A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
WINNERS
New York City Councilman Daniel Garodnick — The councilman announced that the proposed rezoning of Midtown East’s Vanderbilt Corridor was approved by a Council subcommittee with the addition of $10 million in new transit and public space improvements.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, Pennington Borough Administrator Eileen Heinzel, Hopewell Township Mayor Harvey Lester, Hopewell Borough Mayor Paul Anzano and East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov — The leaders of the six Mercer County, NJ municipalities are urging the legislature and governor to work together to solve the state’s transportation funding crisis.
US Representatives Doris Matsui and David Joyce — Matsui (D-CA) and Joyce (R-OH) introduced the Safe Streets Act of 2015, which seeks to require all federally-funded transportation projects to incorporate Complete Streets principles.
Suffolk County, Brookhaven, Islip and Long Island Rail Road — The four entities have combined resources to form the Ronkonkoma Hub Regional Alliance, touted as the first regional planning effort of its kind in the region, which will help guide the mixed-use transit-oriented development project.
Manhattan Community Board 6 — The Board voted unanimously to fill a dangerous 10-block gap in the First Avenue protected bike lane.
LOSERS
New York City transit riders — While the MTA, the City and the State squabble over who promised how much to whom and when, it’s irrelevant because all of the funding levels being discussed are inadequate.
Connecticut State Senator Toni Boucher — Connecticut deserves a serious discussion about transportation funding, but Senator Boucher has based her opposition to tolls on misleading and inaccurate conclusions.
New York City bicyclists — The City’s bike commute rate has grown since 2000, but that growth is limited to certain neighborhoods — particularly those with bike infrastructure. Unfortunately, NYCDOT is backpedaling on an earlier goal to increase the share of people on bikes.
Reckless Babylon, NY drivers — Some drivers in the town are so aggressive that previously-installed rumble strips and other safety measures weren’t enough to reduce crashes, leading officials to have to seek state funding for two new traffic lights.
Minnesota Department of Transportation — The agency is removing some crosswalks as part of an effort to improve accessibility.
Now if the Princeton mayor could reverse the theft of the Princeton Station and movement to a less convenient location that was done to satisfy the megalomania of Princeton University.
Senator Boucher is correct. Tolls will harm residents and businesses near the state line. Taking a poll of residents in the center of the state, far from the toll plaza and fees is not an unbiased sample.
Any legislator representing a border are subject to tolls, who votes in favor if tolls, will lose their seat.
More importantly, the state has shown that it can’t be trusted to use transportation fees for transportation related exoenses as they just use them every year to pad the general fund. First they need to vote to have a lock box then we can talk about raising fees, tolls, and ticket prices for trains and busses.