MTA

Like New York and dozens of other American cities, Minneapolis is facing the prospect of higher transit fares and less service amid the economic downturn. To impress upon state lawmakers that their constituents depend on transit to meet basic needs, the St. Stephen's Human Rights Campaign compiled this video of testimonials from bus riders (hat tip to Twin Cities Streets for People; see all the testimonials here). They asked a simple question: What do you use the bus for?

The three city reps who nearly derailed the Democratic takeover of the State Senate have issued a joint statement declaring -- transit riders be damned -- they're not going to support bridge tolls. Liz Benjamin at the Daily Politics has the story:

As opposition to East and Harlem River bridge tolls is reportedly "softening" in the State Senate, Lew Fidler tells Crain's that a transfer of city-owned crossings to the MTA would require a home rule message from the City Council, and says he would join efforts to stop such a transfer in order to prevent tolls from being enacted. The full blurb is behind the subscriber wall, but here are Fidler's quotes.

Last March, Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat stood with Mayor Bloomberg in Fordham Plaza, celebrating the announcement of the city's inaugural Select Bus Service line. In the thick of the battle over congestion pricing, its fate to be determined within days, Espaillat was one of few state pols to vocally support the mayor's proposal. Flanked by Bloomberg, Elliot Sander, Janette Sadik-Khan and other pricing advocates, the Northern Manhattan rep did not mince words.

Sheldon Silver's partial endorsement of the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue plan [PDF], which includes East and Harlem River bridge tolls, offers the best political hope in years for reducing the daily truck tsunami pulverizing downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

Included on the State Senate's "MTA Ideas" web site is a PDF of the governor's proposed MTA bailout plan. It is a huge bill which generally seems to echo the proposals made by the Ravitch Commission. Streetsblog will summarize the proposal as soon as we can digest its 78 pages. In the meantime, please share your impressions in the comments.

Biking the Triborough. Photo: E-BAD/Flickr.

We conclude our discussion with ITDP director Walter Hook with a look at potential BRT configurations. In yesterday's installment, Hook noted that the best BRT systems incorporate both local and express services within exclusive busways, which requires three lanes at station stops. Here he discusses how to make this work along First and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

This is the third of four installments in our interview with ITDP director Walter Hook about Bus Rapid Transit in New York City. Be sure to catch the first and second parts if you haven't yet. In this installment Hook discusses how BRT can succeed in New York, and the series will wrap up tomorrow with a look at potential configurations specifically for First and Second Avenue.