A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
Winners
ConnDOT and Nutmeg State college students — Community college and state university students in Connecticut are eligible to receive transit passes, good for unlimited transit trips throughout the state, for just $20 per semester.
New York Assembly Member Joe Lentol and Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez — Lentol and Gonzalez are teaming up to stiffen penalties for hit-and-run drivers.
New York City pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders — None of the StreetsPAC-endorsed New York City Council incumbents lost their seats in yesterday’s primary, a testament to the staying power of lawmakers who fight for safer streets and better transit.
The Philadelphia Eagles — The NFL team took Amtrak from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to their game near Washington, D.C. last Sunday, which they won.
Losers
Ford Motor Company — “Petextrians?” Really? Not only is Ford’s latest “safety” campaign stupid — if you think distracted walking is so dangerous, ask yourself what happens when you take cars out of the equation — it’s not even clever.
Camden, Ocean, Monmouth and Gloucester counties (NJ) — Camden, Ocean and Monmouth each saw at least 15 traffic fatalities during the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year, and Gloucester County’s total jumped from four summer traffic fatalities in 2016 to 14 in 2017.
40 Millions Automobilistes — A French motorists group upset with efforts to limit the hegemony of the automobile in Paris published Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s phone number and urged people to clog her phone line, like they say she is doing to the roads. Sounds like a bunch of n’importe quoi to us.
New York City voters — 86 percent of registered voters in the Big Apple didn’t turn out for Tuesday’s primary election.
Texting pedestrians ARE a danger to themselves and the drivers of public transportation vehicles and other vehicles that may have to take evasive action to avoid people who are so absorbed in their text they lost track of their surroundings. They have been known to walk into the sides of buses and light rail vehicles as they are pulling into or out of stops.
When voters don’t come out in foreign countries it’s called a “boycott”. The 84% of NYC Democrats were just delivering a message.
An unnamed loser; Long Island Rail Road / MTA well known for their ‘fake news’ / fake statistics. You’ve got real time, Army Time, and LIRR time. On LIRR, if a train inbound to Penn gets to some point near the tunnels within 5:59 of scheduled Penn arrival, or possibly if it just dies en route, it’s on time. For many years, my daily train to Penn averaged 3 to 10 minutes late daily – in real life. On time for years, only once – until the Summer Of Hell, when so many trains were diverted that in 8 weeks my train came in on time a few times and early once, and average lateness maybe 2 minutes. It was the best LIRR has seen in decades! The moment Amtrak said their work was done, LIRR trains started breaking down, getting cancelled or delayed, track problems, switch problems – that same afternoon it began. Today my train died en route on the Port Jeff line. They eventually got it back up, and after a 12 minute delay, we got in 20 plus minutes late. They say the train was still having problems and operated at delayed speed. My guess – as they often do, LIRR dispatching just let everyone go around it so they wouldn’t also be late.
LIRR and MTA need a true ‘on time’ or otherwise reporting policy. Displays in stations should tell you how many minutes in ‘real’ time until the next train arrives to a specified destination, AND how late it is running, also in real time.
Honesty is a great thing!