Today’s Headlines

Sam Schwartz, an architect of the Move NY plan who was also on the task force, said that the task force was charged with finding ways to reduce congestion in Manhattan — so the other boroughs, and the bridge tolls there, were beyond the scope of its work.

Sam has mastered consultancy. If the cure’s unintended consequences are worse than the disease, the consultant’s response is “scope.” It wasn’t part of the problem specification.

Tom Lehrer expressed better in his song about Werner Von Braun: “Once the rockets go up, who cars where they come down, that’s not my department, says Werner Von Braun”.

What the fuck is with the New York Times’ wistful masturbatory pieces on just about every topic? I got no problem with public art, and as close as that author came to quantifying anything was to point out the art is actually not that expensive.

Still, to the question “What if the problem is that our subway stations and all our
infrastructure are not treated as public treasures, and are instead too utilitarian, too trampled, so purposefully unpleasant that no one cares when things are going wrong until the whole place starts falling down?” the answer is a simple “Um. No.”

Millions of people use that infrastructure daily. They care. They want to get where they’re going, and it means a lot to them to be able to do it, even if they take it a little for granted. I can’t speak for all of them, but I for one barely notice anything about subway art through my groggy caffeine consumption phase. I do notice when my ride is halted for no obvious reason besides it’s normal now, and I’m late even though I left early.

Cost management = less money for those who donate to the campaigns of state and local politicians. That’s what people aren’t getting. They own us.

The Senate Republicans are now hurrumphing about cost management in the context of the congestion pricing charge. After having voted very recently to hand back all the small extra contributions MTA managers were once required to pay in exchange for being able to retire at age 55 instead of 62. A very small contribution whose purpose was to pretend that “we paid for it.”

Perhaps but if you do that then do as Larry often suggests. Have a base fare which covers basic maintenance and operating costs, plus a surcharge which covers past labor retroactive pension increases, overstaffing, and other things which add nothing of value for today’s rider. My guess is you might have a basic fare of $2 or so, plus a surcharge of $5. Let the general public see how much these under the table deals cost them. That’s the first step to repealing them.

truth this

Here is something to think about. Analysts believe that the cost of autonomous electric rideshare vehicles, with no drivers, will fall to just $1.00 per mile from $2.50 per mile now. That includes the capital cost of the vehicle.

https://www.economist.com/news/business/21735600-it-may-not-safeguard-carmakers-future-gm-takes-unexpected-lead-race-develop

MTA operating costs per passenger mile — including the ROW, but not including the capital cost of the vehicle — were 48 cents for the subway, 49 for Metro North, 58 for the LIRR. And including neither the capital cost of the vehicle or the cost of the ROW, $1.71 for NYCT Bus, and $1.73 for the MTA Bus company. Paratransit, $8.04.

This implies that at some point the TWU will be charging so much for lousy service for anything other than a ride to a congested pace such as Manhattan, that even with subsidy, it would make no sense to use public transit. Private transit would take its place.

You think Uber and Lyft are wiping out buses now, just wait for that. Bicycles, electric bikes, etc.

As soon as this sort of thing becomes an alternative for those now using local bus service, it should probably go away, with buses limited to BRT routes with lower per mile costs and faster service.

The big picture is Generation Greed is destroying everything shared in pursuit of its vast individual need fulfillment — business, family, state and local government — and leaving wreckage behind. Elsewhere, it may be about not wanting to pay taxes, but here it’s about pillage by the political/union class.

So what do we do? A lot of the future money has already been taken. It’s gone.

Maybe if they are right about $1 per passenger mile, the electric bike crackdown goes away, and congestion pricing can be used to prevent autonomous shared vehicles from overwhelming congested, rail-served areas, there is a way out of this, at least on the transportation side.

People are out there trying to create to make up for what the powerful are using control of the government and existing corporations to destroy.

“Winsor, who was arrested, was cleared in October when another judge ruled that police lied in testimony about her blocking a sidewalk during a rally”

Is there a perjury charge pending against this mystery officer?

Depends on the location.

This sort of thing could make something other than auto-transit doable in places that are not dense enough for mass transit.

Moreover, some kind of autonomous shared ride vehicles could allow places to gradually move across the suburban to urban density chasm.

Rather than falling into the chasm where density is too low for lots of stuff within walking/biking distance and cost effective BRT or rail transit — but too dense for driving and parking to be anything but a nightmare.

If automation happens rationally, it will probably replace less used bus routes with vehicles of various sizes between a 4-person passenger sedan and a current bus. But they’re still going to have to have vehicles sized to meet the day’s highest demand.

But if it really proceeds rationally, it shakes up transit in odd ways. If you can really go without an attendant, a few decades’ of savings on labor could help finance a fixed route on some busier routes.

13 year old child on a bicycle killed by a piece of shit driving a Mack truck in Brooklyn last night. Right hooked. Driver arrested, turns out he didn’t have a license. The usual story. Piece of shit company hiring piece of shit unlicensed drivers who drive like pieces of shit around residential neighborhoods and kill people. New York officials: “so what?”

I love Andy Byford so much.