Transportation Policy

We noted yesterday that Barack Obama has promised to direct more federal funds to bike-ped infrastructure if elected. Now comes word that the Illinois Senator is going public with his support for a regional rail network linking midwestern cities, an idea he had floated quietly during the Democratic primary campaign.

Barack Obama riding with his family last week.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law Intro 199, a bill requiring New York City's Department of Transportation to collect and monitor data specifically aimed at helping the city "to reduce automobile traffic and encourage more sustainable means of transportation vital to combating congestion, pollution and improving the City’s long term economic health." The new law could signal a significant change for a city agency that has typically measured its own performance based on how many potholes it fills, street lamps it fixes and how well it keeps motor vehicle traffic flowing through the city's over-burdened street grid. 

We posted yesterday about proposed legislation by State Senators Eric Adams and Jeff Klein to increase summer driving by suspending tolls on bridges and tunnels, thereby leaving transit riders to pay for their largess. Soon after, Adams constituent Carrie McLaren picked up the news on her neighborhood blog, Hawthorne Street. Now Adams wants to hold a kitchen cabinet meeting about the bill:

On Tuesday, Community Board 3 unanimously approved a resolution in support of DOT's plans for improved Manhattan Bridge access, including bike lanes on Chrystie Street.

The Ninth Avenue cycle track will be extended 10 blocks north to 33rd St.

How obsessed is Washington with gas prices? Acting on a Streetsblog post from last week, a reader wrote Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman urging him to support legislation that would bolster funding for Amtrak. In response, Lieberman's office sent a long, long form letter outlining the many ways the senator is -- you guessed it -- working to keep gasoline as accessible as possible.

The bad ideas from Albany show no sign of letting up. Just when you thought the push for a state gas tax holiday had died down, State Senators Jeff Klein and Eric Adams -- of the Bronx and Brooklyn, respectively -- roll out their own version of summertime "relief" for drivers, and it's a doozy. They want to suspend tolls on bridges and tunnels in the New York City area on major holidays and, yes, give drivers a gas tax rebate of up to $200.