Today’s Headlines

  • Kaehny: Public Needs to Know Where State’s MTA Contribution Will Come From (Gotham Gazette)
  • Vision Zero: NYPD Caught Painting Parking Spots in Schermerhorn Bike Lane (@jooltman via Gothamist)
  • NJ Transit Board Votes to Lead Gateway Environmental Review (NYT)
  • Thanks to Chris Christie, Missing NJ Transit Late-Night Trains Aren’t Coming Back (WNYC)
  • Ydanis Rodriguez Wants DOT to Study Light Rail (Politico)
  • City Audits Health Factors and Life Expectancy by Neighborhood (Politico, Post)
  • This Is Rich: The Staten Island Advance Is Freaking Out Over Expected Ferris Wheel Traffic
  • Parents and Schools Are Desperate to Protect Children From NYC Drivers (Express, R’dale Press)
  • Traffic Light Coming to Eighth Avenue and Windsor Place in Park Slope (DNA)
  • Uber’s Courier Service Doesn’t Use Cars (Post)
  • Well, at Least Ed Koch Is Resting Peacefully (DNA)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • HamTech87

    Love this quote from the NJ Transit elimination of late night trains:
    “The argument is that it’s a service adjustment,” he said. “To me, a service adjustment is a few minutes. To me, this is like saying to Marie Antoinette, ‘We’re going to make a little height adjustment on you.'”

  • Matthias

    Glad to see attention being given to NYPD’s bad parking behavior. I can only hope that something will be done about it this time.

    Sorry to see traffic lights being applied as a solution to speeding–in my experience, they encourage motorists to speed to make the light. Has DOT even considered a 4-way stop?

    And I feel the pain of the people living near the 59th St Bridge. I don’t have to put up with nearly as much honking, but I want to keep a supply of bricks to hurl at honkers–honking is such a pointless and unbelievably rude behavior, and a serious quality-of-life crime. Can we please get a ticket blitz/crackdown?

  • Joe R.

    I was about to mention the same thing on the traffic signals. Using them to curb speeding is an improper application. A 4-way stop probably is nearly as bad (drivers speed in between stop signs). Narrowing the lanes is the most logical approach here, perhaps with liberal use of roundabouts if they can physically fit in the boundaries of the intersection. NYC has over 12,000 signalized intersections. Why do we keep adding to that without any review process of which intersections we might remove traffic signals from? I’d like a blanket rule going forward that 10 traffic lights have to be removed before a new one is allowed to be installed. Over time, this might finally get the city down to a sensible number of signalized intersections. For comparison purposes Chicago has about 20% less area than NYC, but has only about 3,000 signalized intersections (still too many but much less than NYC). Or to compare a city with similar population, London has twice the area of NYC but only half as many traffic signals. Note that by European standards London still has a huge number of traffic signals but only 25% per square mile as much as NYC. It’s really disappointing traffic planners in this city aren’t open to better solutions. At the very least all traffic signals need sensors so they’ll never go red if nothing is crossing.

  • AnoNYC