’s alchemy at best, or if you like, lunacy.”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an armed robbery on East 91st St. in Brooklyn, a confined space rescue at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck at East 23rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.
• A dump truck jack-knifed and rolled over, crushing the car next to it and killing the car's two occupants in Brooklyn.
• Jay Leno is auctioning off the set of The Tonight Show and donating the proceeds to fund an after-school program at Brooklyn's Paul Robeson High.
• Streetsblog notes dueling Google ad placements for and against congestion pricing in New York.
• One of the men who was shot by police with Sean Bell was arrested last night and arraigned on charges of assaulting his girlfriend, driving without a license, and harassment.
• A NJ town that enacted strict ordinances against hiring or renting to illegal immigrants three years ago has repealed them after discovering that the negative impact on the town's economy was significant.
• Maybe the Yanks or Mets should look into whoever is having sex with BushwickBK's neighbor, because he or she has quite an arm, as evidenced by the steady stream of panties landing in his yard.
• The sections of the Brooklyn Bridge rated "poor" during recent inspections will be refurbished over the next few years.

Our friends from the Great White North are feeling flush from the strengthening of the Canadian dollar versus its US counterpart, and New York is apparently ready to relieve them of their excess cash. The Loonie, or Canadian dollar, is even with the US dollar for the first time since 1976. If you've ever wondered why the backs of paperback books usually have a second, more expensive, price printed on them them for Canadians, it's not because we don't want our northern neighbors to read inexpensively. It's because the Canadian dollar has traditionally been weaker than the US dollar and the exchange rate necessitated dual pricing in North America.

In an announcement that surely pleases voters, State Controller Thomas DiNapoli released a report saying the MTA should think again before raising its fares and tolls. DiNapoli said that the MTA hasn't made enough internal budget cuts yet to warrant an increase in fares and tolls. The proposed increases in fares and tolls is 6.5% in 2008 and another 5% in 2010. With the MTA set to vote on the fare increase in December, DiNapoli's report says the vote is premature because it comes before Governor Spitzer's 2008-09 budget and before the findings of a commission on congestion pricing. The budget and congestion pricing both affect MTA's funding.

As part of the deal to advance congestion pricing (and nab the $354 million the feds are offering), the city and state have announced their appointees to a panel to, ur, study congestion pricing and develop a recommendation. The Mayor, Governor, City Council, State Senate Majority Leader, and State Assembly Speaker each get to select three appointees, while the Senate minority leader and Assembly minority leader each select one.

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take her medicine and offered their own suggestions to how the city should capitalize on the local music scene. And everyone thinks that a suggested tax on bottled water is a great idea.

Yesterday, the federal government approved $354 Million for New York City to spend towards its congestion pricing plan. As details of the funding come out, we learn that the money doesn't come without a catch. Most of the funds that the Department of Transportation agreed to give the city yesterday are for mass transit improvements, like the construction of bus depots. It left the city to come up with the estimated $223 million to actually install the system that monitors traffic and charges vehicles entering the congestion zone. Mayor Bloomberg asked the federal government to fund $179 million for technology, but they approved a mere $10 million for it.