Today’s Headlines

  • What Can Be Done to Fix New York’s Ailing Bus System? (Politico)
  • Crane Collapse Shuts Tappan Zee, Cuomo Takes Control of Scene (NYT, Journal News, AMNY)
  • NYPD Announces Next “Safe Passage” Ticket Blitz; Bratton: We All Have a Role to Play (AMNY)
  • DOT Will Begin Work on Jay Street Protected Bike Lanes This Month (DNA)
  • Plaza 33 May Not Be Back for Good (MTR)
  • Transit Advocates: Landmarking Park Ave Building Could Impede Grand Central Improvements (News)
  • Richard Brown Will Appeal Judge Gia Morris’s Right of Way Law Ruling (DNA)
  • Ozone Park Speeding Hit-and-Run Killer Arrested, Charged With Manslaughter (Post, News)
  • NYPD Disciplines Cops Whose Drinking Buddy Killed Andrew Esquivel (Post)
  • All You Need to Wreak Havoc With a Motor Vehicle Is Access to the Keys (DNA, Advance)
  • No One Minding the Store in New Jersey (NYT 1, 2)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • Larry Littlefield

    Whether bicyclists or drivers, those who area really doing something really dangerous are harder to ticket — because they are speeding along and don’t stop.

    So the blitzes will target those moving slowly or stopped. And just tick people off.

  • Kevin Love

    From the AMNY article:

    “Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who visited the site of the collapse on Tuesday afternoon…
    After a safety inspection, Cuomo said that, while the surface damage was ‘significant,’ it was not enough to keep the bridge from reopening.”

    Kevin’s comment:
    And Cuomo’s visit to subway shutdowns that are a far more serious problem? Oh yes, missing in inaction.

    Because people in NYC are some alien species that he just does not understand.

  • JamesR

    From the NYT piece on the Tappan Zee Bridge crane collapse:

    While most drivers hit the brakes, he said, others accelerated to avoid the crash. “You know New Yorkers,” he quipped. “Always in a hurry.”

    So let me get this straight. A crane is collapsing on to the bridge that you’re driving on and you gun it under collapsing scaffolding because you don’t want to be inconvenienced, despite the risk of life and limb to yourself and others that this poses?

    When self-driving cars have come into their own and motorists who want to continue driving manually bitch at the fact they they won’t be able to, let us remember the drivers who floored it around a collapsing bridge crane. Absolute f**kery.

  • AMH

    That Pershing Square building should absolutely be landmarked, but I’m not clear on what effect, if any, that would have on the subway. The building has some lovely subway entrances (which should be open 24/7). I hope people are not advocating for it to be torn down like the buildings across the street.

  • Joe R.

    Just have a few cameras running 24/7 on any random street to record the assholery drivers typically engage in. When people complain about their “right” to drive being taken away, show these videos over and over again.

    If there’s anything we’re learning from the development of self-driving cars, it’s that relatively few humans are capable of operating a motor vehicle safely. The sooner they can’t outside of a private closed course, the better.

  • qrt145

    How do you know that accelerating was not the safest option? What if they figured it was too late to stop before the crane? I wouldn’t take a quip from a trucker about how New Yorkers are “always in a hurry” as a complete assessment of the situation.

  • reasonableexplanation

    I think your analysis is a bit off.

    The ‘in a hurry’ quip is just humor, the fact that people accelerated to avoid the crash is the correct response if hitting the brakes meant you’d end up right under it. Seems like it worked too, as no-one got caught under the crane.

    I guarantee you no driver saw a crane collapse and thought at all of being/not being late. The only thought at the moment was likely ‘oh nononono.’ Those that could brake did, those that could accelerate did. Everyone made it out alive. That’s a win.

    Sometimes accelerating can get you out of trouble too.

  • BBnet3000

    I don’t see a mandate coming any time soon despite the probable safety benefits, but I suspect many people will be forced to use automatic mode due to greatly increased insurance premiums for self-driving.

  • Joe R.

    A mandate wouldn’t come at least until most vehicles have self-drive capability, either new from the factory or retrofitted on the aftermarket. I’d guess the time frame for that is at least ten years.

    You’re right that insurance premiums will probably end up being a defacto mandate before there’s an actual mandate.

  • BKBedStuy

    Protected, yes; landmarked, maybe. I’m the first to advocate not knocking down buildings, but that’s not what the issue is, at this point. Landmarking would make it much harder, if not impossible to make improvements to the subway station/entrances. The point of the efforts is: slow down, let’s do some analysis about what can be done, and then incorporate the changes in with a preservation effort.

  • HamTech87

    re: Ailing Buses. I’m worried by the severe ridership decline on the SBS M15 route. Isn’t SBS the cure-all that should lead to increases? I’m guessing that without MOVE-NY tolling plus serious parking reform to open up street space, even a system-wide SBS will not lead to gains.

  • AnoNYC
  • AnoNYC

    The SBS M15 gets jammed up around the SAS construction really bad. Then you have illegally parked or standing vehicles in the bus lane elsewhere. Better off walking to Lexington Ave and taking the 4/5/6.

  • JamesR

    I’m actually on the TZB fairly regularly. It’s usually a shitshow of speeding, tailgating, and lane weaving (that is, when traffic is actually flowing beyond a snail’s place, which is only outside of rush hour).

    Your point actually does stand that if the crane is literally overhead and coming down on you, punching it makes the most sense. It could either save your skin or turn out terribly if the other motorists around you don’t do the same and you end up plowing into them.

  • reasonableexplanation

    A few things to note:
    -The common refrain of ” has the absolute worst drivers!” Doesn’t really add anything. Everyone thinks that about every place.

    -This happened outside of rush hour; around noon.

    -If a crane is coming down, better to rear end someone and end up with property damage/light injuries (as seemed to happen in this case) than get crushed.