Today’s Headlines

Using the 2007 Census of Governments Finance data, I created a “sold out future” ranking based on high taxpayer pension contributions and underfunded pensions, high debts and low capital construction investments.  As expected, New York City would have been nearly the worst if it had been a separate state, with the rest of the state pretty bad too.

But not the worst.  That was Massachusetts.  Now they are facing the consequences in transportation.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/01/15/patrick-pushes-for-new-taxes-overhaul-transportation-system/VCROHSUWeJHVO6R88lGUHM/story.html

Among the features of the new plan:

“More than half the proposed $1 billion annually would help balance highway and transit budgets, relieve some MBTA debt, run buses at night and on weekends in cities such as Springfield, and end a practice of borrowing for basic highway operations such as mowing and striping.”
Yes, they were borrowing money for the “capital expenditure” of mowing the lawn.  Of course, painting is also considered a “capital expenditure” in New York, along with other “normal replacement” and “reimbursible expenditures” that are ongoing — and thus just maintenance.
“The rest would cover initial payments on what the state considers good debt, borrowing to double infrastructure spending to $25 billion over the next decade.”We are so deep in the hole, and our taxes are so much higher than Mass as a percentage of our income, that I’m not sure we can even do that.FYI, based on the data NY was just about the worst on pensions, but was not bad at all on the amount spent on capital construction.  Those who know what things were like in the 1970s and early 1980s can see the results.  And know what to expect when other aspects of our sold out future once again bring capital construction (and maintenance) to a halt.

I object to the snarky tone of the first headline (“NYC Pedestrians Are Safe From School Bus Drivers Today”). I support the NYC school-bus drivers’ strike for job security in the face of privatization. I would think Streetsblog would as well, if only for street safety. Experienced unionized bus drivers with job security invariably drive more safely than those without. We see it with NYC Sanitation workers (see “Killed By Automobile”), we saw it with NYC bicycle messengers. Not to mention the organizing power of solidarity. Let’s climb down from our penthouses, shall we?

I agree with @Komanoff:disqus on this one. I’m not so thrilled at the prospect of one busload of kids turning into two dozen or more private car trips. Even if both options were equally safe for all involved, the congestion caused by the latter is no laughing matter.

Agree with Charlie and Guest on the school bus headline. Putting the labor/contracting issues to one side — the (at least) formerly mobbed up industry has special concerns — Streetsblog can’t be in the business of opposing the use of all motorized transportation. Would an MTA strike (“NYC Pedestrians Are Safe From MTA Bus Drivers Today”) be good for the city? Or even a world without the far more dangerous garbage trucks? 

We need to reduce unnecessary motor vehicle trips, shift trips to safer/greener modes, and ensure that those vehicle trips we have are as safe/green as possible. I don’t see how eliminating one transit option — even one that, like all buses and trains will sometimes tragically kill people — is part of that. 

” I support the NYC school-bus drivers’ strike for job security in the face of privatization. ”

School buses are the worst idea ever exported from the United States. CHildren should ride municipal buses to school as part of the process that civilizes then and prepares them for adulthood. 

If we must use school buses, then yes, the drivers should have proper jobs for everyone’s safety, but NYC is the city least in need of them in the whole country.

@Komanoff:disqus 
I think you raise a good point about safer bus drivers.

Based on a quick read of the situation, the sticking point is that the city doesn’t want to guarantee employment for any drivers through third-party contracts. I think there’s merit to the city’s stance, even if the union has a point about the benefits of steady employment. The one thing in this situation that seems to be the most disagreeable to me is the fact that there’s a middleman in the first place – that the city transports 1.1 million children through bus routes contracted to dozens of private companies all negotiating for their own terms. Why doesn’t the DOE direct-hire the bus drivers? 

At least three people were killed by school bus drivers in 2012. Who knows how many injured. That number will not rise today.

Of course it’s not that simple, for all the reasons stated and then some. But if the best we can do is “It could be worse,” I’d say the point of the headline stands.

@933cea0c68f09824bde2e6aec8f7869d:disqus Read this comment thread, then get back to me on that.
http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/08/10/what-if-everyone-drove-to-work/

“A lawsuit that claims a new sidewalk must be removed because it dangerously narrows part of Pelham Parkway South should be dismissed because residents missed the deadline to file it, city lawyers argued Monday in Bronx Supreme Court.”

I suddenly begin to wonder if missing the deadlines is part of the strategy of those who oppose pedestrian and bicycle improvements.  It lets things get dragged out longer, with a court case on the statue of limitations followed by several appeals, followed by a court case on the merits followed by several appeals.Sure beats a discussion of the merits.
Sure beats a discussion of the merits.

Raw numbers:

“New York City school buses were involved in 1,700 accidents last year — an average of nearly five per day, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.The accidents — all of which were caused by the public school bus drivers, Department of Education records show — resulted in more than 900 injuries, according to safety records obtained through the state’s Freedom of Information Law.”

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121210/new-york-city/citys-public-school-buses-were-involved-1700-accidents-last-year

brad, roughly equivalent in material weight of two hundred one-ton autos moving one thousand people considering each subway train of six thirty-five ton subway cars . . .

“breathtaking”

Not really.

Nevermind about the school bus drivers.  What about all the kids on their way to school who get mowed down every year by “just normal folk” drivers who speed or don’t see them due to bad street design?  Now that Science backs up common sense, and the DOT persists in prioritizing street calming measures along desolate areas of the city (bulbouts along 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn come to mind) instead of adjacent to schools, somebody really needs to cry foul on behalf of the kids.  Walking to school safely shouldn’t be a death defying feat. Safe routes to ALL schools. The time is now.

@oschwar:disqus I agree 100%. For most of the history of NYC public schools, kids went to whatever school was closest, and most walked there. There’s no good reason 152,000 out of about a million students should need to be bused. It costs the city over $1 billlion a year which is better spent in the classroom.

As a school busing alumnus, I can suggest a couple problems with the technique for Streetsblog readers who don’t share the resentment of buses that I have.

Buses demonstrate to impressionable children that neighborhoods are single-use, and keeps them from exploring the streets around their homes (with or without their parents) as they travel to school.

Kids waste time on buses; I got an email from a local parent saying that her sprout spent an hour and a half each day on the bus. If the kid walked 15 minutes to school, she would have an extra hour every day for play or learning in a more interactive environment than the back of a motor vehicle.

Buses send kids out of the neighborhood and make it more difficult for parents to pick up the kid at the school if there’s a problem.

And, of course, there’s the poor driving record and the noisy idling diesel engines to consider as well.