Wednesday’s Headlines: No USPS in Bike Lanes Today Edition

SB Donation NYC header 2Today’s national day of mourning for George Herbert Walker Bush has an added side benefit: The United States Postal Service says it will not deliver mail on Wednesday to honor the 41st President, father of the 43rd President, World War II hero, former CIA director, sock aficionado, former Vice President and, lest we forget, really good (and sort of ironic) friend of Bill Clinton.

No mail means no USPS trucks in bike lanes or illegally parked in the roadways. Talk about a point of light! Our editor vows to celebrate by riding up and down Vanderbilt Avenue, safe in the knowledge that his way will only be blocked by FedEx, UPS and Fresh Direct today. (Small victories!)

And now, the news:

  • So the Taxi and Limousine Commission set a minimum wage for drivers at $17.22 per hour on Tuesday, but insiders say the wage formula and other rules may end up driving smaller outlets like Juno out of business while benefiting Uber and hurting outer-borough customers (who should have better transit service so they wouldn’t use cars in the first place!). (amNY) One TLC commissioner wanted the wage to be even higher. (NYDN, NY Post)
  • You heard it here (sort of) first: New York Magazine is the latest outlet to say Uber is a big bubble that’s going to pop.
  • Remember those reports of signal problems with the brand new signals on the 7 line? Yeah, well it’s still happening. (amNY)
  • NYC Transit President Andy Byford testified at City Hall that he deserves $40 billion for his “Fast Forward” plan — only a tiny portion of which would come from the city. (NYDN)
  • The MTA is blaming Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance for an uptick in fare evasion — but at the same time admits the worst fare evasion is in the Bronx and Staten Island, which, inconveniently, do not have Cy Vance as DA. (Gothamist) The Times offered this explainer
  • Meanwhile, Nicole Gelinas in the Post doesn’t give the MTA a break (in other words, good work, Nicole!).
  • Now former DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is in Delhi talking about roads (though we’d rather be in Rhodes talking about deli). (Hindustan Times)
  • And, finally, our tweet of the day is from HuffPo’s Andy Campbell, who made fun of our editor for his question at Tuesday’s mayoral press conference: