Last night, TSTC received notice that an invitation to the February 16th Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project stakeholders meeting “was sent in error.” A follow-up call to the New York State Department of Transportation revealed that the meeting has been canceled. Invitations to the stakeholder meeting were sent on January [...]]]>

Last night, TSTC received notice that an invitation to the February 16th Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project stakeholders meeting “was sent in error.” A follow-up call to the New York State Department of Transportation revealed that the meeting has been canceled. Invitations to the stakeholder meeting were sent on January 24th. It’s unclear why it took the state two weeks to realize its mistake.

The letter clarified that the state had intended to invite us to the public hearings for the project, which are scheduled for February 28 and March 1.

Throughout the Tappan Zee Bridge project’s history, stakeholder meetings have been held prior to public meetings for those with more detailed questions and concerns about the project. For example, advocates want to know why bus rapid transit cost estimates increased so dramatically in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), why the state did not evaluate a range of alternatives (as required by NEPA), and how the state plans to follow through on its promise to build transit at a later date. None of these questions are likely to be answered at a public hearing.

State officials insist that this was an honest mistake, but the cancellation certainly does not instill confidence in the agencies in charge of this $5 billion project.

For more information on the Tappan Zee project, visit www.brtonthebridge.org.

The tax reform bill currently moving through Albany includes several provisions that could hurt transit riders.

First, the bill would whittle down the payroll tax that currently helps fund the MTA – under the terms of the bill, private [...]]]>

The W train was cut during MTA's service reductions in 2010. Photo: Heath Brandon.

The tax reform bill currently moving through Albany includes several provisions that could hurt transit riders.

First, the bill would whittle down the payroll tax that currently helps fund the MTA – under the terms of the bill, private schools don’t pay the MTA payroll tax and small business’ rates are lowered. This would reduce MTA revenues by up to $320 million, according to some estimates, if promised reimbursements from the state don’t come through.  Given that the service cuts that went through in 2010 saved the agency less than $100 million, it’s easy to understand the potential ramifications of such a cut. The New York Times‘ Clyde Haberman has more.

Second, buried in the bill is the nullification of “transit lockbox” legislation that was supposed to protect transit funds from being swept for other purposes. The TSTC and dozens of other advocacy groups joined together to express their disappointment in Albany’s recent tack:

The original [lockbox] legislation made it more difficult for the governor to unilaterally divert MTA dedicated transit funds, and required an impact statement detailing the effects on transit service if dedicated funds were taken. The “lockbox” bill (S.4257C/A. 6766C) was a reaction to the diversion of $260 million in dedicated transit funds over the last three years. These diversions contributed to the worst metropolitan-area transit service cuts in memory.

Third, the tax package reportedly sets up a state infrastructure bank for public private partnerships (though few details are available in the bill). Such “PPPs” have been widely reported as a method of paying for the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge. But to the surprise and disappointment of local officials and civic organizations, Governor Cuomo eliminated public transportation from that project in October. Groups have been working to get the bus rapid transit back into place.

[Update 6/6: A spokesperson for Gov. Cuomo tells Crain's Insider, in its Friday edition, that "There are no plans to replace Chris Ward at this time."]

An anonymously sourced story in Friday’s New York Post said that Port Authority executive director Chris Ward will be asked to step down after the 9/11 [...]]]>

Ward.

[Update 6/6: A spokesperson for Gov. Cuomo tells Crain's Insider, in its Friday edition, that "There are no plans to replace Chris Ward at this time."]

An anonymously sourced story in Friday’s New York Post said that Port Authority executive director Chris Ward will be asked to step down after the 9/11 memorial is dedicated on the tenth anniversary of the attacks this fall.

Governor Cuomo should keep Chris Ward in his post.  Ward is an innovative leader who has started new green freight programs and projects, implemented a bicycle policy, and spoken in favor of increased infrastructure investment.  Streetsblog has a nice summary of his many accomplishments. Ward has also ably managed the World Trade Center’s rebuilding process and has cut costs at the agency.

Governor Christie has requested using more than $1.5 billion in Port Authority funds previously designated for the ARC tunnel for road projects in the port district. Insiders wonder whether Governor Cuomo will make a similar request to help plug budget deficits at the MTA and NYS Department of Transportation.

When reached for comment by the Post, Ward said that “My record speaks for itself, and I am not going to speculate on the political aspects of the job.”

Photo: Via Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

Tri-State Transportation Campaign welcomes four new team members and says goodbye to three.

