AMNY Subway Tracker

MTA chief Eliot Sander warned again that raise fares might go up. Someone should keep count. During the MTA's "webinar" on Wednesday, while responding to e-mailed questions from riders, Sander said that the agency might turn to them to close the hole in its capital budget. Unsaid, but implied, is that a fare hike might not be on the table if congestion pricing had been passed in Albany. See the story in the Post.

Well, transit advocates want you to tell local elected officials they can help mass transit by voting for congestion pricing.
A coalition of advocacy groups, including the Straphangers Campaign, launched an extensive ad campaign today promoting the congestion pricing plan before city and state officials. They have until March 31 to vote for the plan, which advocates say would bring New York City $354 million in transit funding.
The advocates spent $500,000 on print and TV ads, emploring riders to tell the decision makers to vote for congestion pricing. Check out the Web site for more information.

(via the City Council Web site)

Councilman Lew Fidler will introduce his alternative to the mayor's congestion pricing plan tomorrow, the Observer reported today.
From the Politicker:

Fidler’s plan includes calls for: constructing the Cross Harbor Tunnel, encourage the purchase of hydrogen fuel cell cars, levying a payroll tax of one third of one percent on the city, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, increasing metered parking and taxi stands in midtown, restricting where trucks could load and unload goods, moving city agencies to the outer boroughs and connecting the train on Staten Island to rest of the subway system.

Don't want to pay East River bridge tolls? Agree that paying to drive into Manhattan is good for mass transit?
A congestion pricing commission wants to hear from you. After a public hearing tonight, the panel asked for more feedback before it votes on a congestion pricing plan at the end of the month.
The commission is charged with determining how to reduce pollution-causing traffic in Manhattan. The proposals include a plan for East River tolls while another--proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg--calls for drivers to pay $8 to enter the most congested parts of Manhattan.
Let them know which one you want at the hearings:

Hunter College - Auditorium
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
4:00 PM
East 69th Street Between Park & Lexington Avenue
NY, NY

Medgar Evers College
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00PM
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

College of Staten Island – Center for the Arts, Recital Hall 1P
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00 PM
2800 Victory Blvd
Staten Island, NY
.
Hostos Community College – Savoy Multi-purpose Room
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00 PM
120 Walton Avenue
Bronx, NY

York College Performing Arts Center
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00 PM
94-20 Guy R Brewer Blvd btw Liberty & Archer
Jamaica, NY

Hofstra University - University Club
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00 PM
(north of Main Gate)
Hempstead, NY

Westchester County Center
Thursday, January 24, 2008
6:00 PM
198 Central Avenue, 1st Floor Meeting Rooms A-B
White Plains, NY

The city Department of Transportation will hold workshops to address concerns about the mayor's congestion pricing plan turning some outlying neighborhoods into parking lots.
"The workshops will be the basis for DOT to potentially develop plans to address any “park and ride” activity if such impacts result from congestion pricing in areas near subway stations and transit hubs outside the charging zone," a statement said.

NEIGHBORHOOD PARKING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE - FIRST ROUND:
Upper East Side, Manhattan: Nov. 19
Atlantic/4th/Flatbush Avenues Area, Brooklyn: Nov. 27
Central Harlem, Manhattan: Nov. 28
Forest Hills, Queens: Nov. 29
Long Island City, Queens: Nov. TBD
Meetings also will be held in January in the Yankee Stadium area of the Bronx and in the Brooklyn Heights/Boerum Hill/Fort Greene sections of Brooklyn.

The MTA released a report detailing $767 million needed for service improvements that would counter commuters who opt for mass transit during a congestion pricing plan. Some backstory includes:
The C line would carry 10 car trains instead of eight to deal with commuters from Clinton Hill. From the MTA:

The Brooklyn neighborhood identified by the City as having
high percentage of auto commuters was Clinton Hill, which is served by
the C train.

The MTA will also implement "station capacity enhancements" to deal with an influx of former car commuters. One enhancement would widen or add stairways. From the MTA:

We will be monitoring station locations. There are some
stairs that are already overcrowded that we expect to worsen with
congestion pricing, such as the stair on the southeast corner of 86th St
Station and Broadway 123, stairs to the 30th Avenue Station and Broadway
Station on the NW Astoria line and stairs serving the 82nd
Street/Jackson Heights Station 7.

(via Flickr's wallyg)

Folks on Prospect Park's East Drive won't have to share the road with cars in the evening any more. The East Drive will only be open to cars from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and will no longer allow traffic from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. starting Monday. The West Drive will be open to cars then. The park will continue to be closed to motor vehicles mid-day, overnight and during weekends. From a press release:

“The increase of recreation-only hours on the drive in Prospect Park mirrors a similar increase enabled in Central Park a few weeks ago. Now there will be even more hours devoted to car-free bicycling, running, blading, and simply sauntering. Both parks will be cleaner and greener, and their users happier and healthier” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “I want to thank Mayor Bloomberg for his leadership in making New York a more livable and sustainable city, and Commissioner Sadik-Khan and the Department of Transportation for continuing their work to balance the needs of all New Yorkers.”

