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AsidesLIRRMetro-North

LIRR, Metro-North smoking ban starts Sunday

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

The days of idly smoking a cigarette while awaiting a commuter train are coming to an end. Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a commuter rail platform smoking ban into law, and the MTA reminds us that this ban goes into effect on Sunday. Smoking will no longer be tolerated at any outdoor platform, ticketing and boarding areas of terminals and stations for LIRR and Metro-North. Stations in Connecticut are not subject to this ban.

MTA officials have been supportive of the ban. “The new law is a benefit to our customers, helping us in our efforts to provide a healthier and cleaner environment on our platforms and in our ticketing and boarding area,” Metro-North President Howard Permut said. “We appreciate the action taken by Governor Cuomo and the Legislature to protect New Yorkers and improve public health.”

Meanwhile, to spread the word, a variety of famous New Yorkers including Tommy John, Joe Namath, James Lipton, Mike Lupica and Countess LuAnn de Lesseps will record public address announcements for the commuter rail. Although the ban is effective Nov. 13, MTA police will issue warnings rather than summonses during a grace period while the educational campaign is under way. The authority could not say how long that grace period would last however.

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AsidesMTA Construction

Building a subway most expensive

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 9, 2011

A few weeks ago, when MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu spoke at a New York Law School breakfast on the state of the MTA’s megaprojects, he let loose some interesting information on construction prices. During the Q-and-A session when I asked why construction in New York costs so much more than construction everywhere else, he said one thing: work rules. The MTA is required to overstaff projects so that the same TBM work, for instance, that can be done in Spain with 9 workers must be done in NYC with 25 workers. Thus, everything costs far too much.

Today, over at The Atlantic’s new-ish Cities blog, David Lepeska examines how $1 billion doesn’t go too far these days. Noting how projects in New York are orders of magnitude more expensive than similar efforts around the world, Lepeska wants to know why. To find out why, he spoke with Robert Paaswell of City College of New York, and the professor points to the age of our system and the general costs of regulation. The main culprits, he says, are “New York’s higher regulation costs, over-conservative labor laws and financing via bonds, which lead to longer-term debt plans.”

Paaswell also pondered on the length of time it takes to get work done. There, he blames neighborhood sensitivities. “There’s no urgency by governments or citizens here to get subways done, and when it finally happens the construction causes so much inconvenience that people don’t like it,” he said. “In Europe, they don’t care too much about it, they just blast right through and get it done.” It is a perfect storm of inefficient construction and a public that wants the results but fears the means.

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AsidesView from Underground

‘All we need is just a little (less) patience’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 9, 2011

Patience, they say, is a virtue, but drawing attention to situations where patience is required is often a self-defeating measure. Since the MTA debuted its next-gen rolling stock in the late 1990s, prerecorded voices have long urged us to be patience during the so-called “unavoidable delays,” but recently, the backlash against these reminders of delays has been growing louder. Transit, it seems, is listening.

The furor, which lived in the background for the past decade, reached a crescendo in June when a Daily News columnist bemoaned the constant announcements. Calling them “presumptuous and condescending,” Juliet Lapidos termed them “counterproductive” as well. The messages, which were never focus-grouped, reminded people to be impatient when no one was in a position to do anything about the delay. Now, the tone has changed.

As many riders have noticed lately and as The Post reported today, the vocabularly of the announcements has changed. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” the commanding male voice now says after his warning of “train traffic ahead of us.” Transit officials say they don’t want to “admonish” passengers, and the new announcements are now in place systemwide. Of course, after a while, we’ll probably just ignore it all anyway.

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AsidesSubway Security

These are the pickpockets in your subway car

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 8, 2011

One of the great things about our subway is how it serves as a de facto designated driver. New Yorkers — or at least those who aren’t in charge of the NYPL — shouldn’t have to worry about drinking and driving with a 24-hour subway system. Still, drinking in excess before heading to the subway can make one an easy prey for pickpockets. I know people who haven fallen asleep in the subway only to find themselves 20 minutes past their stop, and sometimes, those folks lose their wallets.