Staff analyst Michelle Ernst will be moving to Connecticut in March to start a new chapter of her life as a full-time [...]]]>

Moving on: Goodbye to Kyle Wiswall (second from left), Zoe Baldwin (fourth from left), and Michelle Ernst (rightmost)!

Tri-State Transportation Campaign welcomes four new team members and says goodbye to three.

Staff analyst Michelle Ernst will be moving to Connecticut in March to start a new chapter of her life as a full-time mom and independent consultant. Michelle joined TSTC in 2004 after six years at the Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington D.C. For nearly seven years, she has been our principal report author and data expert, and a crucial member of our team. Some highlights of her work include The Most Dangerous Roads for Walking, the (still useful) congestion pricing fact sheets, State of Transportation in New Jersey, and the national report Dangerous by Design. Michelle, we will miss you!

Michelle will be replaced by the very capable Renata Silberblatt. A native New Yorker, Renata worked on environmental and public policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace before starting a graduate program at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service in 2009. She interned at TSTC this summer and at the Maritime Department at NYC Economic Development Corporation this winter. She holds BA with Honors from Oberlin College and will receive her Masters in Urban Planning from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service this spring.

Janna Chernetz is our new New Jersey Advocate. Janna is an attorney with a passion for environmental and equity issues who grew up in Union County, NJ. She has worked for South Jersey Legal Services, Pomper and Associates, and as a Legislative Counsel for the New Jersey Bar Association. She has been a member of the New Jersey Bar Association since 2002. She has a BA from Rutgers University in Political Science and Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School where she was an Environmental Dean’s Fellow. Janna replaces Zoe Baldwin, who took a position in U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s office last month.

Vincent Pellecchia joined TSTC last week as our new General Counsel. Born and raised in Bergen County, NJ, Vincent recently returned to the United States after doing environmental work in China. Prior to that, he spent a number of years in private practice in New Jersey and New York. He is a member of the New Jersey and New York bars, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Manhattan College in environmental engineering and has his Juris Doctor from George Washington University School of Law. Vincent replaces Kyle Wiswall, who left the organization to pursue a new career path late last year.

TSTC has hired Matthew Norris to fill a new South Jersey Advocate position. Matthew is an urban planner interested in environmental issues and the built environment. He comes to us from AARP, where he was doing walkability assessments and legislative work. Matthew has a BA in Sociology from the University of Kansas and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University.

Matthew’s position is made possible by a generous grant from the William Penn Foundation and will allow us to expand our presence into the southern part of the state. TSTC reports consistently find roads in Atlantic, Burlington, and Cumberland Counties to be among the most dangerous for walking, yet our presence has largely been in the central and northern parts of the state. Matthew’s goal will be to work with local civic groups and municipal leaders to build support for policies and projects that reduce crashes and fatalities, and provide greater transportation choices. The new position will also allow us to partner more closely with effective advocates in the Philadelphia region like the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Welcome Janna, Vincent, Matthew and Renata and goodbye Michelle, Kyle, and Zoe!

Photo TSTC.

Full listings and application instructions are below.

NEW JERSEY ADVOCATE

Description: The New Jersey Advocate will represent TSTC’s [...]]]> Want to help make our region more transit friendly, bikeable and walkable? TSTC is hiring two NJ-based positions:  the first to manage our statewide work and another more grassroots position located in southern New Jersey.

Full listings and application instructions are below.

NEW JERSEY ADVOCATE

Description: The New Jersey Advocate will represent TSTC’s positions statewide to elected leaders, government officials, the media, and other stakeholders on transportation projects and legislation.  Issues covered range from working with community groups on specific pedestrian & bike safety improvements to advocating for more responsible transportation spending and investment decisions as part of the state’s Transportation Trust Fund reauthorization.

The NJ Advocate will also write for the TSTC’s transportation bulletin Mobilizing the Region and will aid the associate and executive director on special projects as needed.

Requirements:
B.A. in political science, environmental policy, urban planning or related field required. Masters preferred. Three years of work experience necessary. The person must have a passion for environmental issues, be politically savvy, energetic, highly motivated and have excellent analytical, research and writing skills. New Jersey residency strongly preferred.

Salary/Benefits:
Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign offers full health insurance, TransitChek, 3 weeks paid vacation, a retirement plan, and bike parking. Women and people of color encouraged to apply.

To apply, email resume and cover letter to Kate Slevin, Executive Director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign at kates@tstc.org by January 17, 2011. No phone calls please.

SOUTH JERSEY ADVOCATE

Tri-State Transportation Campaign seeks a dynamic and effective advocate to advance sustainable transportation policies in southern New Jersey.

