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View from Underground

Video of the Day: Jumping the turnstile and getting caught

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 13, 2011

Here’s another gem that’s been making the rounds this week. It is a video from 125th Street on the 2 and 3, and it shows what happens when plainclothes cops tried to stop some fare-jumpers. Animal New York posted it this week with a note from the videographer:

Happened around 9:40pm on Friday, October 7th in Harlem below the 125th street and Lenox Street 2/3 station. These girls allegedly jumped the subway turnstile to avoid a fare. When the cops entered the train and tried to talk them out. It didn’t work. They began to force them out and this is what happend next. Not sure if you can fully see but there was a gigantic mob of people who had the cops/girls surrounded. Some seemed to be protesting the cops and others where if favor of the police action. From my vantage point it seemed like the girls were completely in the wrong, but I can’t be sure. It seemed like forever for back up to arrive but as you can see it wasn’t really that long. This happened FAST. Not sure what happened after.

The amount of disrespect shown to the system by those who ride might be greater than the amount shown by Albany.

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MTA Politics

Should the next MTA head be a transit expert?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 13, 2011

Joseph Lhota may be an MTA frontrunner, but is he the right man for the job?

Over the past few days, rumors have continued to swirl that former Deputy Mayor and current MSG executive Joseph Lhota will be named the next head of the MTA. At the bare minimum, we know that he’s in the running, and interestingly enough, he’s the only candidate whose name has been leaked to the public without any transit experience in his background.

Initially, I wasn’t too concerned with Lhota’s background. After all, both outgoing MTA CEO and Chair Jay Walder and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have said that the MTA’s leader need not be a transit expert. As long as he or she surrounds himself with qualified and knowledgeable executives, the MTA head can focus more on big-picture budgetary and management concerns while the sub-agency heads can immerse themselves in operations. A part of a recent article on Lhota by Transportation Nation’s Jim O’Grady has me reassessing that stance.

Yesterday afternoon, O’Grady summed up the rumors and solicited some feedback from various advocates. He writes:

Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, a policy think tank, said he didn’t know Lhota well enough to comment specifically. But he said that from a leadership perspective, “It’s important someone be selected who can really make a strong case for transit and can convince legislators that this is so critical to the city’s future and that we’re on the precipice of something bad happening.”

Bowles added that the stakes are enormous: “If there’s one thing Governor Cuomo could do now to boost the city’s economy, it’s shore up the transit system.”

…Sources differed on Lhota’s ability to rise to those challenges. The NY MTA needs someone “who can handle the union relationships, the crisis of money, and Lhota will get it faster than most people,” said one. Another thought the Republican Lhota could help the Democrat Cuomo beat back a Republican-lead push in the state legislature to eliminate the payroll mobility tax.

But a third believed Lhota was the front-runner precisely because he won’t speak up too loudly for the needs of mass transit: “He’s gong to be the person who makes the cuts without making any demands on the state budget. He may even then turn around and say to the city, ‘It’s all your fault.’ He’s going to protect Andrew Cuomo from the hard choices.”

Of these statements, I believe Bowles’ comment and the third anonymous source raise some valid concerns. The MTA is at a point where it needs someone to advocate for a capital funding plan solution. That requires a detailed knowledge of transit operations and construction as well as a thorough understanding of how Albany works. Furthermore, at a time during which the MTA’s finances are in flux, the authority needs someone who will be more than just a Yes Man for Cuomo.

Over the past few years, Walder has taken an aggressive tone in arguing for investment in public transit. If the next MTA head is someone will be more willing to make cuts without pressuring the state for solutions, New York City’s subway system and the millions of riders who depend upon it will suffer. Even without transit experience, the next head must advocate for the system.

With speculation flying, Cuomo has expressed a desire to name a replacement for Walder before he departs next Friday. One way or another, this saga will come to a resolution soon.

