New York City - Transit News

[Crawford]

Chuck Schumer appears to be a very clear proponent of congestion pricing. Hopefully he can put pressure on Gridlock Kathy to follow the law:

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/06/...ver-up-edition

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Not in this case. The roads purposely funnel people from Long Island into NYC. Even if you are not going into NYC, you MUST drive through it to get anywhere else. So yes, it would help creating a bypass for these people. Its simply artificial congestion. And no, congestion in all of these cities is not the same. About 8 million people live on Long Island, there is no reason why they (along with all of the trucks/deliveries to the island) have to get funneled through NYC.

The only part of NYC with the proposed congestion charge is Manhattan below Central Park and it doesn't apply to the bridges, tunnels or expressways. So the expressways all act as a by-pass as do the VN and RFK bridges. So congestion is not caused by Long Islanders using central Manhattan surface streets to travel to other places.

And I never suggested that the congestion in all cities is "the same"; just that in large cities the demand - from one cause/source or another - is always too much to satisfy meaning there will always be congestion unless there are restrictions like tolls. Whether or not the congestion has different origins is irrelevant to that fact. So pretending that one can just solve it by building more capacity or bypasses or make it flow more smoothly just turns one into the Wiley Coyote of traffic engineering. "Oh, I know, I'll try this!" **comically backfires** Ok, well this time I've got it; I'll try THIS!!" **also spectacularly backfires** And so on and so forth lol.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Make a bridge/dam to CT to completely bypass NYC. Ideally, another one direct to Sandy Hook, NJ as well - even if you make it for trucks only this would be huge.
Same with the NYC subway. Right now all of these lines funnel everyone into Manhattan for no reason, thats why IBX is important. There was also a rail tunnel proposal (Cross Harbor) bypassing Manhattan, direct from NJ to Brooklyn. Having dead-end rail terminals in Manhattan is also idiotic. No one in the world does this. Trying to get from Brooklyn to Queens on a subway??? Why don't you visit Times Square first! Because that place is surely not congested!

But of course, all of this presumes you are actually *serious* about tackling congestion, and not simply trying to get $$$.

I don't think a complete bypass of NYC to the south is technologically feasible. A bypass to the north is well studied and seems possible though.

[mrnyc]

cross harbor ok, but a bridge through sandy hook nj, one of the best rec, if not thee best and most beautiful recreation sites/peninsula in the area. umm, no.

[mrnyc]

there is a new redesign for the brklyn hts triple cantilever —




City proposes new redesign for BQE triple cantilever, delays construction until 2029

By Kirstyn Brendlen
Posted on June 24, 2024


The city has a new proposal for the battered triple cantilever portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Brooklyn Heights, but no matter how the administration chooses to overhaul the roadway, construction won’t start until 2029, a year later than the most recently-announced plan.

Ahead of two public workshops about “BQE Central,” the 1.5-mile city-owned stretch of the BQE between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, the Department of Transportation released their newest idea for the triple cantilever — a “stacked” design, not dissimilar to the roadway’s current three-tiered layout.


more:
https://www.brooklynpaper.com/new-bq...on-delay-2029/


The city has proposed a new fix for the Triple Cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. File photo by Todd Maisel

[mrnyc]

yay — and btw that ridership count is notoriously vastly underestimated —



Staten Island Railway to get new trains for first time in 50 years

By Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jun 24, 2024


The new train cars will be a major modernization for the dilapidated Staten Island Railway. The current fleet of trains on the line — called R44s — first entered service in the early 1970s when John Lindsay was mayor, and are now prone to mechanical issues. Today, the line only carries about 7,000 riders per weekday, compared to nearly 4 million trips per day on the subway system.


more:
https://gothamist.com/news/staten-is...me-in-50-years


Marc A. Hermann / MTA