Today’s Headlines

Times Has More on Obama Admin’s Sustainable Transpo Initiative
Say It Ain’t So, Pedro: Cuomo Filing Alleges Espada Fraud, Graft (NYT, Post, News, NY1)
Paterson Promises Veto of Weak Albany Ethics Package (NYT, Crain’s)
Markowitz Unashamed of Using Lights and Sirens En Route to Press Conference (Post, Daily Politics)
NYPD Set Record for Civilian Complaints Last Year (WNYC)
MTA Hire Will Oversee New MetroCard Transition; D-Day Jostling Continues (Post)
New Council Mem, Weiner Award Hopeful Steve Levin Trots Out "Transparency" Nugget (NY1)
Senate Wannabe Harold Ford Prefers Copters and Cabs, Says Subway Will Do in a Pinch (Kos)
How Tired Is Woodhaven of Out-of-State Parking Parasites? Check Out This Pic (News)
New York, Connecticut Picked for Fed-Supported DWD Enforcement Study (WNYC)
Safety Guru Leonard Evans: Distracting Auto Tech "Worse Than a Six-Pack in the Front Seat" (AOL)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

vnm

Re out-of-state parking parasites.

Obviously this is rampant all around town and it seems like it would be a hinderance to livable streets (not to mention basic fairness).

But having never purchased car insurance, I have some questions about how this would work. I imagine if you register your car out of state for an insurance discount, and you get into a fender-bender or worse, when your insurance company finds out you’re not living where you said you were, you’d be denied coverage. So you’re getting an insurance discount, but you’re also not really getting full-fledged insurance. Does it even out? What happens to the poor person who collides with such a motorist if they’re denied coverage? Does the other driver’s insurance then have to pay?
Glenn

Man, Woodhaven doesn’t play nice – they’ll take out your rear window just because your car is registered in New Jersey.

As vnm points out, it’s probably a bad idea anyway to register out of state, but it’s not like insurance companies are doing deep investigations on these things. Kudos to the residents for at least following up with the proper authorities. If they are successful at getting a few people’s insurance revoked, it could be a program that other neighborhood groups could replicate.
Larry Littlefield

“We started looking for outside-the-box solutions for some of the quality-of-life issues,” said Edward Wendell, president of the association. “One resident said she hasn’t been able to get a parking spot on her block for over a year.”

How about a fee to park overnight on the street, with permits only available to those licensed and insured in the area?

As for insurance, with a clean record, an old compact car and no collision or theft coverage, I pay $1,100. If my daughter leared to drive, it would add another $1,800 — for liability alone.

I have never heard of an insurance company refusing to pay due to location fraud. But if you have no savings, you probably only have insurance because the law requires a mininum amount, and would probably just declare bankruptcy if an insurer didn’t pay. Or, if you hit another motor vehicle, the other guy’s insurance would pay under New York’s “no-fault” rules.
Jonathan

vnm, good question. The real problem is that other states have much lower minimums for coverage. Florida, for example, requires only $10,000 in liability insurance. So a Florida-resident driver, with a valid insurance policy, can crash into you in New York and you only get $10,000 of your bills paid.

This is why auto insurance packages also includes supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist policies, which kick in to insure yourself after the other guy’s coverage runs out. Those in New York must be at the same level as your own liability coverage; if you have $50k/$100k in liability ($50k per victim, $100k total accident), you can only have $50k/$100k in SUM. It would be to your advantage to get more SUM, of course, because that pays to you, rather than your victim.

As far as the nonresident issue, my hunch is that the insurance company will still pay the liability policy, but might have an issue with the comprehensive (fixing your car when it’s busted).
Cap’n Transit

Here’s the paragraph in the Times interview that is the basis for much of the Kos diary about Harold Ford:

Speaking from a conference room at New York University, where he is a teacher, Mr. Ford, 39, expressed enthusiasm about his new hometown, though he described a life quite different than most New Yorkers. On many days, he is driven to an NBC television studio in a chauffeured car. He and his wife, Emily, a 29-year-old fashion executive, live a few blocks from the Lexington Avenue subway line in the Flatiron district. But Mr. Ford said he takes the subway only occasionally in the winter, to avoid the cold when he cannot hail a cab.

Contast this with Senator Gillibrand, who took the DC Metro to work regularly with her baby when she was in the House of Representatives.
Larry Littlefield

Perhaps this explains why the first thing people like Lew Fidler and other NY pols think of when revenue is needed is to tax work income more, no matter how low.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/legal_migrants_fill_of_jobs_in_city_eCo4LZTehDNCGfDEaFDLaN

“Legal immigrants make up 43 percent of the total work force in New York City and account for more than $200 billion, or 32 percent, of the city’s economic activity, a new report from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli shows.”

Add in young people who move in here, and what do have? Victims.

Our “dear middle class citizens” = people who commute in from the suburbs, and the retired.
vnm

Thanks Jonathan. Very interesting.
Car Free Nation

Re: Steve Levin, I spoke with him during the campaign, and he’s really quite stupid about transportation issues — thinks that we can’t have congestion pricing because of the hardship imposed on people who drive… Look at the area he represents. We’re a doormat for incoming traffic from the rest of the city.

It’s really sad that he took over for Yaasky, who was actually quite knowledgeable.
Sam

re: the markowitz siren thing

What else would he even use the sirens for? If he has them, I suppose getting to a press conference on time might be the most appropriate use.

I think the real question we (and he) should be asking is: does he need the sirens?
Larry Littlefield

Here’s a shocker — someone went a year without riding in or driving a car. That’s enough to attract the attention of Time magazine.

http://money.blogs.time.com/2010/01/12/what-i-learned-by-not-getting-into-a-car-for-a-year/