* * *
Update (3:24 p.m.): As I was writing this piece, Colby Hamilton at WNYC’s Empire blog offered up his take on the appointment, and he is highly critical of Cuomo’s intentions here. “A Lhota appointment look based on political calculations more than anything else. The Cuomo people are signaling an interest in reducing their exposure to potential political problems, not in solving the agency’s unsustainable financial crisis. This of course was created over the years by politicians worried about their political exposure,” he writes. “If you add in the push-out of Chris Ward at the Port Authority, it’s Cuomo’s top priority is having his people in key, highly-public posts who will put the governor’s political interests first.”

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Subway Maps

For the new map, a move away from geography

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 12, 2011

To clean up the background clutter, the newest subway map has eliminated some minor streets, Alphabet City.

Whenever I write about subway maps, my pieces or the comments that follow inevitably turn toward a debate on form vs. function. Should a subway map, I’ve wondered, aid riders navigate the city above or simply provide a more artistic schematic view of the train routes? Both views have their merits, and the best practical maps strike a balance between the two.

When the MTA issued a quiet revision to its map earlier this map, I noted how the MTA has moved toward a simplified map. As the authority said to me, “To continue to build on earlier clutter reduction, we’ve removed some streets and cemeteries that were not directly served by the subway.” It seems that the MTA’s approach is to overlay the subway routes on a rough outline of the city grid.

Earlier this week, Michael Grynbaum at The Times took a closer look at the map’s changes and found some interesting stories that illuminate the origins of the current map. Grynbaum picks Charlton St. in the West Village. I’ve lived in New York for my entire life, and I’d be hard-pressed to tell you where Charlton St. is. For some reason, though, it was, until recently, on the subway map.

Amusingly enough, not enough residents of Charlton St. noticed its presence on the subway map. “I never noticed that,” Richard Blodgett, president of the Charlton Street Block Association, said. “Maybe I’d seen it and not thought much about it. I’ve certainly never heard anybody in the neighborhood discuss that.” But now it’s gone, and Grynbaum recounts the story determining the streets that cracked the map:

Members of the design committee that created the map in the late 1970s recalled conversations with the tourism bureau and a survey of leading maps at the time. But the general approach was summed up by John Tauranac, the committee’s chairman: “A lot of it was seat of the pants.”

“The whole purpose of putting in what could be considered ancillary streets was to give people a hint of where they are in relation to subway stations,” Mr. Tauranac said. “My memory doesn’t serve me well enough to include whether there was discussion over whether to include Charlton, King or Vandam.”

Michael Hertz, who also sat on the committee, concurred. “Sometimes we put stuff down almost arbitrarily, if we thought we had room for it,” he said. As for Charlton, “We could have flipped a coin and put the next street in.” Personal preferences, Mr. Hertz said, had no bearing on the decision: “No one said, ‘I want that street in because my grandmother lives there.’”

As Grynbaum notes, Charlton St. isn’t the only one to draw the short straw in this redesign. As Grynbaum notes, in Manhattan, Greenwich St., Bank St., Madison St. and Avenues A, B and D are all a victim of the map cuts while Warren Ave., Laconia Ave. and Boston Road in the Bronx have met their demise. Brooklyn’s Third Ave. and Columbia St. are but a map memory, and 20th Ave. in Astoria and 59th St. in Queens are off the map.

On the latest version of the subway map, Astoria ends at Ditmas Boulevard.

The end result is something far easier to read. With fewer white lines distracting the viewer, the map draws more attention to the subway routes, and that, after all, is its primary purpose. At the same time, though, it becomes a less useful tool for those who want to use the map to navigate above ground as well. Does Astoria end with the subway map and the N and Q trains at Ditmars Boulevard? Is there even a New York Ave.? Is the next major street east of First Avenue simply the FDR Drive? Alphabet City, you are no more. Even Charlton St., the western part of Prince St. that once hosted exits from the IND’s Spring St. station, will fade from our cartographic memory.

The form vs. function battle is one the MTA has been waging with its subway maps since the days of Vingelli in 1972. Slowly, slowly, the authority is moving toward a representation with the outlines of the boroughs and only a handful of key streets. As the grid fades away, this new map is a-OK for subway navigation. Any use beyond that is sure to get the budding map-reader dazed and confused.