In The Times this weekend, Michael Wilson highlights a thankfully dying art: the pickpocket who will cut out the wallet of a drunk mark. According to the NYPD, exactly 109 regular pickpockets work the trains slipping money and phones out of a neatly severed pocket. As Wilson details, the thieves are mostly male and mostly middle aged. One is 80 years old, and a few have been arrested over 30 times. Their crimes are like science. “They’ll nudge them and see how incoherent they really are,” one police officer said. Then out comes the tool of the trade. “It’s unbelievable they don’t cut the person’s leg wide open. They’re like surgeons with a razor blade, for God’s sake.”

The article is almost tinged with nostalgia. With electronics on full display, pickpockets don’t need to work nearly as hard to score some loot, and one police officer says the cutters going the way of TV repairmen. “It’s like a lost art,” Lieutenant Kevin Callaghan said. “It’s all old-school guys who cut the pocket. They die off.” I doubt they will be missed by straphangers when they all retire.

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AsidesView from Underground

Casting The Power Broker movie

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 3, 2011

I’m out of the country for a few days relaxing on the beach at Turks & Caicos celebrating both a friend’s wedding and my passing the New York bar this week. I couldn’t leave you, dear readers, with nothing to discuss. So let’s delve into something I’ve had on tap for a few days: Robert Moses.

As The Hollywood Reporter reported last week, Oliver Stone is set to direct an HBO film based on Robert Caro’s epic tome The Power Broker. To truly capture the depths of the book, the movie would have to last approximately 19 hours, but something tells me they’ll cut it down. The natural question, of course, concerns casting. Who would you tab to play Robert Moses? I’m a Kevin Spacey fan myself. He always brings the right mix of suave likability and cunning evilness to his roles as the villain.

And then of course, there are the other roles: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Jane Jacobs. It’s a veritable who’s who in New York urban policy and planning. It will be the downfall of Robert Moses as told by Oliver Stone. I can’t wait.

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AsidesMBTA

Dispatches from Boston: Ridership up as cuts loom

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 2, 2011

In a story familiar to New Yorkers, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is facing record ridership as it bottom link will soon lead to fare hikes and service cuts. As the Boston Globe reports today, October saw a record 1.35 million rides per average weekday across all MBTA subways, buses and commuter trains as the Massachusetts economy improves and gas prices remain high. Cuts, however, are on the horizon.

As the Globe notes, the MBTA is facing a $161 million operating deficit and is considering service cuts and fare hikes that would go into effect next summer. Amidst high ridership, Boston transit advocates are wary of the move. “I’m real concerned . . . because we could take what is obviously a very important and significant trend and pull the rug out from under it,” Richard A. Dimino, head of a group called A Better City, said. “The T is the workhorse for the Massachusetts economy.”

As with the MTA in New York City, the MBTA is carrying $6 billion in debt, and the deficit could lead lawmakers to eye new taxes for transit subsidies and a fare increase to “stave off significant service reductions.” It is, of course, the same old story: As costs increase and pressure to keep the fares low and affordable mounts, transit agencies slip into debt without state support. The only options are either higher taxes or higher fares. It’s not an ideal choice on either end.

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AsidesBuses

The trouble with assessing bus satisfaction

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 2, 2011

When the MTA released its subway satisfaction survey last week, it also published a similar one concerning the buses, and I didn’t pay it much attention. As with the subway survey, the bus examination used a similarly flawed scale and still found 70 percent of riders satisfied with local bus service. In one sense, that’s a shockingly high number considering how unreliable and slow local bus service can be.

This week, Allan Rosen at Sheepshead Bites drilled down on both the results of and the process behind the MTA’s bus service, and he too is less than impressed. As bus service varies wildly across routes and boroughs, Rosen, a former bus planner with the MTA, is critical of the sample size, the rankings and the way the survey ignores customer feedback on proper bus routing. His conclusion on the survey: “They first draw their conclusions, then pick and choose the data they want to show to back up those conclusions. In this case the MTA wanted to show that a majority of riders are content with the service they provide.”

That, in a nutshell, is why the bus surveys don’t tell us much. But there’s a bigger issue at work here: The bus surveys targeted only those who ride the bus. If the MTA wanted to find out why people aren’t satisfied with bus service, the agency needs to find people who don’t or no longer ride the bus and ask them why. In such a survey, one would find routing issues, speed (or lack thereof) and an unreliable schedule to be the prime disincentives and a clear reason why bus ridership is on the decline. That’s a survey worth doing.