367 more buses are closer to hitting the streets after the mayor's congestion pricing plan was offered $354 million from the federal government. If Mayor Michael Bloomberg can sell his plan to the legislature and a congestion pricing commission, the buses and money roll out. The MTA will send it's bus plan to Albany in October. The buses, which include 12 new routes, are supposed to entince drivers from their cars. "The mta can go to Albany and go to the commission and make the case. NY is in the same position as London. You have to have certan things in place to have congestion pricing," said MTA spokesman Ernest Tollerson.

(via flickr's Mr Spiller)

Check out the comment section of the Times' City Room blog. Gail Brewer announced yesterday it was too hard to retrieve items lost in the back seat of a cab, and the TLC came back saying technology would save the day starting next year. TLC Chair Matthew Daus also said yesterday that he writes about five letters a day commending drivers who go out of their way to return lost cell phones, wallets, prosthetic limbs and even wedding dresses. Kind drivers seem to be everywhere if you believe City Room's comments board.

It's unclear if congestion pricing will become a reality soon as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stayed clear of Albany. The latest AP report says Silver only agreed to sign a letter to the feds, with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Gov. Eliot Spitzer, saying the state will investigate opponents' concerns. Silver said that should keep the plan, more so the $500 million attached to it, alive, according to the latest report. No word yet from the federal Department of Transportation, which is in charge of doling out the funds.

(via Flickr's McMarkL)

Rallies for and against congestion pricing hit the steps at City Hall today. The mayor deemed his plan heavenly at churches around the city. The state senate will convene tomorrow to vote, and likely pass, on the pay-to-drive program. However, the Assembly is still holding out and keeping out of Albany.
--Marlene Naanes

A lot of news broke on the mayor's increasingly embattled plan. NY 1 reports Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver doesn't plan on heading back to Albany for a vote. The plan took another blow when a group of small businesses spoke out against it because of the $21 fee for a truck to enter lower Manhattan. One ray of light for the plan: London said its congestion charging decreased traffic by up to 25 percent.

The MTA mapped out where 367 new buses will roll during congestion pricing, if all goes well for the mayor's plan. Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave out the map (Download file) to the U.S. Department of Transportation during a lobbying trip there today. Twelve new routes and expanded existing local and express lines are part of the plan. The mayor and MTA hope to former drivers not willing to pay the driving tax get on the buses. The new bus routes are:

Canarsie to Flatbush Avenue Local
Metropolitan Avenue to Williamsburg Bridge to Lower Manhattan Local
Bay Ridge Express
Northeast Bronx to Lower Manhattan Express, 3 routes
Astoria to Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan Local
College Point to Manhattan Express
Northern Boulevard to 61st Street to Woodside LIRR Local
Northeast Queens to Lower Manhattan Express, 3 routes

Pro-congestion pricing mailings, a rally, a report and a presser recently touted the mayor's congestion pricing plan as the best solution to curb pollution and traffic. Here comes the opposition: The Queens Civic Congress, a grouping of Queens civic and community organizations, blasted the mailing last Friday. About 350,000 postcards featuring a girl using an asthma pump told readers to push legislators to pass congestion pricing. The civic group's president said in a written statement: "The Congestion Tax does not in any way target traffic in the New York City
neighborhoods where youngsters suffer from asthma." Tomorrow, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) is holding a press conference releasing "the first thorough, independent, and fair-minded review of the congestion pricing proposal" that will raise questions toward the mayor's plan. More to come...

(courtesy of the Partnership for New York City)

The hype is heating up. As 350,000 flyers of a girl breathing into her asthma pump asked New Yorkers to call their assembly member in favor of congestion pricing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a rally this morning in Times Square for his plan. The mayor and the Partnership for New York City, the group that sponsored the flyer mailing, are pushing hard for the congestion pricing plan to go through before the July 16 deadline to grab federal funds. The mayor told a crowd at the rally that congestion pricing will clean the air and the state legislature has to "get back to work" and "do the right thing." State assembly members, city council members and folks from the Environmental Defense Fund joined the mayor at the rally.

