A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
WINNERS
Margaret Chin and Mark Levine – After several traffic crashes involving pedestrians in recent weeks, New York City Councilmembers Chin and Levine are calling on the New York City Department of Transportation to implement safety improvements in their districts.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop – Mayor Fulop’s Administration is working to “help tame the streets of the state’s second-largest city” by initiating a trial run of a car-free zone along Newark Avenue.
Berlin, Meriden, New Britain and Stratford, CT – The four communities were collectively awarded $6.6 million in state grants and loans to clean up brownfield sites for transit-oriented development projects.
Companies embracing bike share – Companies ranging from American Express to General Motors are incorporating bike share programs into their workplaces to encourage employees “to get out and be active during the workday.”
LOSERS
PATH Train – The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s subway system is hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate, raising the possibility that the service could be transferred to another transit agency.
Metro-North Railroad – The MTA’s Blue Ribbon Panel report identified several failures in the safety culture within Metro-North, stating that the agency has prioritized on-time performance over safety.
New York State Department of Transportation – After seven years, a stretch of the Hudson River Greenway bike path – the busiest bike path in the nation – remains closed due to construction.
If New Jersey Transit ever decided to learn from its European counterparts and have a unified fare structure good on trains, buses, light rail and maybe ferries wtih seamless transfer (see Hamburg, Zurich, the Rhine-Ruhr area for examples), then Path would just be a part of the operation.