Studies & Reports

Transport for London is out today with its fifth annual Congestion Charging Impacts Monitoring Report. If you've never seen any of the previous reports, it's worth a look. The 279-page document -- you can download the whole thing here -- provides a remarkably detailed assessment of the overall performance of London's surface transportation system (Compare it to the DOT section of Mayor's Management Report here in New York City and you will understand how much catching up we have to do).

A new NRDC report ranks U.S. states on their level of oil vulnerability measured by how heavily each state's citizens are affected by increases in oil prices. States are also ranked on their implementation of solutions to reduce oil dependence. The report found that while oil dependence affects all states, some are hit harder economically than others. And while some states are pioneering solutions, many are taking little or no action. In fact, the report finds that about one-third of states are not taking any steps to reduce their dependence. From the NRDC report (via Car Free USA):

Streetsblog interviewed DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan at 40 Worth St., Monday, June 18. Photo: Brad Aaron

Following Alex Marshall's essay on bicycle helmets this morning, Scientific American recently reported on a paradox emerging in relation to helmets and traffic accidents. It seems that drivers are a lot more scared of hitting you if you leave your protective gear at home:

According to a new study out from the city's Department of Health, children in New York are seven times less likely than children nationwide to die as car passengers. That's the good news, likely the result of the fact that our kids spend a lot less time in cars than most American children.

Long Island is safe. So safe that police recruits are flocking to the island's two counties, according to an article in last Tuesday's New York Times:

If you are planning to write a letter urging your local City Council Member to support Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, the chart below will be useful to you. Based on 2000 census data, it shows the percentage of New York City workers who commute to work by car into Manhattan south of 60th Street (also known as the region's Central Business District or CBD).

As The Politicker's Azi Paybarah reported yesterday, the anti-traffic relief group, "Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free" re-released its report, "Congestion Pricing in the Central Business District: Let's Look Hard Before We Leap." Commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the study calls into doubt the benefits of Mayor Bloomberg's proposed congestion pricing scheme, with some revised numbers from an earlier version they put out a few weeks ago. 

As New Yorkers well know, sidewalks around subway stops and major transit hubs are often intensely crowded. Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC team is aware of this and buried on page 48 of the Technical Report supplementing PlaNYC's transportation recommendations is a new program called "Safe Routes to Transit" (SR2T). While the attention to pedestrian issues is welcome, given the scope of the congestion problem near major transit stops, SR2T is a fairly modest proposal and is best viewed as a good beginning, a point of departure for significantly improving the walking part of transit trips.