New Jersey Transit riders are facing a 25% fare increase and service cuts on every train line and buses across the state, the agency said today. The agency is readying this proposal because Gov. Christie cut state support for NJ Transit by 11% this year and is expected to make more cuts next year.
These cuts will have devastating impacts on transit riders:
In a statement, the Tri-State Campaign pointed out that other options exist to deal with the state’s budget crisis. Increasing the state’s gas tax by $0.10 per gallon would cost the average household only $93 annually and raise $550 million in revenue. New Jersey has the third-lowest gas tax in the country and has not increased it since 1988. Gov. Christie has vowed not to raise it.
Specific details about new fares and service cuts are available on NJ Transit’s website.
Public Hearings
NJ Transit will hold 11 public hearings split between March 25, 26, and 27:
March 25: 5:30pm-8:30pm in Paterson, Newark, Trenton, Manalapan
March 26: 5:30pm-8:30pm in Secaucus, Camden, Morristown, Long Branch, New York City (“information session”)
March 27: 1pm-4pm in Hackensack and Atlantic City (“information sessions”)
For locations, see the NJ Transit press release.
Image: TSTC graphic using data from NJ Transit. (Assumes a nine-month school year.)
 A typical view of what the 34th Street makeover would look like. NYCDOT has another daring project planned for Midtown: the transformation of 34th Street through the addition of a physically separated busway and pedestrian improvements. The changes should speed up buses in a congested crosstown corridor and provide some breathing room for pedestrians who often walk in the street because of sidewalk overcrowding.
As pictured above, the project would create a two-lane, physically separated busway with stations at one curb and in the median. Non-bus travel lanes on 34th Street would become one-way, going westbound west of Sixth Avenue and eastbound east of Fifth Avenue. Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, only buses would be allowed through; much of that block would become a pedestrian plaza and sidewalks along 34th Street would be widened. The route would add improvements used on NYCDOT’s existing and planned Select Bus Service routes, like off-board fare collection and giving priority to buses at traffic lights.
NYCDOT and the MTA envision a Select Bus route connecting the Javits Center and E. 34th Street ferry landing. Notably, they also envision that “the Transitway will be used by existing and expanded express bus routes from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey, buses connecting to the Pier 79/West 39th Street ferry terminal, and other local buses.” 34th Street is currently used by the M16, M34, many express buses, and NY Waterway Ferry buses. Weekday ridership on the M16 and M34 tops 17,000 passengers, according to an alternatives analysis study.
The transitway is expected to improve travel time for bus riders in the corridor by 35%, bringing end-to-end travel time on 34th Street from 31 minutes down to 20 minutes. This should help accommodate an expected increase in demand as the Hudson Yards development brings more residents to Midtown and the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel brings more commuters into the area.
The project still has a ways to go, since it is going through the federal environmental review process and NYCDOT may apply for federal funding. Once required scoping and other studies are finished and design is finalized, construction could take at least a year.
Image: Via NYCDOT project webpage.
 Over 40,000 New Yorkers signed petitions against service cuts, which were delivered to MTA Headquarters this month by NYC Council Speaker Quinn, Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, and advocates. New Yorkers are mad as hell about plans to cut transit service, Access-a-Ride, and free NYC student MetroCards — public hearings across the MTA region have been well-attended and often rowdy, marked by overflow crowds, chants, and even arrests. But without political leadership the cuts may be inevitable. The MTA is facing a $750 million budget gap.
In testimony at the Bronx and Brooklyn hearings, Tri-State Campaign staff members delivered four messages:
First, we urge the MTA to redirect 10% of the obligated, but not yet spent, federal stimulus dollars to help alleviate these service cuts and the possibility of a 2011 fare increase greater than 7.5% already proposed. Congress recognized the severity of budget gaps facing transit agencies across the country and allowed this one-time flex for operating. Taking this action would yield $90 million in stimulus funds to reduce the scale of service cuts as they are currently proposed. Transit users who need to get to jobs, businesses who need a reliable workforce that can get to work on time, and students who need to get to school need this short-term fix.
Second, we call on Governor Paterson and the State Legislature to step it up. Cutting state aid for student transportation from $45 million to $6 million was unthinkable. And claiming that you’ve done your share to save Metrocards by restoring only $19 million of the $39 million gap (which doesn’t include the rising costs of student transportation over the past 15 years) is unfair.
Third, we call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council to contribute their fair share. New York City has not increased funding to the MTA since 1995. Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council must work closely with the state and the MTA to establish funding formulas for transit aid that account for inflation and escalating costs of the system. Using 1995 rates as the baseline for funding shortchanges the system in 2010.
