In the recently released 'Kheel Plan' for New York City, professional arbitrator, environmentalist and social policy gadfly Theodore W Kheel explicitly, and repeatedly, refers to free public transit as the carrot, and congestion pricing as the stick. His free transit plan seeks to reduce traffic in the City's central business district by a third, thus shortening travel times both for those that do still drive, and for those taking the bus or subway. Lanes no longer needed for cars would be given over to bicycle commuting. Many of the plan's goals are worthy and the means may be effective in the short run. But Kheel ignores the possibility of a huge surge in public transport use, and City drivers' unwillingness to leave their carcoons. In any case, Kheel's financially liberated transit commuters would have to rely on "additional policing" to deal with the vandals and criminals currently deterred by fares. Good luck with that.
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Kheel has also never taken the Q train during rush hour either.
I go to NY frequently.
Mass transit is at capacity. Most folks on the road don’t have it as an option (this isn’t europe).
The plan as sent down by the federal government requires a fee, and as a result, mandates Orwellian surveillance, ostensibly to collect the fee.
The upper counties are fully against this. Other than a vociferious bicycle group, no one is thrilled.
I will be honest, though. It can take you a half hour to cross manhattan. The streets are also at total blockage.
Still, this is a huge tax, and a level of government observation on a mass scale that should disgust any American.
A plan to reduce congestion, without the tax or the surveillance, would be a good idea. Sadly, under the proposed plans there’s a huge TAX idea under the false cover of environmentalism.
quasimondo:
Kheel has also never taken the Q train during rush hour either.
Or the 4,5, and 6 trains! Those are the only trains that run north-south along the east side of Manhattan, and they are packed every day during rush hour. I don’t think putting in the Kheel plan will help relieve the congestion on the public transportation side.
The MTA has also been racking up deficits with a lot of people paying $2-4 a day, and he wants to make public transportation free. That’ll work. *rolls eyes*
The MTA needs oversight, accountability, and somebody who knows how to do math. One minute they have GM-like debt, the next minute they’re running a Toyota-like surplus. Just last night I heard on the news that they have enough money to rstore some services, which I’m sure will be eliminated just in time to justify another fare hike.
speedlaw: BS. What data are you citing that proves NYC transit is at capacity? Everything I’ve seen fails to take into account the fact that reducing congestion will allow expanded express bus service from the suburbs and outer boroughs.
Besides, even if mass transit is at capacity, private cars are NOT – very few people here carpool. Much congestion improvement would come from simply encouraging solo drivers to group up, with no impact on mass transit usage.
Does anybody actually drive in Manhattan? My impression is that parking, since it is not subsidized, is so expensive that driving is pretty much pointless.
What striked me however, the last time I was in NYC (in 2006), is how disagreeable bicycling has become. And I spoke with several people who told me they have given it up in recent years.
Another thing I don’t really understand is why scooter and motorcycle parking (and therefore driving) is discouraged in New York. In Italian and French cities, you use public transport or cabs or you take your Vespa. Nobody drives a car because you get stuck in traffic and can’t find a parking space.
Free public transit? Everyone who cares about the future of public transportation in New York City needs to remember this:
One way to make something expensive and worthless at the same time is to have the government start giving it away.
Brownie: speedlaw: BS. What data are you citing that proves NYC transit is at capacity?
I won’t even try to cite data, but speaking anecdotally, many NYC subway trains at peak hours are often packed to the gills. Often you have to wait for the next train or two before you can battle your way in. I don’t object to a plan to increase mass transit ridership, but MTA has to be able to run more efficiently if the plan has any hope of succeeding. I think anyone whose ridden NYC trains for a while will tell you the system doesn’t run like a Swiss watch. Or a Swiss mass transit system, for that matter.
BuckD: I ride the subway every day, and I have lived all over the city and in Brooklyn and thus have experienced a wide range of different lines. It is often crowded, though not all lines are equally bad, and not in all places.
When you’re talking about people who drive to Manhattan every day, you’re not talking about subway riders – you are talking about LIRR, MetroNorth, NJ Transit and express bus riders. People who drive into Manhattan from the boroughs do so because they don’t live near a subway stop, and their local express bus service is unbearable because of solo drivers clogging the roads.
I should also add that Manhattan bus service should improve substantially from reduced congestion (in addition to express bus service from outside Manhattan). This would give quite a lot of relief to subway crowding – personally I prefer taking the bus over the subway within Manhattan, but it is far too slow for commuting thanks to traffic.
Where does this knucklehead come up with the notion mass transit will be “free”? Are all the workers going to suddenly do their job for no pay? Are all the systems suddenly going to need zero maintenance? Are the utilities going to provide service for free? Nothing the government is involved in is free and in fact costs more than if it were provided by the private sector.
carpool?
F that.
no strangers in my car.
carpool?
F that.
no strangers in my car.
You and everyone else on the LIE at rush hour, apparently.