A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
Winners
New York Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz — In a letter to MTA Chairman Joe Lhota, and at a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, Dinowitz and members of the New York State Assembly called for a “comprehensive plan” for turning around New York City’s floundering bus system.
U.S. Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bob Menendez and Chuck Schumer — The quartet of senators from New York and New Jersey are pressing USDOT Secretary Elaine Chao to justify the withdrawal of a rule that would have expanded sleep apnea testing requirements for commercial truck drivers and train operators.
Protectors of the Second Avenue bike lane — Volunteers with Transportation Alternatives lined up alongside the bike lane on Manhattan’s Second Avenue between 45th and 44th Streets — a segment that has no physical barrier to keep vehicles out of the bike lane — essentially serving as “human bollards.”
Losers
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio — The plan dominating today’s congestion pricing zeitgeist is “explicitly predicated” on fairness, yet the mayor says he’s never seen an example that he thought was fair. 🤔
Stamford, CT Rep. John Zelinsky — Distracted pedestrians can’t really harm anybody but themselves, but that’s not stopping the 40-year veteran of Stamford’s Board of Representatives from proposing this “solution without a problem” which would outlaw texting while walking.
New York Assembly Member Diana Richardson — The assembly member from Brooklyn blasted a 20-year-old NYPD traffic enforcement agent on Facebook for doing his job: ticketing her illegally parked Nissan.
So if a distracted pedestrian knocks over another distracted pedestrian or wanders into the path of a vehicle, there is no problem. While the law may be unenforceable and bad from that point of view, the idea that distracted pedestrians are no problem would be a grim joke to transit agencies and operators who have had these people walk into the sides of moving vehicles.
I totally agree with Mr. Morris. As a pedestrian, I was run into by a distracted pedestrian. Fortunately, I suffered only a minor injury. As a driver, a distracted pedestrian ran into my car and fell over. Fortunately, she was not caught under my wheels and did not suffer more than a scrape. And I have been run into a number of times by shopping carts operated by distracted shoppers on their smartphones.