And finally, we urge transit riders to take action. Transit funding is a political problem. If you are tired of coming to these hearings and do not want to be back here next year fighting another round of service cuts and fare hikes, get in touch with your elected officials today and ask them what they are going to do to ensure that our trains and buses are running.
Before the hearings, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined Council Transportation Chair James Vacca and advocates to deliver over 40,000 petitions against planned transit cuts, another indication of the depth of feeling on the issue. The Councilpersons were joined by members of the Straphangers Campaign, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Council of Senior Centers and Services, UPROSE/Students for Transportation Justice, WEACT, and Transportation Alternatives. Quinn and Vacca have previously said that the MTA should use stimulus funds to lessen service cuts while the city should consider increasing funding for student MetroCards if the state agrees to raise its contribution.
Hearings will continue in Manhattan and Rockland County tonight, and in Suffolk County on Monday.
Image: Aloysio Santos/Epoch Times.
 A competitive safety grant program could help improve safety around transit stops. Pictured are "before" and "after" shots of NYC bus stop improvements funded through a city "safe routes to transit" program. New Jersey has a similar program. Hoping to build upon last year’s Complete Streets victory, advocates and legislators urged members of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Transportation Committee today to enact two pieces of legislation that would improve safety for Connecticut’s pedestrians, cyclists and transit users.
The first bill (HB 5386) would designate 10% of existing flexible federal funding sources — specifically, the Highway Safety Improvement Program, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, and National Highway Safety 402 Funds — to create a competitive grant program for municipal projects that would improve bicycle, pedestrian and transit access infrastructure. The grant program would utilize these existing funding sources, requiring no new revenue, to increase ConnDOT’s emphasis on walking and cycling safety.
According to Tri-State’s recent report Tracking the Dollars, ConnDOT still woefully underfunds bicycle and pedestrian projects, spending only $1.67 in federal funds per person on these projects. While this is an increase over previous years, the state still lags behind neighboring Rhode Island ($6.12) and states with comparable populations like Iowa ($3.92). Between 2006 and 2008, 122 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on Connecticut’s roadways.
A second bill (SB 345) would allow local municipalities to create red light camera pilot programs. It is similar to a 2009 bill to allow New Haven to start such a program, but would apply statewide. The current bill is being supported by the Connecticut Livable Streets Campaign.
While the public hearing on these two raised bills took place today in Hartford, Connecticut readers can contact members of the Transportation Committee to support this important legislation.
Images: Via NYCDOT’s website.
Our friends at Environment America are hiring a Transportation Advocate who will work out of their Washington, DC office. The position has four major areas of responsibility. In their words:
The Transportation Advocate will be responsible for the following:
- Advocacy: Bringing problems and solutions to the attention of decision-makers—including members of Congress, the White House, and executive branch agency staff.
- Campaign Strategy: Creating and executing plans to win on our campaign for clean transportation; strategizing how to gain political support for our agenda through coalition-building, grassroots organizing, media publicity, endorsements, and message development.
- Media Outreach: Serving as the public spokesperson for our transportation campaign through media events, news releases, editorial board meetings and other media tactics.
- Fundraising: Meeting with large donors and writing grant proposals and to bring more resources to our efforts to promote clean, efficient transportation choices.
Environment America is a federation of 28 state-based organizations, meaning this position will be able to draw upon a wealth of different state experiences. More information available on their website.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s efforts to advance 21st century transportation policies in Connecticut are bearing fruit.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) is spending more on road and bridge repair, public transportation, and cycling and walking projects, according to a TSTC analysis released today.
Tracking the Dollars: A Review of Projected Transportation Spending in Connecticut, 2010-2013, is based on an exhaustive analysis of the 2010-2013 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and comparison to previous transportation plans. The STIP is the best single source of information about the state’s transportation spending decisions.
In the past, TSTC has criticized ConnDOT for building expensive new highway projects at the expense of existing roads and bridges and other transportation options. (Connecticut has some of the worst roads in the nation, with more than 75 percent of the state’s major roadway lane miles in “less than good” condition and over 33 percent of the state’s bridges rated as deficient.) But this new analysis shows that under Commissioner Joseph Marie’s leadership ConnDOT has begun to shift dramatically towards sustainable 21st century transportation policies, a shift which should be reflected in gradually improving road and bridge conditions.
