Today’s Headlines

  • Future of MTA Fare Payment: Contactless Credit Cards, Variable Rates (News)
  • Northeast Corridor Wins $800M of Florida’s Rejected High-Speed Rail Money (WSJ, AP)
  • Comptroller’s Office Announces More MTA Operating Deficits, Calls for “Reform” (CapTon)
  • Drunk Tour Bus Driver Kills Pedestrian, Drags Him Dozens Of Feet (NYT, Post)
  • Driver Slams Into Midwood Bagel Shop, Seriously Injures Two Pedestrians, No Charges Expected (News)
  • Tour Bus Driver With 16 License Suspensions Leads Police on High Speed Chase (News)
  • The Post Has Already Decided That New Yorkers Don’t Want Bike-Share…
  • … And on Same Day, Runs Yet Another Editorial Blasting the Plaza Program
  • DCP to Rezone Brooklyn’s Fourth Ave to Promote Ground Floor Retail, Not Parking (Patch)
  • NYPD Promotes Larger No-Parking Zone on Lower East Side to Cut Late-Night Traffic (Post)
  • Schumer Wants to Bring Hassle and Costs of Airport Security to Amtrak (Post)
  • PATH Train Hits Platform, Injures 34 (News)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • carma

    well its about time MTA is getting on board with RFID readers. Ever since the metrocard was introduced, the rest of the world had already been starting to use the RFID cards for transit. Hong Kong, Tokyo, London for example.

    If i recall, Hong Kong had this back in 2001 when we were still trying to get kinks out of the metrocard.

    The worst offenders that queue up entry to the subways are the HEET’s (high entry exit turnstile) those readers OFTEN get plagued with dirt and makes swiping your metrocard a pain. the metrocard itself is also too flimsy to keep in your pocket w/o having a protector.

    Contactless readers are just so much faster, that boarding a bus will simply need you to tap, instead of inserting a card, waiting to read. etc… the select service buses on 1st, 2nd ave wont require the silly pre-boarding system. Contactless readers can speed up payment upon entering the bus the same way.

    While im not in favor of an exit fare on NYC subways, a RFID card can allow the system to do so if necessary.

    i know ppl rip apart jay walder. but he has done wonders for the MTA trying hard to make the most out of a miserable system that has been neglected. the reality is that transit is underfunded. nys really doesnt have all the money to support the system. but walder is doing his best to keep it running, and trying to enhance the future of the MTA.

    the countdown clocks are a good start. RFID really CAN speed up your trip as well.

  • J

    Interestingly, the writer of the Post bikeshare hit-piece lists biking as a hobby. She worked for WNYC and was the founder of the alternative newspaper, the Indypendent. Why is she writing this garbage for the Post?

    http://heatherhaddon.com/about.html

  • carma

    the bike sharing idea can only work if there are enough kiosks for ppl to return their bikes. having 2 or 3 kiosks does nothing for bike sharing. this is a real case for if you build enough of the kiosks, they will use it.
    also, you cant just limit kiosks to manhattan. you really do need to extend it to the outer boroughs.
    it should be interesting to hear more concrete details of the plan

  • Exactly my thoughts. What a shame; she used to be a good reporter whose stories were based in reality. Apparently, now she’s showing signs of a full brainwashing by The Post’s editors.

  • John.

    The author of this anti-bike hit piece lists biking as one of the activities that keeps her smiling personal web page.

    http://heatherhaddon.com/about.html

  • John.

    The author of this anti-bike hit piece lists biking as one of the activities that keeps her smiling personal web page.

    http://heatherhaddon.com/about.html

  • moocow

    Schumer’s “No Ride List” PPW or Amtrak?

    Can he tie these two together and not let anyone ride, anything, anywhere?

  • Anonymous

    It’s a bizarre transformation. She gets hit twice, while walking and while riding a bike, suffering major injuries, and writes a poignant piece about the injustice of the system. Then she writes this anti-streets screed that hits all the pejoratives and dog whistles like she was working from a check-list: pedal pushers, solar, Portland, stealth campaign, Iris Weinshall, and then she goes there–she drops the nuclear bomb of political discourse in America, “EUROPEAN”! It reads like a forced-confession, and has less context. I guess you have to put food on the table? Just write ad copy instead of becoming a fake journalist–it pays better anyway.

