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Wednesday Winners (& Losers)

A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.

Winners

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly — After a spate of crashes and pressure from transportation advocates, Kelly announced that the NYPD would investigate more crashes and add more officers to its newly-renamed Collision Investigation Squad (formerly Accident Investigation Squad).

NYC Councilmembers Christine Quinn, Jimmy Vacca, Stephen Levin and Jimmy Van Bramer — Speaker Christine Quinn, along with Transportation Committee Chair Jimmy Vacca and Councilmen Levin and Van Bramer announced their support for speed cameras on Tuesday. Their announcement sends a message to Albany that New York City’s leaders want safer streets.

CTTransit — Bus ridership in 2012 increased by 3.5 percent in CTTransit’s Stamford district over 2011, by 2 percent in the New Haven district and 3.8 percent in the Hartford district. In 2012, bike-on-bus boardings saw even greater increases of 10 percent in Stamford, 17 percent in New Haven and 23 percent in Hartford.

Losers

Lower Hudson Valley residents — It appears that New York State will receive a smaller-than-expected federal loan for the Tappan Zee Bridge, which means steeper tolls. All the more reason to ensure that the new bridge includes transit.

MTA, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Riders — Just as suspected, New York State will sweep $20 million in dedicated MTA funds to bolster the General Fund. This sets a dangerous precedent for taking “restricted” MTA capital and operating funds and spending them on non-MTA needs.

American Dream Meadowlands — It’s probably not a good sign that the Bergen County Improvement Authority had to hire a law firm to handle the sale of bonds that developer Triple 5 Worldwide needs in order to revive the long-stalled New Jersey mega-mall project. It’s a confusing — if not sketchy — financing scheme, especially since East Rutherford had to increase property taxes to cover a budget hole caused by a missing Payment In-Lieu of Taxes.

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alex saunders
alex saunders
11 years ago

the new tzbridges we can only hope will never be built, the tappan long island tunnel has been built for numerous crossings in china, and always has included mass transit. costs as little as one quarter of the proposed 4 billion are common. long runs and large diameters are standard

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