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AsidesSubway Security

In hearing, TWU raises issue of assaults on MTA employees

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 1, 2011

TWU officials and MTA employees went before the City Council yesterday to highlight threats to their personal safety. As both The Daily News and amNew York recount, the numbers are incomplete — police reports 96 felonies up from 82 last year while the union claims 170 reported attacks up from 134 last year — but union brass want the MTA and NYPD to do more to protect bus drivers and subway personnel. “If there were two sanitation workers, or police officers or City Council members being assaulted every week in New York City, they’d call in the National Guard to stop those assaults from happening.” Samuelsen said.

At the hearings yesterday, politicians tried to find a potential scapegoat. TWU officials pinpointed rider frustration over service cuts and general “economic hopelessness” as reasons for the increase but also warned of a general laissez faire attitude toward these attacks. Despite warnings that assaults on MTA employees carry a possible seven-year prison sentence, the MTA and NYPD are not proactive in protecting employees. A bus driver partition program is slowly coming to high-crime bus routes, but beyond that, police presence has remained stagnant.

To combat this problem, the MTA and NYPD have to strike a balance between proper enforcement and targeted patrol. While the increase of nearly 20 percent is shocking, 96 reported assaults out of a few billion total riders is a shocking low number and one hard to decrease. Is this ultimately a hazard of the job or one which deserves more attention and resources? After all, as James Vacca, head of the Council’s transit committee, said, “These people are not just a threat to drivers. They’re a threat to people like myself who are on the train and depend on transit every day.”

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AsidesTaxis

A summit to move forward the stalled taxi bill

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 31, 2011

Since earlier this summer when the state legislature passed a bill that would expand livery cab service outside of Manhattan, the measure has gone nowhere. Lawmakers have not sent the bill to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his approval, and the Governor hasn’t done much to move the legislation along. Now, in an attempt to end Albany gridlock, Cuomo is going to host a summit featuring the various stakeholders in this battle with the aim of finding a compromise suitable to everyone.

According to a brief item in The Post, “representatives from the livery-car industry, yellow-cab owners, disability advocates, borough politicians and the Mayor’s Office” will attend the meeting next week, but it’s unclear exactly what sort of compromise will be reached. Taxi medallion owners have pressured state representatives to stall the bill in the hopes of protecting their investments while New Yorkers who reside north of 96th St. or outside of Manhattan see powerful special interests fighting for nothing. Yellow cab drivers don’t cruise these areas and would lose little business from an expansion of the livery cab system.

Convening a meeting is a clear step in the right direction toward a resolution, but I’m wary of one that will feature yellow cab owners and no drivers. These are powerful and rich interests after all. Still, if this meeting moves the bill closer to Cuomo’s desk, the city will be better off for it. Now about that transit lockbox…

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AsidesNew York City Transit

Cutting off service to combat Halloween vandalism

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 31, 2011

Every year come October 31, a few unruly folk have to ruin the fun for everyone. On Halloween night, as costumes become the norm, kids from around the city let their wild sides loose, and attacking city property seems to jump to the top of the agenda. Hooligans egg buses and descend upon innocent passengers. This year, as they’ve done in the past, the MTA wants to put a stop to it by cutting short some bus routes.

As both The Daily News reported yesterday, the MTA may temporarily cease service in areas prone to vandalism. According to Transit officials, bus service along the Bx 8 in Edgewater Park, the Bx 24 in Country Club and the B31 in Gerritsen Beach could all be reduced tonight. Teenagers in Gerritsen Beach, in particular, sparked a controversy last year when they were outed by a local blogger. “These areas have notoriously been problem areas,” Kevin Ortiz, a Transit spokesman, told The News. “It’s definitely a safety concern. We deploy this action plan to ensure employees and customers are provided with a safe environment when working or using our buses.”

Now, the MTA should make sure its riders and employees are safe throughout Halloween, but something about this plan to scale back service bothers me. Shouldn’t police presence be increased to ensure that public is maintained before Transit throws in the towel? Should we cut off bus service to those in some of the least transit-accessible areas in the city due to some bad eggs? Giving in isn’t the precedent I’d like to see established.

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