The South Jersey Advocate is a new position. Responsibilities of the advocate will include:

• Conducting outreach about sustainable transportation policies with southern NJ elected and agency officials, civic leaders, businesses, non-profits.
• Conducting walking tours and outreach with civic leaders, municipal officials, and local residents in southern NJ with a goal of fixing dangerous roadway conditions.
• Serving as a liason for environmental, smart growth, transit and bicycle advocates in southern New Jersey and the Greater Philadelphia area.
• Conducting media outreach regarding TSTC reports and positions.
• Writing and reading testimony for sustainable transportation policies at agency and committee hearings.
• Organizing meetings with various stakeholders and events such as conferences, symposiums, workshops, etc.
• Frequent travel throughout New Jersey and to our Manhattan office.

Location of the position is flexible, but is likely to be located in Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, or Ocean counties. TSTC is headquarted in Midtown Manhattan and maintains an office in Trenton, NJ and Albany, NY.

Requirements:
B.A. in political science, environmental policy, urban planning or related field required. Community organizing experience a plus. Three years of work experience preferred. The person must have a passion for environmental issues, be politically savvy, energetic, highly motivated and have excellent analytical, research and writing skills. New Jersey residency and media experience strongly preferred.

Requirements:
B.A. in political science, environmental policy, urban planning or related field required. Community organizing experience a plus. Three years of work experience preferred. The person must have a passion for environmental issues, be politically savvy, energetic, highly motivated and have excellent analytical, research and writing skills. New Jersey residency and media experience strongly preferred.

Salary/Benefits:
Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign offers full health insurance, TransitChek, 3 weeks paid vacation, a retirement plan, and bike parking. Women and people of color encouraged to apply.

To apply, email resume and cover letter by January 17, 2011 to Veronica Vanterpool, Associate Director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign at Vvanterpool@tstc.org. No phone calls please.

With the state funding crisis in mind, the letter is focused on maintaining transit funding and [...]]]> Earlier this week, TSTC sent a letter to Governor-Elect Cuomo outlining transportation priorities for 2011 and beyond. Many items fit directly into his campaign promises of encouraging smart growth, reforming government, expanding transit, and encouraging biking and walking.

With the state funding crisis in mind, the letter is focused on maintaining transit funding and offers incremental and relatively affordable ways to  improve the transportation network in New York State. The entire letter is posted below.

December 22, 2010

Hon. Andrew Cuomo

Governor-Elect

Church Street Station

P.O. Box 683

New York, NY 10008

Re: Transportation priorities

Dear Governor-Elect Cuomo:

Congratulations on your victory. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC), a non-profit policy organization working for a more sustainable transportation network in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, looks forward to working with you. Over 15 years, we have helped elected officials and transportation departments direct spending toward transit, cycling, walking, and infrastructure repair projects and away from sprawl inducing highway expansion.

As you consider policy and staffing for your Administration, we offer the recommendations below:

Turn NYS DOT into a smart growth leader. Appoint a reformer to run the agency and direct her or him to implement the Smart Growth Infrastructure bill passed last year. To do this, the agency should:

-          Make sustainability programs that connect land use and transportation – such as NYS DOT’s GreenLITES and PennDOT’s Smart Transportation program – the norm for project selection rather than independent programs. Ensure the vast majority of transportation resources are directed to towns working toward smart growth visions;

-          Report to you, the State Legislature, and the public quarterly on performance measures including road, bridge and transit conditions, vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions, and road safety. A good model is Washington State Department of Transportation’s Gray Notebook which is easy to read and available online;

-          Redo the state’s street design criteria using NYC Department of Transportation’s Street Design Manual and the Institute for Transportation Engineers and the Congress for the New Urbanism’s manual, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares, as models.

-          Take control of NYS DOT regional offices to ensure that a cohesive transportation vision is being implemented. The eleven regional offices of NYSDOT function with their own institutional culture and policy focus. Streamlining these offices and ensuring they are following the direction of headquarters in Albany is critical to realizing a 21st century transportation policy across the state.

Support innovative projects such as the transformation of the Sheridan Expressway in the South Bronx into parks and housing. The underused 1.25 mile highway was never completed and remains a stub bisecting an environmental justice community in the Bronx. A coalition of groups, including TSTC, has been urging the NYS DOT to remove the highway as part of the Sheridan Bruckner Sheridan Environmental Impact Study (PIN X730.39) and replace it with more appropriate urban uses. Such a move could become a model of smart growth investment for the state and nation. NYC DOT recently won a TIGER II award to study potential uses of the roadway but the City requires state cooperation.