 TSTC analysis of CT 2010-2013 STIP highway and bridge spending Specifically, road and bridge repair and maintenance now accounts for 49.6 percent of all highway and bridge spending, up from just 36 percent in the 2007-2010 STIP. Spending on expansion projects has dropped from 61 percent in the 2007-2010 plan to 46.7 percent in the current STIP.
The report also finds that Connecticut is spending more on transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects. The share of funding dedicated to transit capital projects is up to 39 percent of total capital spending, from 36.6 percent in the 2007-2010 STIP. Bicycle and pedestrian projects now constitute 1.1 percent of transportation capital spending, up from 0.9 percent in the previous STIP.
Still, the report finds plenty that ConnDOT can do to build upon these gains. Specifically, it recommends:
- Continue to Fix-it-First: ConnDOT should reduce the size of future components of the massive Q-Bridge reconstruction project and divert excess funds to road and bridge maintenance. Going forward, the state should cap spending on highway expansion projects at 5 percent of overall transportation spending.
- Develop more effective tools to manage congestion: The state should consider sustainable congestion relief measures, including more coordinated and efficient land use planning and roadway pricing along the most heavily-traveled routes.
- Continue efforts to create a robust bicycle and pedestrian program: ConnDOT and the Connecticut General Assembly should pre-designate 10 percent of two flexible federal funding programs (the Highway Safety Improvement Program and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program) to bicycle and pedestrian projects and new initiatives like Safe Routes for Seniors and Safe Routes to Transit. This would add approximately $4 million a year to bicycle and pedestrian project spending.
- Ensure greater transparency at ConnDOT: ConnDOT should combine all federal and state expenditure plans into a single, easy-to-read document and modernize its website. This will enable the public to more accurately assess the state’s transportation priorities.
Link here for the press release and here for the full report.
Public hearings on the MTA’s proposed service cuts begin tonight in Nassau and Westchester Counties, and will continue over the next week in the five boroughs and Rockland and Suffolk Counties.
Background
The MTA is proposing:
- Major service cuts to MTA subway, bus, and commuter rail throughout the region. These include cancellation of the M and W subway lines, tens of bus routes in NYC and Long Island, and all service on the LIRR’s Ronkonkoma branch east of Greenport (except on summer weekends). They also include reductions in service across the system that will mean less frequent and more crowded subways and LIRR and Metro-North trains. Specific cuts are on the MTA’s website.
- Charging NYC students who currently ride free to and from school. Students would be charged half-fare beginning this September, and full fares in the school year beginning September 2011.
- Cut Access-a-Ride costs by dropping many passengers off at bus stops or subway stations instead of providing door-to-door service.
The agency also plans to lay off over a thousand administrative staff, station agents, conductors, and other transit personnel. All nonunionized workers are taking a 10% pay cut.
These actions will help close a $750 million gap which first appeared after Gov. Paterson and the State Legislature cut $143 million from the MTA’s budget (including money for student MetroCards) last year and revenues from the payroll tax passed last year came in lower than state bureaucrats had estimated. The MTA’s financial situation has rapidly deteriorated due to declining tax revenue.
Locations
The full list of hearings is below. All hearings begin at 6 pm and will not end until all speakers have given their testimony. Speakers can pre-register to speak on the MTA’s website. Testimony will be taken on all parts of the MTA’s proposed budget cuts, not just those that are specific to a hearing’s geographic location. Transit directions are available at the MTA’s website.
Nassau County: March 1. Chateau Briand, 440 Old Country Road, Carle Place.
Westchester County: March 1. White Plains Performing Arts Center, City Center (3rd Floor), 11 City Place, White Plains.
Staten Island: March 2. College of Staten Island (Springer Concert Hall, 1P Building), 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island.
Queens: March 2. Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel (Phoenix Ballroom), 135-20 39th Avenue, Flushing, Queens.
Bronx: March 3. The Paradise Theater, 2403 Grand Concourse (at 187th Street), Bronx.
Brooklyn: March 3. Brooklyn Museum (Cantor Auditorium), 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
Rockland County: March 4. Holiday Inn (Empire Ballroom), 3 Executive Boulevard, Suffern, NY.
Manhattan: March 4. Fashion Institute of Technology (Haft Auditorium), Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, Manhattan.
Suffolk County: March 8. Riverhead County Center, Court Street, Riverhead.
Comments are also being accepted by e-mail.