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Public Transit Policy

Tapping across a new Tappan Zee, but not taking the train

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 12, 2011

Plans drawn up in 2010 that included rail tracks across the Tappan Zee replacement will not see the light of day quite yet.

In an effort to get money flowing to important infrastructure construction sites, the Obama Administration announced this week that they would “fast track” a series of near-ready projects, and included among those is our own Tappan Zee. The 56-year-old bridge, well older than we would all like, has long been the subject of replacement studies, and most of those called for some combination of railroad tracks and dedicated bus lanes in order to improve transportation across the Hudson River. Now, transit is off the table.

As LoHud.com’s Khurram Saeed reports today, the Tappan Zee replacement project will not include mass transit in its current iteration. To lop $10 billion dollars off the price tag, the fast-tracked span will not include rail lines or bus lanes. While engineers will leave space for such upgrades in the future, that’s rarely a guarantee for future funding or construction work.

Advocates recognize the importance of moving the replacement bridge project from the study phase to reality, but they bemoaned this move as an opportunity lost. “We’re missing a grand opportunity here,” Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said. “The whole idea was to reduce congestion and provide a focal point for development for the Hudson Valley region. Commuters are still going to be stuck in traffic unless there’s an alternative. You’re basically doing nothing for congestion.”

Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef echoed this charge. “You can’t just throw a bridge down there and say we’ll build the rest of it later,” he said.

The ultimate issue is one of price. Under New York State’s expensive proposal, a true multi-modal replacement would cost $16 billion. Of that total, the bridge would clock in at $6.4 billion with $1.9 billion set aside of highway improvements while transit costs would run to $7.7 billion — $1 billion for the bus rapid transit lane and $6.7 billion to run a rail line from Suffern to Tarrytown. The feds will instead throw in a little over $5 billion, and we will once again make the wrong decision with respect to the Tappan Zee Bridge. Funny how history just keeps repeating itself.

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AsidesMTA

Report: Saul to be named interim MTA Chair

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 12, 2011

In nine days, Jay Walder will leave his post as MTA Chair and CEO as he readies to depart for Hong Kong, and despite the looming resignation, all has been quiet from Albany on his potential replacement. Yesterday, I reported that Joseph Lhota may be the leading candidate, and today, the Daily News echos my scoop while adding Neil Peterson, Thomas Prendergast, Nuria Fernandez, Daniel Grabauskas and Karen Rae to the list of candidates. The outlook for the nomination remains hazy, but we do however have an inkling of who will replace Walder in the short term. According to a New York 1 report, current MTA Vice Chairman Andrew Saul will serve as interim chair as the search for a permanent replacement continues.

As interim heads go, Saul is the safest of safe choices and one primed for the moment. Named to the MTA Board by Pataki, he has served the Authority since 1996. He is a member of every committee, and with an extensive background in retail and private equity, he is the chair of the MTA’s finance committee. He also sits on a number of other boards, including the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and UPENN’s Wharton School.

In the immediate few weeks, Saul will have to continue to lobby for a resolution to the MTA’s $10 billion capital budget gap, and according to NY1, Saul will “likely follow in the same policy path” as Walder. It offers some stability for the MTA, but still, with another interim head preceding a new permanent CEO and Chair, the MTA is guaranteed to run through six chairmen or women in as many years. For an organization as vital yet on shaky financial footing as the MTA, such turmoil at the top isn’t helping in the long- or short-term.

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BrooklynBuses

Balancing parking, driving and bus lanes along the B44

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 12, 2011

Plans for the B44 SBS include bus bulbs.

Over the past few years, the battle for street space has become a headline-grabber in New York City. On the one hand are folks who support vibrant street life. These folks argue for dedicated bus lanes, bike lanes and policies that promote pedestrian safety and mass transit over parking. On the other are those who believe that taking away a lane for driving or parked cars is an affront to liberty and freedom and that bike lanes are a part of the tenth circle of hell. Clearly, you know which side I’m on.

