Sixty percent of New Yorkers will support congestion pricing if the money goes toward mass transit, the most recent Q Poll found. Sounds good to me. [Daily News]
Category: Asides
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City Council to hold Rider Report Card hearing
Because John Liu is still one of the city’s elected representatives, the City Council is gearing up for another run at the MTA. This time, they are going to hold a hearing on the lack of response from the Rider Report Card program. Only 7 percent of the 700,000 were turned to the MTA, and City Council Transportation Committee Chair John Liu feels that the report cards were simply a “wasteful gimmick.” Funny; that’s exactly what I think of Liu. [New York Sun]
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What’s happening with the BRT plans?
Brooklyn Junction notes that the MTA’s plans for Bus Rapid Transit lanes may be changing. Originally planned for the Nostrand Ave. corridor in Brooklyn, BRT may be off the table for now. According to the blog, at a recent community meeting, the Department of Transportation said that the project is on hold for Nostrand Ave., and earlier this week, the Tri-State Rapid Transportation campaign noted the same thing. I have no new information, but I will try to get to the bottom of it. New York badly needs their BRT service; I hope it’s moving forward. [Brooklyn Junction]
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There’s a reason why the trains are more crowded
According to recent statistics, MTA ridership levels were at an all-time high in 2007. More on this story later. [Daily News]
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If the MetroCard design ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Over at The Times’ Cityroom blog on Monday, Sewell Chan posted a diatribe on the design of the MetroCard. His thesis is that the MetroCard design is, in a word, terrible. The ubiquitous yellow cards with the familiar blue writing aren’t the most exciting of graphics in the subway world. Taking his cue from five subway riders and graphics designers, Chan opened up the floor to Cityroom commenters, and they responded in kind with 92 suggestions of varying of degrees of practicality.
But, leaving aside issues of journalistic integrity, Chan’s post is besides the point. The MetroCard doesn’t need to a new design; it needs to be scrapped entirely. As Wikipedia adequately demonstrates, everywhere else but New York City already employs smart card technology in various walks of life but mostly for public transportation. The Metro in Washington, D.C., has used smart card technology since 1999, around the time that the MTA introduced MetroCard Vending Machines. That would have been the perfect time to be one of the early adopters of smart card technology.
While a redesign for the MetroCard wouldn’t cost much — the MTA could, after all, open it up to the public for no cost — it’s just an unnecessary project. The design of the MetroCard isn’t impacting its function; it’s outdated technology is doing that just fine. In November, I wrote about smart card technology and its slow-as-molasses arrival in New York, and its time has long come. We don’t need design contests or a new look; we just need a new — or, at this point, not-so-new — technology for our subway system.
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Brooklynites receive online laurels for F Express efforts
In their year-end review of Brookly, The Gowanus Lounge named the F Express effort as the borough’s number two participatory democracy effort of 2007. While we depressingly know that the F Express option won’t be back on the table until the completion of the Culver Viaduct rehabilitation, the accolades for Gary Reilly’s project are much deserved. [The Gowanus Lounge]
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MTA appoints new anti-graffiti task force
While the subways are no longer the hotbed for graffiti that they were in the 1970s and 1980s, the MTA is still combatting subway taggers. To that end, they’ve appointed a new squad of retired police officers to patrol popular train yards and catch taggers in the act. While this squad should be beneficial to the MTA, you have to wonder, as a recent Subchatter did this week, whether a bunch of retired cops are going to be able to track down, on foot, young and agile taggers. [Daily News]
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Sunday service on Christmas
Just a short reminder that all New York City Transit buses and subways are operating on a Sunday schedule for Christmas today. So if you plan to wait for a B, V or W, you’ll be waiting until Wednesday. Merry Christmas.
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Fulton hub beset with cost overruns
The MTA is running into more problems with the proposed Fulton Street hub. The station — a massive underground catacomb designed to connect the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, E, R, W, J and Z trains — was meant to be an anchor in the Lower Manhattan revival. But the project is running into cost overruns. Yesterday, MTA Board Member Nancy Shevell said it would require some “soul-searching” to keep the project at or near its $888 million cap. Considering that the project is already $41 million over cap and construction is very far along, I’m not quite sure how the MTA is going to pull this one off. [Metro]
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Subway crime reaches record low
Don’t feel safe on the subway? Well, then, what’s wrong with you? Subway crime has hit a new low with an average of just six reported crimes per day. Once upon a time, back in the good old days of 1990, subway crime numbers sat at 48 per day. Maybe all of the people who claimed they don’t feel safe in the subways are simply buying into the Hollywood image of the New York City subways. It’s never been safer to ride underground in New York. [Metro]