USA Today recently highlighted another victory in the burgeoning national movement to tear down or relocate urban highways and create vibrant neighborhoods in their place:

Oklahoma has a radical solution for repairing the state’s busiest highway.

Tear it down. Build a park.

The aging Crosstown Expressway — an elevated 4.5-mile stretch of Interstate 40 — will be demolished in 2012. An old-fashioned boulevard and a mile-long park will be constructed in its place.

The article quotes John Norquist of the Congress for the New Urbanism as saying, “Highways don’t belong in cities. Period. Europe didn’t do it. America did. And our cities have paid the price.” Mr. Norquist recently spoke at a TSTC-hosted event about the benefits of replacing the Rt. 34 Connector in New Haven with a restored street grid.

Besides New Haven’s Rt. 34 Connector, other proposed highway removal/relocation projects in the region include I-84 in Hartford, Rt. 29 in Trenton, I-81 in Syracuse, the Buffalo Skyway, and the Sheridan Expressway in the Bronx. The USA Today article mentioned several of these efforts, but the one tri-state area representative quoted, NYSDOT Region 11 (NYC) Director Doug Currey, seemed lukewarm on highway removal:

Doug Currey, regional director of the New York State Department of Transportation, says taking down urban highways is sometimes the right thing to do — and sometimes not.

“No two situations are exactly alike,” says Currey, who oversees highways in the New York City area.

While it would have been nice to hear more enthusiasm from NYSDOT, the neutral response is not surprising given that the agency is still studying whether a Sheridan Expressway tear-down is feasible. NYSDOT data does show that all four alternatives under study (including the two Sheridan tear-down alternatives) would reduce vehicle miles traveled, truck miles traveled, and truck hours traveled in the study area (see MTR # 535). Later on in the article, Mr. Currey cites the 1973 tear-down of Manhattan’s West Side Highway as a success story. Hopefully, Bronx community support can convince NYSDOT that a Sheridan tear-down could be similarly successful.

Image: Oklahoma City’s Crosstown Expressway/USA Today.

400,000 fewer cars and trucks traveled the NJ Turnpike in the first three months of 2008 than over the same period last year, according to a recent article in the Star-Ledger. With the Turnpike widening predicated on growing traffic volumes (the DEIS states that “the purpose of the Proposed Project is to service existing and projected future traffic demand on the New Jersey Turnpike mainline and interchanges between Interchanges 6 and 9″), the Campaign wonders if the planners working to nearly double the Turnpike’s capacity from exits 6 to 9 have looked at the most recent data.

The Turnpike’s DEIS makes the case for adding lanes based on historical average growth rates of about 2.6% annually (from 1990 through 2002). It goes on to forecast continuing growth of as much as 60% from 2005 to 2012 during the peak period at selected interchanges under the no-build scenario, and as much as 123% by 2032.

But New Jersey Turnpike Authority data contrast starkly with those historical growth rates, showing that Turnpike traffic has in fact declined steadily in the last few years. From 2006 to 2007, traffic volumes declined by more than 1%. In the first three months of this year, volumes on the Turnpike were 0.7% lower than over the same period last year (and that’s not adjusted for the extra day of travel we had in February this leap year). First quarter 2008 traffic volumes are down 1.5%, or 800,000 vehicles, from 2006.

The Star-Ledger article considered the implications of reduced traffic volumes on the Turnpike’s revenue, concluding that the Turnpike Authority would likely have to raise tolls just to avoid defaulting on its current bonding agreements. Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) told the Ledger, “My understanding is if they do nothing — no road widening, no improvements, no nothing — they’re going to have to raise tolls anyway.

The same article quotes widening proponent State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) as suggesting that, along with the need to pay for widening the Turnpike, the threat of defaulting on its bonds offers even more reason for the Turnpike Authority to raise tolls.

Certainly, declining toll revenue is a critical issue, especially in light of New Jersey’s pressing transportation funding concerns. But the bigger story here is that the Turnpike widening proposal is predicated on bad data. It’s time for a reality check on these numbers. With gasoline prices nearing $4 a gallon and transit use surging, we might be finally seeing the end of the steady 2+ percent annual VMT growth rates that traffic planners have counted on for so long. And if traffic isn’t going to skyrocket as projected by the Turnpike Authority, it might be time to pare down or abandon altogether plans for a $2 billion Turnpike widening.