While the bike lane battles have been brewing in Park Slope and Williamsburg, the MTA and New York City DOT have been S-L-O-W-L-Y laying out plans for Brooklyn’s first Select Bus Service route. The new service will follow the path of the B44 along Nostrand and Rogers Avenues from Williamsburg to Sheepshead Bay, and throughout the planning process, it has received the usual array of windshield criticism. Community Board 15 voted it down due to its potential impact on parking while drivers complained that pedestrian-oriented improvements would take away space for their cars.

The MTA and DOT have been listening though, and now they’re making a case for their plan. Last week, they unveiled the latest iteration of the B44 SBS service, and while it still takes away some space for parking and auto lanes, businesses are rallying behind it because DOT has preserved capacity. In other words, by reallocating space from parked cars to vehicles in motion, the street will be more active. The latest presentation is available here as a PDF, and Streetsblog’s Noah Kazis offers up a thorough summary of the plans. He writes:

Nostrand Avenue SBS will, as in the Bronx and Manhattan, create dedicated bus lanes enforced by automated cameras and use high-capacity buses and off-board fare payment. With fewer stops, the bus will also spend more time in motion and less time starting and stopping. The Nostrand project will add another new feature: bus bulbs. By extending the sidewalk out to the street, bus bulbs mean that drivers don’t have to pull to the curb and back into the lane, resulting in a smoother and speedier ride. A raised curb means more level boarding onto the bus, advantageous for the elderly and the mobility-impaired. The extra space also means that the bus stop won’t crowd the sidewalk…

In order to preserve the same number of motor vehicle lanes during rush hour, where a bus lane is being installed DOT proposes turning the left parking lane into a through lane during the morning and evening peaks. This shouldn’t have too much of an impact on local merchants. At Nostrand and Empire Boulevard, only 14 percent of shoppers had driven to the area (and not all had parked on Nostrand). Further south, at Glenwood Road, only 13 percent of shoppers had arrived in a car.

Moreover, there’s a lot of room to add parking in other ways. On much of Nostrand and its cross streets, parking is currently free. The installation of meters will encourage drivers to move on once done shopping, freeing up space for others. The use of Muni-Meters will also allow more vehicles to park in the same area. Finally, loading zones and delivery windows will ensure that trucks have space at the curb rather than being forced to resort to double-parking.

This is transportation planning as it should be. In total, the amount of space constantly available for parked cars will dwindle, but what good are parked cars? They may provide transportation, but once idle, they sit lifeless in vibrant urban shopping areas. Muni meters will encourage turnover of parking spaces while buses, a major mode of transportation, will move more freely up and down the avenues. Cars won’t lose lanes, and businesses will gain loading zones. It’s a close to a win-win-win as one will find on the city streets these days.

Ultimately, though, this Select Bus Service suffers from the same problems that most of the MTA’s bus offerings do: While the route ends at the edge of the borough, most riders want to continue beyond that arbitrary border. The B44 SBS service would be far more useful if it crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and provided a direct connection with the M15 SBS as well as the F train at Delancey St. That’s a dream for another day though. Next fall, Brooklyn will finally get its first faster bus route.

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View from Underground

Video Idiot of the Day: Ridin’ on the outside

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 11, 2011

Via Gothamist and Daily Intel, this one’s making the rounds today…

While the MTA frequently announces that it is both illegal and highly dangerous to ride on the outside of subway cars, I’ve never actually seen anyone do it. That is, never until know. This video lays it out as it should be. This is an idiot riding on the outside of the car. While the other straphangers seem to be cheering this on, I’m with Dan Amira of the Daily Intel:

If a subway surfer hitched himself onto our train, we wouldn’t be laughing and cheering him on — we’d be pissed off and snitch on him as soon as possible. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but kill yourself on your own time. The rest of us have better things to do than sit in a stalled subway train for an hour as they clean you off the tracks.

Seriously.

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Subway Maps

Ushering in the digital return of the Vignelli map

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 11, 2011

The MTA's Weekender map introduced a new generation of subway riders to the wonders of Massimo Vignelli's iconic subway map.

When the MTA debuted its Weekender map last month, it did so with a flourish. The new offering, a digital interpretation of the weekend’s service changes aimed at bringing visual information to the straphanging masses, brought Massimo Vignelli’s controversial and iconic subway map back into circulation.