Last week, Governor Rell canceled nearly $390 million in unallocated bonding funds as a way to pare down Connecticut’s anticipated $500 million deficit for this fiscal year. These cancellations only impacted projects that had been authorized by the State Bond Commission but had not been funded for five years or longer. Of the cuts, $61 million — almost 16% — represented cuts to bike and pedestrian projects including a bikeway grant program, sidewalk construction, streetscaping and downtown revitalization efforts.
To make up for these cuts, Connecticut’s elected officials could build upon last year’s complete streets law and create a competitive grant program for pedestrian, cycling and active community initiatives. New legislation to create such a program, administered by ConnDOT and the state’s metropolitan planning organizations, has just been introduced in the General Assembly.
Notable Cancellations
Some notable projects whose bond funding was canceled include:
- The Meriden Flood Control and Hub project to mitigate serious floods and create a downtown for Meriden (pictured at right, $9 million).
- A bikeway grant program that municipalities could apply to and receive money for cycling projects ($6 million),
- A grant to Bridgeport for design and construction of a replacement for the closed Congress Street Bridge ($5 million),
- Streetscaping of Barnum Avenue in Stratford ($500,000).
According to a new Monmouth University poll, nearly all New Jersey residents believe that having money for transportation is important, and over 70% are concerned about the impending bankruptcy of the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, the primary source of funding for state transportation projects. But only half of state residents have heard anything about it. As residents learn more about the crisis, they become more concerned, and of those residents who have heard at least a little about the Trust Fund’s problems, more than half support raising transportation fees like tolls or the gas tax if they are dedicated to transportation. Overall, half of state residents support increasing transportation fees. The poll was commissioned by TSTC and NJ Future.
The Trust Fund is supported by New Jersey’s petroleum gross receipts tax and gasoline tax (at 10.5 cents/gallon, the fourth-lowest in the country). But the state has taken on so much debt that by next year all of the Trust Fund’s revenue from these taxes will be paying debt service. Only 1 in 4 New Jerseyans have heard more than a little about this fact:
But state residents are worried about the consequences:
 As residents learn more, they become more concerned. While 41% of state residents say they have “a great deal” of concern over the Trust Fund’s problems, this increases to 67% among those who have read or heard “a great deal” about the issue.
And a majority of New Jerseyans who have heard at least a little about the Trust Fund’s problems support “raising transportation user fees — such as tolls, vehicle registration fees, or the gas tax” if they know the money will go towards road, bridge, and transit projects:
Overall, 49% of state residents support increasing transportation fees, while 47% are opposed and 3% do not know.
On one point, nearly all New Jerseyans agree: Funding transportation is a state priority:
The poll’s margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
In a release, TSTC, NJ Future, Regional Plan Association, and NJPIRG said that the results underscored the need for state leaders to find a financially responsible fix for the Trust Fund. “New Jersey residents recognize the importance of a safe and reliable transportation system, and the role the Transportation Trust Fund plays in maintaining that system,” Tri-State executive director Kate Slevin said. “Will our leaders in Trenton get the message by passing a financially sustainable, long-term reauthorization of the trust fund?”
Images: First, second, and fourth images are from Monmouth University poll report. Third is TSTC table using data from poll.
 Americans are walking, cycling, and taking transit more. (Percentages do not add up to 100% -- not all modes are included in this chart.) Americans are making a significantly higher share of daily trips on transit, on foot, and by bicycle, according to newly released data from the Federal Highway Administration. Together, walking and bicycling trips now account for 11.9 percent of all personal trips, up from 9.5 percent in 2001, a growth in mode share of 25 percent. Transit’s mode share increased by 23.5 percent, while the share of trips taken by car, motorcycle, and truck or SUV dropped by 4.4 percent.
The new data is from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which collects one-day travel diaries from 150,000 households across the U.S. Dating back to 1969 (when it was called the National Personal Transportation Survey), the NHTS is the most authoritative national source of travel behavior. Because it captures data on trips made for all purposes (commuting, shopping, visiting friends, etc.), and even separates trip segments (a walk to the subway followed by a subway trip to work is counted as two separate trips), the NHTS provides a far more comprehensive picture of how Americans get around than the Census, which reflects only commuting.
Of course, the good news for walking, bicycling and transit use may reflect fluctuating gasoline prices and the current economic recession (respondents were surveyed between March 2008 and April 2009). But when asked to interpret the findings, FHWA staff told MTR that “the general public is more aware of the need to walk and bike for environmental and health reasons, thus they make more of those trips and they report more of them in our survey.”
Image: TSTC table using data from 2009 and 2001 National Household Travel Surveys.
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Masthead Mobilizing the Region is published by the staff of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
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