Stop the diversion of transit dollars. New York State has redirected hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated transit funding resulting in fare increases, cuts to dozens of bus routes, and the elimination of two NYC subway lines. Transit funding should be increased, not decreased. We urge you to retain transit funding in your Executive budgets.

Increase support for transit operations and capital projects and consider a NYC congestion pricing program as a possible funding stream. The state’s economy is dependent on reliable transit service yet both MTA and non-MTA systems face drastic funding challenges in coming years. The MTA’s capital program deficit is $10B of a $25B program. New revenue sources will be necessary to stop the system from becoming unsafe and unreliable. An NYC congestion pricing program would align with state goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create more transportation choices.

Appoint MTA board members who ride public transportation and reflect the diversity of transit riders. As Governor, you appoint the MTA’s 17 member board with six members being under your direct control. We urge you to recommend effective, diverse, and qualified representatives who represent riders.

Improve suburban transit, especially for bus riders, and consider scaling down the Tappan Zee Bridge project. Nassau County’s Long Island Bus is facing cuts that could destroy the system and Westchester’s Bee-Line Bus cut service this spring. A new funding agreement between Nassau County and the MTA, along with more state support for all county systems, could offer cost savings and protect service for riders.

On the capital side, the next Governor should also support the LIRR third track project (key for Long Islanders to reap the benefits of East Side Access) and plans for bus rapid transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 corridor. Additionally, plans for Tappan Zee Bridge replacement could be scaled down and proceed without the commuter rail connection from Rockland to NYC.  Most commuters using the Tappan Zee are travelling to suburban destinations, not ending their trips in Manhattan, so the bus rapid transit connection, which provides much greater utility at the most affordable cost, should be retained.

Redirect Port Authority ARC funds to projects that improve bus service between New Jersey and NYC. NYC and New Jersey both benefit from strong transit connections across the Hudson River. Governor Christie’s killing of the ARC tunnel project increases the urgency of improvements for cross-Hudson commuters. While NYC investigates a possible #7 extension to NJ, there remain important improvements for the 192,000 bus users each day. Bus improvements are the most affordable and fastest method to reduce commute times, alleviate congestion, and provide better transit service. We urge you to redirect the Port Authority’s $3 billion contribution to ARC to projects that would benefit cross Hudson commuters. These include a second Manhattan-bound bus lane through the Lincoln Tunnel in the morning, a westbound bus lane during evening rush hours, additional NJ TRANSIT buses, a bus garage on the West Side of Manhattan, and a reconstructed Lincoln Tunnel helix.

Make roads safer, adopt a complete streets policy, and recommend speed enforcement cameras in your first executive budget. Each year, roughly 1,200 people die in traffic accidents in New York State, 300 of them while walking. Traffic calming offers tremendous safety enhancements on dangerous roadways for limited capital investment. We strongly urge you to support complete streets legislation (A8587-B/SB5711-B) that passed the Senate earlier this year, use federal dollars to fix the state’s most dangerous roads for walking, expand affordable and effective programs like the NYS DOT’s Local Safe Streets and Traffic Calming Grant and SafeSeniors programs and start a new statewide Safe Routes to Transit program. Also, speed enforcement cameras can improve safety on highways and in urban areas while raising revenue.

Retain Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward and MTA CEO Jay Walder, both innovative leaders who have proven themselves as adept and highly capable leaders during challenging times.

Sincerely,

Kate Slevin

Executive Director

Veronica Vanterpool

Associate Director

Yesterday, Governor Christie reiterated that his decision to kill the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel was about lack of funding, telling outlets across the state that the decision “was [...]]]>

Last year, then-Gov. Jon Corzine broke ground on the widening of the NJ Turnpike, a project whose cost has increased over the years.

Yesterday, Governor Christie reiterated that his decision to kill the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel was about lack of funding, telling outlets across the state that the decision “was a dollar and cents issue” and he needed to protect “our long-term fiscal health.”

But a quick look at the rising costs of the Parkway and Turnpike expansion projects suggests his interest in saving money only applies to transit projects. As MTR wrote earlier this year, these widening projects steadily increased in cost even before ground was broken on them during the Corzine administration. Here’s a reprint of the table from that article:

A few weeks before canceling the ARC Tunnel, Christie administration officials borrowed an additional $2 billion to continue paying for the road widenings. Only time will tell what their eventual cost will be.

Photo: Governor Photos/Tim Larsen.