Monday’s Headlines: Misinformation Edition

Two big stories over the weekend reminded anew of Streetsblog’s important place in an ecosystem of outrage and lies.

First, on Friday night, a driver going way too fast smashed his Mercedes into parked cars and then onto the sidewalk, where he killed two people just kicking off the weekend by being outside, as New Yorkers do.

The Post’s first-draft coverage was solid, which is more than I can say for the Times (“Two Killed as Car Slams Into Crowd on Sidewalk in Manhattan,” was the paper’s driver-absolving headline) or the TV news stations, which also focused on the notion that the car had somehow committed the carnage all by itself. (The Daily News had video showing the driver racing through a red light, but the paper didn’t even bother mentioning the recklessness.)

It turned out, of course, that driver Elvin Suarez, 61, was drunk and driving recklessly, cops said.

But in a world where cars are normalized — the world that Streetsblog seeks to repair — it didn’t take long for haters to find their target of blame:

Sure, that’s a repulsive take (and a wrong one, given that the pedestrian island probably saved lives), but it was hardly the only one, nor will it be the only one whenever city officials try to make our streetscape more livable by adding a bike lane, adding pedestrian infrastructure or allowing restaurants to revitalize our streets with outdoor dining instead of parking. (Indeed, our daily headlines are all too often a chronicle of media outlets that want to take the city backwards.)

In the weekend’s other big story, on Saturday, LIRR workers walked off their jobs, shuttering service on the nation’s busiest commuter rail system (amNY has a Monday commute primer here). We obviously hope for a short strike — public transit is the life blood of New York — but one that ends with a resolution that is fair to all.

But one thing we won’t stand for: lies.

Before you could say, “Hey, Siri, show me the map of LIRR free shuttle buses during the strike” or call up Mayor Mamdani’s update, the bad faith chorus was screaming that congestion pricing should be waived during the strike. (The Post is leading the revanchism.)

This knee-jerk reaction — which is ironic, given how much the pro-driving crowd seems to hate socialism — is based on a complete misunderstanding of how much our society already subsidizes driving and starves transit: If you have a car, it’s cheaper to drive into New York’s congestion zone than it is to buy a LIRR ticket. The people who make the greatest hew and cry about how drivers are so persecuted or that there’s a “war” on “cars” conveniently forget that peak round-trip LIRR fare from Roslyn — just 22 miles from Rockefeller Center! — is $30.50.

Even with the congestion toll — which is just $6 after the $7.50 Queens-Midtown Tunnel toll, thanks to a toll credit — driving remains cheap. Clayton Guse of Gothamist had a good takedown of one of congestion pricing’s greatest opponents:

But Guse could have gone further, to make the larger point about congestion pricing that he and others seem to forget — that the small toll seeks to claw back a tiny portion of the damage done by drivers in the form of fouled air, misallocated streetscape and, yes, congestion that hurts every other driver on the road. This point did not elude Ofonono Udongwo in his response to a Post story:

In other news:

• Speaking of revanchism, I’d like to personally remind the NY Post that no one — not even those us in the livable streets movement — is saying that the city’s dearth of bike lanes is the single greatest crisis facing the city. But the way Big Rupert covers transportation issues in the city, it’s worth asking who’s really the one with the obsession with bikes?
• Speaking of bikes, we used to judge our quality of life by how our paychecks rose in comparison to a slice of pizza. But the Times was good enough to point out that our paychecks are not keeping pace with Citi Bike, either.
• Electric barges are part of the city’s “Blue Highway” effort. (Gothamist)
• DoorDash is starting a political action committee to, it seems, elect people who don’t understand and therefore fail to regulate, the delivery industry. (NY Focus)
• Norman Oder, who was so right for so long on Atlantic Yards, gets NIMBY on a simple bike boulevard project. (Substack)
• Queens bus riders deserve better service on the Q54. (QNS)
• Bad news: Those four new Metro-North stations in The Bronx may be delayed. (The City)
• What, has former City Council Member Joe Borelli changed his mind about how New York liberals supposedly make it too hard to run a business — now that he’s running a business? Kidding aside, we wish the car-loving Borelli well in his attempt to bring a great gathering place in a car-free corner of Staten Island. (NY Post)
• I’ve heard of road rage, but this is more rage road. (NY Times)
• Should Staten Island have a seat on the MTA Board? (amNY)
• Some people will see these New Yorker pictures of kids and young adults on bikes and clutch their pearls. We see joy.