--Marlene Naanes

(via New York 1)

Congestion marketing. A little girl holding an asthma pump is telling thousands of Queens folks and Brooklynites that Albany can prevent pollution by approving congestion pricing. Thousands of flyers blanketed the two boroughs as the deadline to approve the mayor's plan looms.
[Daily News]

Slow as watching paint dry..or not. Plans to paint hundreds of subway station haven't moved in months.
[Daily News]

Plucky find. A violinist was reunited with his $80,000 violin he lost after taking a nap at a subway station.
[New York Post]

--Marlene Naanes

MTA officials said today that if congestion priced-out drivers who turn to the rails don't like overcrowded lines (like the 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6), they'll take a bus. A fleet of more than 300 mostly express busses are set to hit the street if the mayor's plan takes effect. Officials project about 100,000 cars will get off the road with the plan.

--Marlene Naanes

Quid pro cong. City Comptroller Thompson supports congestion pricing, so long as city residents get a break and mass transit gets a boost. [Crain's]

Bridging the gaps. MTA approved more than $700,000 to repair LIRR bridges. [Newsday]

Green's the new black. MTA making sure its bus and truck maintenance facilities are up to environmental snuff. [Media Newswire]

And speaking of green. Plans afoot for a greener Queens Plaza to make it more attractive to retailers and residents. [Times Ledger]

-- Rolando Pujol

Photo: As morning traffic rushes by, yoga enthusiasts participate in a summer solstice "yoga-thon" today in the center of Times Square to celebrate the first day of summer. (Getty Images)

As the clock winds down for a vote in Albany on the mayor’s congestion pricing plan, activists lobbying up there say they’re pretty confident the senate will pass something before the session ends Thursday. The assembly however seems pretty up in the air on the issue, says Straphangers Campaign spokeswoman Neysa Pranger. Either way, Straphangers and other community groups are hitting the streets to put political pressure on both bodies. Today, volunteers for the Straphangers Campaign, a transportation watchdog group, were in Times Square asking commuters to call and e-mail legislators. They’ll be out doing the same during the early commute tomorrow at the Fulton Street subway station. As the quitting hour on Thursday approaches, Transportation Alternatives is also getting New Yorkers to write letters tonight. That group will be at the Bedford Avenue L line stop and the 2nd Avenue F line stop starting at 5:30 p.m. Depending on who they talk to, pleas for letters may fall on deaf ears, according to a poll released today. People on either side of the issue technically have until July to voice their concerns. That’s when the feds pull $500 million in funding away from the Bloomberg-conceived plan.

--Marlene Naanes

Nearly three-quarters of the visitors to the Straphanger's Campaign web site support congestion pricing, the transit advocates said today in a press release. It's not surprising on some levels, I guess, since the people who probably visit www.straphangers.org are a pretty self-selecting group of folks who are most likely themselves advocates of mass transit or at least frequent riders of trains and buses.

But when they posed the question:

"Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed that New York City adopt a system of 'congestion pricing.' Drivers would have to pay a charge to come into Manhattan's Central Business District during weekday rush hours. The mayor says these charges will reduce traffic congestion and help pay for transit repairs. There would be a three-year pilot project to see how the program works. What do you think?"

Some 73.9% of the 662 visitors to the site said they would agree.

Venerable readers of the Tracker, what say you?

-- Michael Clancy

The Daily News does an interesting analysis of Census data and finds that Midtown congestion is caused in part by thousands of Upper East Side residents who drive to their jobs in other parts of Manhattan. The only other nabes that send more cars to Midtown are the hinterlands Whitestone and College Point, the News said. It's interesting because so much of the congestion pricing debate thus far has centered around those remote stretches of Queens that aren't served by mass transit. It's easy to feel some sympathy for people trying to get to Midtown from Whitestone, but it's hard to feel for Upper East Side residents who drive around town -- no matter how crowded the IRT gets during rush hour.

-- Michael Clancy

Easily the most contentious item in the mayor's 127-point plan to green NYC, congestion pricing has inflamed passions on both sides.

Sustainable transportation advocates and business groups call the plan, which would charge cars $8 to drive into Manhattan below 86th Street during peak hours, a proven way to reduce gridlock. They point to London and other cities, where traffic has gone down as much as 17%. But opponents, including Queens lawmakers, are calling the charge a tax on residents of the outer boroughs, some of whom live miles away from the nearest subway stop. Streetsblog does a good round-up of the plan's most vocal critics.

Some supporters of the plan said they were surprised to see Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at the mayor's speech today, and wondered if the colorful politician would come out publicly in favor of congestion pricing.

So far he has said only that he would keep an open mind. Supporters point out that charging motorists could significantly reduce traffic in downtown Brooklyn, if fewer people are driving into and out of Manhattan.

-- Justin Rocket Silverman

Photo: Charles Eckert

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce at 1 p.m. his administration's initiatives to prepare the city for 2030. Among the scores of proposals is expected to be a recommendation for congestion pricing, which has a twisted history of not going anywhere, in New York at least. Justin Rocket Silverman is there and will have blog posts later.

-- Rolando Pujol