A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.
Winners
Pro-transit New York State and City elected officials and MTA board members — New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Members Nily Rozic and David Weprin, New York City Council Members Gale Brewer, Vincent Gentile and Stephen Levin, and MTA board members Allen Cappelli and Andrew Alpert rallied with transit advocates last weekend to urge the MTA invest its $40 million in unexpected state funding toward restoring and expanding bus and subway service.
Metro-North – In good news for Metro-North riders, the nation’s busiest commuter rail system completed its largest-ever service expansion earlier this month. But the service expansion is having other unexpected benefits: Amtrak trains between Albany and New York City are forced to run on time.
ConnDOT – ConnDOT’s work of putting East Hartford’s Burnside Avenue on a road diet is beginning in earnest.
Losers
Central Queens – It’s not easy being a cyclist in the Central Queens neighborhoods of Corona, Forest Hills, Maspeth, Middle Village, Rego Park and Ridgewood, which have very little bicycle infrastructure. Making matters worse, there are no bike route projects planned for the borough in 2013.
Citi Bike vandals – Some Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan residents and business owners are expressing opposition toward — and even vandalizing — Citi Bike stations.
Suffolk County, NY (and most of New Jersey) — The American Lung Association gave 11 New Jersey counties, as well as Suffolk County (NY), ‘F’ grades for air quality, the result of high automobile emissions. One way to reduce auto emissions in Suffolk? Implementing Sunday bus service.
