Skip to content

A Q&A With Ted Kheel, Free Transit Advocate

Gothamist caught up with Ted Kheel, the 93 year old head of the Nurture New York's Nature Foundation, which addresses the "fundamental conflict between development and the environment." Kheel will release the findings of his study "The Kheel Plan for Balancing Free Transit and Congestion Pricing in New York City" later this month:
2008_01_kheel.jpg

Gothamist caught up with Ted Kheel, the 93 year old head of the Nurture New York’s Nature Foundation, which addresses the “fundamental conflict between development and the environment.” Kheel will release the findings of his study “The Kheel Plan for Balancing Free Transit and Congestion Pricing in New York City” later this month:

Many New Yorkers would love for subways and buses to be free, but are skeptical of such a plan actually working? What do you say to the skepticism?

I think the skeptics will be amazed, when they see our report. We have a brilliant team of experts working on this report, and they have been working for almost a full year. They are running the numbers, anticipating the problems, and finding concrete answers. We know what the concerns are, and we took them seriously and are addressing them. Your readers should look at our preliminary mini-report, posted on the web.

Photo of Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.

Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.

More from Streetsblog New York City

City Officials Shrug at NYPD Cop’s Reckless Driving As Advocates Push ‘Stop Super Speeders’ Bill

April 24, 2026

Friday Video(s): Kidical Mass, Night-Biking in Tokyo, and More

April 24, 2026

That Widely Misrepresented E-Mobility Study Actually Reveals Need For Safer Streets, Not Hysteria

April 24, 2026

Friday’s Headlines: Menin Wants to Take This Outside Edition

April 24, 2026

To Protect And Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets Yet Remains On The Force

April 23, 2026
See all posts