The Connecticut General Assembly’s “short session” ended at midnight this past Wednesday. In light of recent projections that the national economic recession will impact Connecticut to the tune of a $68 million budget deficit, many of the bold transportation initiatives proposed by the Legislature either failed to move forward or were drastically scaled down through the legislative process. A reduced version of HB 5734, “An Act Concerning New and Expanded Bus Transportation Services Throughout Connecticut,” did pass, meaning that ConnDOT will be able to purchase 20 new buses using $5 million in capital funding.

One promising move was the passage of HB 5600, a Connecticut Fund for the Environment-supported bill which makes the state’s previously enacted greenhouse gas emission reduction goals (a 10% cut below 1990 levels by 2020, and an 80% cut below 2001 levels by 2050) mandatory and directs agencies to take specific actions towards meeting these goals. On the transportation side, the bill directs ConnDOT to study expanding high-speed rail, light rail, and freight rail within the state.

Another bold (but misguided) initiative, the split of ConnDOT into a Department of Highways and a Department of Public Transportation, Aviation and Ports, died a quiet death in the Joint Committee on Appropriations. While we agree with backers of the bill that ConnDOT needs to devote the same amount of attention to public transportation as it does to highways, we felt that splitting ConnDOT was the wrong way to go (we outlined our reasoning in the Hartford Courant back in March).

Newly confirmed ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph Marie, set to begin work in June, will now be able to set a progressive transportation agenda that incorporates land use into transportation planning decisions, emphasizes maintenance and repair of roads and bridges over expansion, and fast tracks high-priority mass transit projects like the New Britain-Hartford busway and the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail.

New Haven Board of Alders Passes Anti-ConnDOT Split Resolution

In related news, the New Haven Board of Alders passed a resolution last week opposing the ConnDOT split bill. Congratulations to the Board members, and particularly Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale, who championed the resolution.

Image: CTTransit New Haven bus. (Photo Adam E. Moreira/Wikipedia Commons)

The “gas tax holiday” is such a bad idea that we didn’t even want to honor it with a comment – but now that the New York State Senate has passed a bill to eliminate the state gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day and other states have begun lining up to join the fracas, it’s impossible to ignore.

So what are the region’s elected and agency officials saying about the gas tax holiday?

New Jersey

Governor Corzine tried to walk an awfully thin line to support Clinton, while gently panning the idea: “I want to say it’s not my favorite idea, but realistically she is paying for it and it is a three-month period,” Corzine said. Just the day before, Corzine stated that he hasn’t ruled out raising the gas tax to pay for transportation projects and fund the Transportation Trust Fund.

NJ DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri has been less equivocal, pointing out that a summer-long federal gas tax holiday would cost New Jersey $190 million in federal transportation aid allocated for bridge and roadway projects that mean 6,300 jobs.

At the federal level, Sen. Robert Menendez is co-sponsoring a gas tax holiday bill. He said, “Thank god we don’t have economists making necessary public policy.” The Senator even made the idea one of his campaign issues back in 2006. (So did Bob Dole in 1996.)

New York

We know Senator Clinton’s unfortunate position, but what about the rest?

Sen. Charles Schumer has jumped in with his senatorial colleague saying, “Big oil companies ought to pay for it. Take some of the money out of the royalties. Take some of the money out the windfall profits and reduce that gas tax.” (Of course, the wisdom of this approach has been discredited.)

Mayor Bloomberg had this to say: “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view. I don’t understand why you think there’s any merit to it whatsoever. We’re trying to discourage people from driving and we’re trying to end our energy dependence. We don’t do that — oh, and incidentally, we’re trying to have more money to build infrastructure. All three of those things go fly in the face of giving everybody $30 a year. The 30 bucks is not going to change anybody’s lifestyle. The billions of dollars that we would otherwise have in tax revenues can make a big difference as to what kind of a world we leave our children.”

Meanwhile, the New York State Senate has passed a bill suspending the state gas tax, led by Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island). On his website, under a picture advocating anti-idling laws to fight asthma from auto emissions, Lanza says he wants to “make gasoline more affordable during the summer traveling season.” The bill was co-sponsored by Long Island Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Freeport) and upstate Sen. Joseph Robach (R-Monroe).