Vignelli’s map, currently a part of MoMA’s permanent collection, had a decade-long run as the MTA’s official subway map in the 1970s, but it was a run not without constant controversy. Relying on a multitude of colors and some abstract geographic shapes that vaguely represented the boroughs of New York, the map had numerous detractors who found it hard to use and hard to read. Parks weren’t green; rivers weren’t blue; and due to the lines and angles, some stations weren’t even in the right place.

By the mid-1970s, the MTA had a plan in place to phase out the Vignelli map, and in 1979, the map designed by Michael Hertz Associates made its debut. With some modifications, that’s the map we know and begrudgingly love today. Yet, Vignelli’s map has always been a popular one. It’s appeared on sunglasses and dresses, and in 2008, Vignelli issued an update for Men’s Vogue.

Now, Vignelli’s offering is back in action with the MTA but just don’t call it a map. Rather, the Weekener is a diagram of subway service. Vignelli’s map, with its straight lines that each represent one subway route, is ideal for the digital age. As Vignelli told The Times a few wees ago, his map was “created in B.C. (before computer) for the A.C. (after computer) era.”

So just how did Massimo Vignelli and the MTA work out the new diagram? A post by Steven Heller on The Times’ T Magazine blog delves into the detente. Heller writes:

he new digital iteration is the result of the combined efforts of Vignelli and two of his associates, Beatriz Cifuentes and Yoshiki Waterhouse. One of their first acts was to rename the map. It is now a diagram, which actually makes sense as it is not a literal representation, but a semantic one. They also agreed to add supplementary neighborhood map options — online versions of the proprietary maps already used in M.T.A. stations.

For The Weekender, the team rebuilt the diagram geometry from scratch using a new primary grid for Midtown. This grid is essentially a square bound by 14th and 59th Streets, and Park and Eighth Avenues, with Broadway running diagonally from corner to corner. Intervals between major cross streets like 14th or 42nd were placed equidistantly along the grid, with more minor stops, like 18th and 28th, placed in between. And, Waterhouse adds, “We introduced a hollow dot to represent stops, which were sometimes passed, depending on schedule, known as a ‘sometimes-stop.’”

Waterhouse explains that all critiques of the 1972 map — which had been dutifully retained by the M.T.A. — were addressed. But Vignelli’s biggest bugaboo was showing the parks. He believed that including them — particularly Central Park — was the downfall of the 1972 map, so the new iteration eliminates all parks. Issues of type size and legibility were addressed, and line colors, station names and connections were all updated.

With Vignelli’s map making headlines, design enthusiasts have again expressed their hopes that the MTA would reissue it in paper form. Clearly, the diagram has retained its allure of yesteryear while offering up something nicer to look at than the current map. As a tool for navigation though, it still relies on basic knowledge of New York City geography and the streets above.

As a subway map buff, I own more than a few Vignelli maps of various vintages. I love the design and the decidedly 1970s approach to subway route colors. I also recognize that it wasn’t the most practical design in the world. With the Weekender, the Vignelli diagram serves its purposes, and while the technology behind the MTA’s offering may need some refining, the design is just right.

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MTA Politics

Pondering the next MTA head as rumors swirl

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 11, 2011

Could one-time deputy mayor and current MSG exec Joseph Lhota be on the short list for MTA head?

My 10th grade English teacher had an expression that he would impart to us every month. On the tenth of each month, he would say, for all practical purposes, the month is now over. It’s not really a saying that makes much sense if you think about it, but it’s stuck with me throughout the years. As yesterday was the 10th, then, for all practical purposes October is now over.

For the MTA, though, the end of October will be a major milestone. By the end of the month, before the next three weeks elapse, Jay Walder, the current MTA CEO and Chairman, will depart for the greener pastures of Hong Kong, and the authority will be left with a new leader, its fourth over the last five years. At some point, Andrew Cuomo will name a successor, and that political appointee will have to balance a drive to move forward with the need to shore up a capital budget and looming labor negotiations. It’s not an easy or enviable job.

