Today’s Headlines

  • City Straphangers Lead in Saving Oil (AMNY)
  • AAA New York Tells Drivers to Take Transit (News) 
  • More States Consider Tolls as Funding Source (NYT)
  • Congress Reviews Recommendation to Raise Gas Tax (CNN via Planetizen)
  • Anti-Pricing Mark Weprin’s Pro-Bloomberg Earth Day Statement (Politicker)
  • Mayor Pledges $5M for City Trees, Slams US Energy Policy (News, Sun)
  • Curbed Breaks Down World Trade Center PATH Station Saga
  • Las Vegas to Build New Downtown Next to Its Old One (NYT)
  • Los Angeles Celebrates Car-Free Wilshire Boulevard (Streetsblog LA)
  • Are Hybrid Cars Too Quiet? (Wheels)
  • Larry Littlefield

    Looking to the big picture, it doesn’t look good.

    The Wall Street Journal, not some nutjob site, is talking about hoarding food.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

    A well known commentator is saying the unsustainable U.S. consumption binge is over.

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/the_great_shopping_spree.html

    And perhaps Streetsbloggers might find this comparison between the pre-collapse former Soviet Union and the United States interesting. I don’t think his cynicism about U.S. national politics is reasonable. As for New York State, however…

    http://www.energybulletin.net/23259.html

  • Larry Littlefield

    Also, the cost of a new Prospect Park skating rink is soaring to the point where it will probably never happen. A key issue — the cost of replacing the parking lot.

    http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/04/prospect_park_r.php

    As noted the other day, if the park drive was closed to traffic in general, the portion near the rink could be used for parallel parking, eliminating this cost.

  • vnm

    ”We realize Pennsylvania needs more money to maintain and protect its transportation infrastructure, but tolling Interstate 80 is not the right solution,” said Maria Culp, the Central Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce president.

    Any option other than charging a fee to the users of the highway (or raising the gas tax) will represent a subsidy from those who don’t drive to those who do. The exact opposite of what our country should be doing right now given our precarious energy and climate situations.

  • Ace

    nutjob = Rupert Murdoch

  • Mark Walker

    vnm, nondrivers subsidizing drivers is pretty much the status quo. That might begin to change when peak oil raises gas prices to the point where driving becomes unaffordable to the majority. But don’t underestimate the power of a vocal minority of drivers to dominate transportation policy — look at what happened to congestion pricing in NY.

  • momos

    I’m concerned about the lack of headlines coming out of City Hall yesterday (Earth Day).

    Back a few months ago at the JCC in Manhattan there was a great livable streets pow wow with Janette Sadik Khan, Jan Gehl, Paul Steely White and others. It was hinted then that there would be a series of major initiatives announced on Earth Day 2008 — not least, the result of Jan Gehl’s recommendations.

    But yesterday: nothing. What’s going on?

  • Larry Littlefield

    “vnm, nondrivers subsidizing drivers is pretty much the status quo.”

    I believe that at present, that is only the case if non-monetary costs (air pollution, the value of excess space used for pavement) is considered.

    If, however, one were to go back to the era when our current transportation/land use pattern was put in place, the better off drivers were definately subsidized by the worse off (but aspirational) non-drivers. That shows what 50 years of subsidies can do.

    Note the transit turnaround a couple of decades after the flow of subsidies reversed.

  • momos: JSK has a major sustainability speech scheduled for next Monday at the Municipal Art Society.

  • Ace

    To: JSK From: Hopstop,

    Start out going East on Duane St towards Church St 0.2
    Turn right onto Church St 1.5
    Entrance near intersection of Chambers St and Church St 2.0

    Take the E train from World Trade Center station heading Uptown 5.0
    Pass Canal Street 2.4
    Pass Spring Street 1.4
    Pass W 4 Street – Washington Sq 1.8
    Pass 14 Street 2.2
    Pass 23 Street 1.9
    Pass 34 Street – Penn Station 2.1
    Pass 42 Street 1.8
    Pass 50 Street 1.8
    Pass 7 Avenue 1.3
    Get off at 5 Avenue
    1.9
    Exit near intersection of E 53rd St and Madison Ave 2.0

    Start out going South on Madison Ave towards E 52nd St 2.3

    Total travel 3.35 miles
    32 mins

  • gecko

    The report also said that if the region’s trains and buses disappeared, drivers would have to spend a combined 216 million more hours — roughly 24,000 years sitting in traffic. — City Straphangers Lead in Saving Oil (AMNY)