Continuing our look at the Mayor’s PLAN2030 for a sustainable New York City, we arrive at Bruce Schaller, noted transportation consultant. While Schaller did not have the same official platform as Gene Russianoff did, he long has enjoyed a position of prominence in New York City’s transportation field.
Last month, Schaller penned a long piece in the Gotham Gazette on sustainable transportation measures that should be implemented between now and 2030. While containing a few little ideas that would make the city much more pedestrian-friendly, Schaller focused around big ideas that would ideally provide for better public transportation and greater disincentives to drive in the City.
On a macro level, Schaller recommends against the “chaotic” status quo, urges quick action on big capital plans (such as the 2nd Ave. subway) so that they won’t be derailed and calls for cooperation among government bodies and agencies. All of these suggestions are pretty standard stuff for the good government groups and consultants that serve as watch dog organizations in New York City.
Specifically, Schaller pushes for three ideas. The first encompasses the congestion tax that every public transportation and livable streets advocate has called for recently.
The economic signals need to fixed. That means congestion pricing for the Manhattan business district. Pricing should be applied as narrowly as possible, affecting only those motorists who by driving at the busiest times and places most contribute to slowing down everyone else. I’ve outlined a plan for peak period charges inbound to Manhattan in the morning peak period, outbound in the evening peak period, and for driving anywhere in the business district midday.
The second calls for quickly implemented public transportation infrastructure improvements in the city. These upgrades range from new subway lines to truly dedicated express bus lanes to controlled traffic plans during peak driving seasons to technology upgrades for the MTA. In the end, these projects should all benefit pedestrians, cyclists, buses and others using environmentally sound mass transportation. Furthermore, these improvements can be funded by the congestion tax, Schaller urges, and Bloomberg should act quickly to broker such a deal.
All of this will take money, lots of money, and that’s where the second big idea comes in. The mayor will need to make a grand deal with the MTA and Port Authority on how the congestion fees are collected, who gets them, what it pays for and how the use of the money is guaranteed for the promised purposes. That grand deal would be another Bloomberg legacy.
Finally, Schaller urges small steps that will be appreciated throughout the city. He calls for higher meter rates to encourage parking turnover (and mass transit options instead of cars); he urges thoroughfare closings on the weekends; he calls for better don’t-block-the-box enforcement and stringent taxi pick-up and drop-off rules.
So the third big idea in the mayor’s sustainability plan should be to set in motion a series of smaller steps that will gain a momentum all their own. As New Yorkers see the benefits of these pilots, they will demand them for their own neighborhood. It’s a viral approach to transportation improvements that worked with bus rapid transit and high-tech traffic signals in Los Angeles. It’s also an approach that can make the mayor’s sustainability plan self-sustaining.
Schaller and Russianoff share many of the same ideas. They want more funding for the MTA and a quicker response time. In other words, it shouldn’t take the Authority two years to complete a project when they promise an initial completion time of one year.
The two also want to see the city push alternatives to automobiles. Sustainable city life in 25 years, in other words, shouldn’t include as many cars as it does now. It’s hard to argue with the point that New York City is overrun by cars. When people driver their H2s down Flatbush Ave. just to go home from work, something is wrong.
Hopefully, Mayor Bloomberg, concerned with his legacy, can focus on transportation as his PLANYC2030 develops. Transportation is key to New York’s vibrancy now, and it will continue to be the key to the City’s growth and development over the next 25 years. While it’s a pipe dream to believe that all of Schaller’s and Russianoff’s ideas will be implemented, as long as the city can make material gains in improving public transportation, New York will grow healthy and hearty by 2030.