  • Anonymous

    I remember back in the day, before pedestrian plazas, when cabbies didn’t complain about traffic in Times Square. Hahahhahahhaahaha. No, that never happened.

  • Anonymous

    I do love, though, imagining a world where all policy is determined by what cabbies complain about…it is a crazy, crazy place.

  • J

    The plan calls for 600 kiosks to be installed in 2012, with over 10,000 bikes. The first phase will include Manhattan south of 86th or 96 and parts of inner Brooklyn. They’ve got a very good plan for a system that will work quite well. Both bidders on the short list have experience running these types of systems, so most of the kinks have already been worked out. Granted, there will be problems unique to NYC, but we’re not starting from scratch or experimenting here. We certainly aren’t creating a 2-3 kiosk system. The summer demonstration this year is just that, a demonstration. The real system is coming next year.

  • krstrois

    Whoa, I agree. That transformation is truly . . . odd. I wonder if she wrote something more measured and her editor rewrote it completely. Having pieces totally rewritten is not exactly an uncommon experience for tabloid writers. And it’s quite a disjointed piece (even for the Post) and almost reads like someone was like “oh shit, this hasn’t gone through our culture war filter.” And then applied it judiciously.

  • Shemp

    Probably a small matter known as a paycheck.

  • Cars off the Curb

    It makes you wonder: today Chuck Schumer holds a press conference about looking in to reducing the alcohol allowance of tour bus drivers from .04% to zero. That’s great. But of course we can’t even get a mention of possibly having some legislation with a mandatory fine and jail sentence if your car jumps the curb. More events this weekend, two teenagers in critical condition, but no politicans are holding press conferences saying “let’s stop cars from jumping the curb.”

  • Tonald Drump

    $$$$$

  • carma

    now tell me why we need more legislation making it a fine or jail time if your car jumps the curb. how about enforcing existing laws before we start legislating new laws.

    As far as jumping the curb. that is clearly “reckless driving”. and if you injure someone, you already are on the hook.

  • dporpentine

    @0189473413d4b46c0d5f42a6fd9f5216:disqus

    More like:

    ¢¢¢¢¢

  • Bolwerk

    carma is more or less right, but it’s telling that politicians aren’t demanding additional enforcement. No problem with ticketing bikers who jump the curb though!

  • carma

    @3a9cb377ae68ba7b489d30e5eb859747:disqus

    Yes, i guess ticketing bikers for “speeding” at central park at 6AM is proper policy.
    The thing with more laws is that if laws already exist, you can choose to enforce those laws. Even creating new laws, if you dont enforce those new laws. You can create 1000 new laws a day. But with no enforcement, its as good as moot.

    So politicians should stop getting pen&paper ready, and enforce the laws that actually prevent folks from crashing into curbs, like ticketing reckless driving.
    as well as spot out for the drunk drivers.

  • Journalism School

    It wouldn’t be the first time that an editor completely screwed up a reporter’s story.

    That being said: She’d be naive not to expect the Post to do this to her work.

  • Anonymous

    Kind of reads like a parody of itself.

  • Anonymous

    Kind of reads like a parody of itself.

  • Anonymous

    Kind of reads like a parody of itself.

  • HamTech87

    Where’s Marty Markowitz??? I bet if he showed up for each crash, he might be persuaded that DOT is right.

  • Joe R.

    This is clearly a case of reckless driving, against which laws already exist. We don’t need yet more stupid laws. Maybe it’s time for stricter licensing procedures since it seems so many drivers can’t do a simple thing like keep their cars on the road.

  • carma

    absolutely. we need MUCH more strict driving laws.

  • carma

    absolutely. we need MUCH more strict driving laws.

  • carma

    absolutely. we need MUCH more strict driving laws.

  • summer

    As the reporting of these kinds of stories would indicate, all a driver has to say to be let off the hook is that he/she “lost control” of the car, as if that’s a meaningful explanation. I’d like to know in how many of these cases the driver was texting (or otherwise distracted), an offense that the police in NYS actually can’t pull drivers over for.