During his final board meeting at the end of September, Walder dropped some hints as to what qualities his successor might posses. “Whoever runs this organization should be dedicated to the organization,” he said. That person has to be “dedicate to what it does on a day-to-day basis. I think it is helpful to have a knowledge of mass transit. I don’t know that it’s an absolutely essential quality.”

Without naming names, the Governor issued a similar statement in September. “The MTA [CEO] primarily is an effective manager, and I think the ability to manage a complex process, that deals with highly technical services, in a political environment, in a large organization, at a financially strapped time, you know, that’s where we are,” Cuomo said. “To me, the management is very important. Of course, the technical expertise, but you give me a good manager, who can run an organization, and find efficiency, that this organization is going to have to find, that’s going to be paramount.”

Essentially, what Walder and Cuomo have both said is that the person atop the MTA command structure doesn’t need to be, first and foremost, a transit guy. Rather, he needs to be a management guy, and as long as he surrounds himself with a COO and agency heads who know transit, the organization can, in an ideal world, deliver the service while moving forward with improvements and streamlining the bureaucratic organization. You don’t need to be a transit guy for that; you just have to willing to listen to your transit people.

All of that is a roundabout way of burying the lead. Lately, I’ve heard one name bandied about in a few off-the-record conversations, and it strikes me as both an odd choice and one in line with what both Walder and Cuomo have said. Joseph Lhota, a veteran of city government and a current Executive Vice President with Madison Square Garden, appears to be on the short list of potential people to head the MTA. He’s an odd choice for an appointee by Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo because he was a long-time right-hand man of Rudy Giuliani’s. He served as Deputy Mayor for Operations for three years and as the city’s Budget Director for three as well. He was also a point person on Giuliani’s failed presidential campaign in 2007-2008.

As far as management goes, though, Lhota fits the bill. He’s a Harvard MBA with experience in city budgetary politics and governance and with nearly ten years under his belt as a higher-up with both Cablevision and MSG. Based on contemporaneous news coverage, he had some dealings with the MTA budget back in the mid-1990s and now serves on the CUNY board. Thus, he seems to know both corporate and governmental management. Personality-wise, he was called bombastic and outspoken in profiles written about him during the waning years of the Giuliani Administration but was also known as the softy during some bull-headed years.

Despite some whispers that Lhota could well be named MTA head this month, no one, of course, would confirm his place on the short list to me on the record so I’m relying on some rumors and speculation here. Even in the 2010 election cycle, Lhota donated to Scott Brown and Peter King, among other Republicans, and Cuomo, a Democrat with designs on a White House run, isn’t the type to reach across the aisle for such a key state appointment.

Ultimately, though, whether he’s chosen as MTA head or not, Lhota is simply a stand-in for the type of the person Cuomo seems to be eying. The next MTA head may come with practical political experience but no true transit background. If Walder’s successor is intent on reforming the MTA while installing or maintaining those who are knowledgeable in transit operations, such an experiment might work out. We’ll find out soon enough.

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AsidesManhattan

Link of the Day: The decline of Manhattan’s gas stations

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 10, 2011

Here’s a fascinating infrastructure story from Crain’s New York’s Brian Chappatta: Manhattan is running out of gas stations. Chappatta profiles the dying breed of fill stations on the isle of New York county. Once upon a time back in 2009, there were 58 gas stations in Manhattan, and now there are just 41. Only four gas stations remain that are both south of 96th Street and east of 10th Avenue.

As Crain’s notes, two factors have driven gas stations out of business: midtown real estate value and the high costs of delivering fuel to the island. “It’s just a sign of the times,” Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said. “Selling off gas stations accelerated at the height of the market before the downturn, and now it’s picking up again. As money gets freed up and development moves forward, once again we’ll see some of those sites being bid on.”

Eventually, more gas stations will close as the land they sit on grows more valuable, and gas prices will increase in Manhattan. As long as cars (and non-hybrid taxis) remain a prominent part of the city’s transportation network, consumers will have to pay more as gas prices increase. The decline of gas stations should, however, create an opening for New York to become a potential leader in the electric vehicle field. After all, plug-in stations are far more flexible and take up far less real estate than a traditional filling station.

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