Commuting

Hillary Feels Staten Island’s Pain on Traffic

While transportation issues are clearly not very high up on Mayor Bloomberg's agenda, at least one New York elected official is acknowledging that the city has major traffic problems in need of big solutions. At last week's Staten Island Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Clinton focused almost exclusively on transportation issues, according to the Advance:

By Aaron Naparstek

12:55 PM EDT on August 14, 2006

While transportation issues are clearly not very high up on Mayor Bloomberg’s agenda, at least one New York elected official is acknowledging that the city has major traffic problems in need of big solutions. At last week’s Staten Island Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Clinton focused almost exclusively on transportation issues, according to the Advance:

From scorning Staten Island’s inadequate mass transit system and the average commute time of 44 minutes, to applauding recent funding for the defunct North Shore rail line, Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday assured borough residents that their traffic and transit concerns are not being overlooked in the nation’s capital.
“Staten Island also has the longest average commute in the nation,” Clinton said incredulously. “You know, when I got that statistic I double-checked and tripled-checked. … I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that’s saying a lot.'”
Mrs. Clinton followed the tone set by Chamber CEO Linda Baran, who emphasized the lack of mass transit during her introductory remarks.
“Simply put, we need to get people out of their cars and off the roads,” Ms. Baran said.
Emphasizing the borough’s transportation woes seemed a successful tactic for Mrs. Clinton, from the standing ovation she received.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.