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The city's effort to keep over-weight trucks off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway's aging triple-cantilever caught some strays in the fight over congestion pricing.
In an op-ed late last week for the Daily News, Zach Miller, the director of Metro Region Operations for the Trucking Association of New York, took shots not only at the upcoming tolls set to launch for Manhattan below 60th Street on Jan. 5, but the city and state's effort to use automated technology against overweight trucks that's led to a drop in truck traffic on the BQE.
The piece, however, claims truck traffic has increased — while linking to a city press release that shows the opposite. It's just as our contributor Charles Komanoff pointed out on Monday, when he reported that the tolls will initially increase traffic speeds 5 to 6 percent and then more later, once the subway improvements kick in.
Sounds good to us.
In other news:
The Times's auto-centrism even bleeds into the sports pages, what with this line in a story about Juan Soto's signing with the Mets: "It’s hard to convey to the non-baseball fan just how unnatural this feels. It is as if Staten Island stole all the art galleries from SoHo, or the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway became a giant bike lane." Unnatural to whom? Maybe to Yankee fans, but not to us!
Oh, and speaking of the Gray Lady, yesterday, we mentioned a Times story about how New Jersey State Police had basically given up on traffic enforcement, but failed to stress why that's such a big deal: As enforcement plummeted, crashes on the state’s main highways increased by 27 percent quickly ... and then kept rising for six of the next seven months.
The Adams administration got some new ink for its already-announced (and panned) plan to widen the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue. (NYDN, Gothamist)
And the mayor's "Operation Restore Roosevelt" has turned a stretch of Queens into a cop "hunting ground" for immigrants, says Hell Gate.
A drunk driver killed a woman on Long Island. (NYDN)
And another stinking motorist drove onto the LIRR tracks and caused a commuting snafu. (amNY)
From Facebook, the car from yesterday's big service disruption on the Main Line. How did this get past the bollard design on a brand new, $65 million station!?
It's hard not to have a strong opinion about the verdict in the Daniel Penny trial (NYDN, NY Times, Gothamist). Even the Post says the case was "botched," but then again, that paper hates Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Even the mayor had an opinion — and frankly, it was disturbing. (amNY)
As a suspect was caught in the killing of a millionaire health insurance company CEO, Hell Gate looked at another crime that didn't get the same full-court press by the NYPD.
And, finally, it's time to honor our donors from the past few days, and remind all of you kind-hearted readers, that it's so easy to donate to Streetsblog during our annual fundraising drive. To do so, just click here (and here's a reminder of how we try to earn your trust every day). For now, we thank the following people (and hope to add you tomorrow): Thanks, Dorothy! Thanks, Gary! Thanks, David! Thanks, Kate! Thanks, Danny! Thanks, Bruce!
One donor sent us hard cash, which, we assure you, will nourish our work.
David was Streetsblog's do-it-all New York City beat reporter from 2015 to 2019. He returned as deputy editor in 2023 after a three-year stint at the New York Post.
The Uber-backed plan to lower car insurance rates has drawn criticism from legal professionals, crash victim advocates and state pols who say the legislative changes would strip crash victims of rights.