State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno released this statement: “The vast majority of New Yorkers, especially Upstate, must rely on their cars to get to work and school and do not have any mass transit. The rising price of gas is costing them $10 to $20 more every time they fill up their tanks. The Senate, like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, support cutting gas taxes because it is the right thing to do to give New Yorkers relief.”

State Sen. Liz Kreuger (D-Manhattan): “I voted against this legislation because it is bad fiscal and environmental policy that will only result in windfall profits for oil companies and no real relief for consumers.”

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver isn’t letting the idea fly in the Assembly. He said: “There is absolutely no guarantee that tax savings would be passed on to consumers. In fact, I believe that oil companies will simply raise their prices to eliminate any cost savings for the public.”

Governor Paterson didn’t reject the proposal out of hand, but called it a “leap of faith” and said “This is something we could legislate, but not implement.”

Connecticut

Sen. Joe Lieberman has not said much on the record, but last month he co-sponsored an amendment to an unrelated transportation bill that would have instituted a federal gas tax holiday (the amendment, which was introduced by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl on behalf of Sen. John McCain, was later withdrawn).

In the Connecticut General Assembly, a last minute budget proposal put forward by Republicans included a state gas tax holiday, but the session thankfully timed out.

The Port Authority has selected two consultants to study the feasibility of all electronic tolling (or AET, as it’s termed in the toll road world) at its crossings. According to Toll Road News, Traffic Technologies Inc. and Jacobs Carter Burgess will consult on the $12 million project. Design and factory testing will start in 2010, with implementation in 2012. The cashless tolling project was first announced last year (see MTR # 558).

Under the new system, old-fashioned toll booths would be removed and replaced with overhead gantries that allow vehicles to pay tolls without slowing down. Video tolling would be used to photograph the license plates of vehicles without EZ Pass. A number of toll facilities, including certain ones owned by the Port Authority and NJ Turnpike Authority are already equipped with the non-stop gantries, but completely cashless tolling would be new to the region. All electronic tolling is already used in a number of places, including Toronto, Dallas, and Tampa.

All electronic tolling will be good news for commuters and for the environment. Vehicles emit more pollutants when they are idling in traffic, so more consistent speeds translate into less pollution.

The Port Authority-operated George Washington Bridge is the busiest tolling point in the entire country, with 31 toll lanes in three plazas. 147,000 vehicles travel eastbound across the bridge daily.

Image: Cashless tolling gantry in Delaware (Photo Christopher G. Mason/courtesy Bridge Tolls Advocacy Project).

It looks like Long Island Bus, long the unwanted stepchild of government, has finally found a home in the MTA family. Cost savings and increased LI Bus service could be the largest impact of the MTA’s Wednesday announcement that it is combining LI Bus, NYC Transit’s bus division, and MTA Bus into a regional bus operation headed by one executive (Joseph Smith, NYC Transit’s senior vice president for buses). The restructuring will be complete within 90 days.

Though nominally a division of the MTA, LI Bus is currently funded through a problematic arrangement whereby the MTA operates the service, but funding comes from a combination of fares and annual appropriations from New York State and Nassau County. The lack of a stable financing formula means that LI Bus funding has fluctuated as the county and state have fought over how much each should pay (see, for example, MTR #s 551, 390, and 266).

While new regional bus head Joseph Smith said in a statement that the regional bus initiative would result in better service for LI Bus, there are no guarantees that LI Bus will be on stable financial footing — especially if Nassau County believes it can now hand off its responsibility for funding the system over to the cash-strapped MTA. To avoid this, the MTA, Nassau County, and New York State need to renegotiate the funding agreement to find the agency a secure financial footing.

Farther north, Westchester County’s Bee-Line Bus system faces similar financial difficulties (though it is not in the MTA’s family) and is another obvious partner for an eventual regional bus system.

Newark officials have issued a Request for Expressions of Interest in the Broad Street Station area.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has identified the revitalization of the Broad Street Station District as a top priority for the City, and has released a detailed concept plan, dubbed the “Living Downtown,” for approximately 50 acres surrounding the Broad Street Train Station.

The district (outlined in black dashed lines above) lies within a 5-10 minute walk of New Jersey Transit’s Broad Street Station, the Newark Light Rail line, two subway station stops, the Downtown campuses of Rutgers and NJIT, cultural institutions and an increasingly accessible Passaic Riverfront. It is framed by Newark Street to the West, Clay Street East to the North, the Passaic River to the East and Central Avenue to the South.

Mayor Booker and City officials aim to attract redevelopment that promotes mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-accessible projects through the “Broad Street Station District Redevelopment Plan,” which should be released early this summer.

Along with NJDOT’s Broad Street streetscape improvements (see MTR # 559) and NJ Transit’s Go Bus, Newark’s redevelopment plan reflects an understanding among local and state officials that transportation can drive redevelopment. Redeveloping the areas surrounding transit hubs will be a boon for Newark’s economic development as ridership into and throughout the City continues to grow.

A thorough review of New Jersey’s draft 2009 capital program offers some troubling insight into the Garden State’s future transportation priorities. In the short term, NJDOT continues to abide by its nationally recognized “fix-it-first” investment strategy, prioritizing road and bridge maintenance and repair over new capacity expansion. But beyond 2010, spending on new roads and road widenings is projected to consume a larger chunk of the state’s scarce transportation funding.

All together, the program provides $3.3 billion in funding for the state’s roads and transit systems, with $1.98 billion going to NJDOT and $1.29 billion set aside for transit investments.

The Campaign’s examination of the more than 400 NJDOT projects included in the draft capital program reveals four major themes:

1. NJDOT continues to prioritize road and bridge maintenance, dedicating 44% of the FY2009 capital spending to repair, rehabilitation, resurfacing, and replacement projects. NJDOT’s prioritization of “fix-it-first” projects is critical given the state’s pressing infrastructure needs — the Garden State boasts the third worst roads in the nation.
2. Spending on capacity expansion projects is projected to increase in coming years, threatening to undermine NJDOT’s “fix-it-first” goals. While FY2009 funding for expansion projects remains a sliver of the total capital program at just 1.5%, by 2011the share of total funding for widening and new roads is projected to grow to nearly 8%.
3. Progress on smart growth projects stalled. Only a handful of the 17 New Jersey Future in Transportation (NJFIT) smart growth projects in the hopper are slated to receive funding according to the capital program. Even more troubling, two projects originally tapped for smart growth improvements have been transformed into major widening projects, all but abandoning efforts to link land use and transportation and find a more sustainable congestion relief solution.
4. Funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects has slipped, with the total amount dedicated to those improvements falling 14% and the share of funding declining 12% to just 1.5% of the total. Though NJDOT remains a national leader in spending on bicyclists and pedestrians, sustained funding is critical if the state hopes to continue to reduce bicyclist and pedestrians deaths.

The Campaign’s report offers several recommendations for keeping NJDOT’s reputation as a national model for progressive transportation policy in tact:

• Resurrect legislation mandating the NJDOT to invest in fix-it-first projects, and legislate a 4% cap on investment in capacity expansion projects.
• Take a hard look at proposed expansion projects and call off projects that won’t offer sustainable congestion relief.
• Create a consistent Fix-it-First policy between all State transportation agencies, including NJDOT and NJTA.
• Boost funding for the state’s NJFIT program to ensure continued progress on smart growth projects.
• Increase funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects and target it to places with the highest number of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and deaths.

The full report can be found here.

Image: TSTC analysis shows that new roads, road widenings and other capacity-expanding projects will consume a growing share of the NJ Capital Plan in future years.

House Bill 5734, An Act Concerning New and Expanded Bus Transportation Services Throughout Connecticut, passed the Connecticut House yesterday, approving $5 million in capital spending to purchase approximately 20 buses. The bill now moves to the Senate and must be passed prior to the General Assembly’s closing tomorrow.

The Senate must move quickly to pass the bill, an important piece of legislation that, as its title suggests, will expand bus transportation throughout Connecticut. If you are a Connecticut citizen, be sure to show support for the bill and contact your State Senator to urge them to pass this legislation before the Assembly deadline.

Update: The General Assembly has passed the bill.