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Building a subway in a densely developed area is very expensive in the modern era.

Building at grade or above grade rail lines gets NIMBYs out in full force in the modern era.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrt's friend (Post 7039744)

Building at grade or above grade rail lines gets NIMBYs out in full force in the modern era.

At some point the politicians will simply need to have the testicular fortitude to tell the NIMBYs to stuff it. Either we find a way to build the transit NY needs to remain a 21st century city or lose economic competitiveness and quality of life. In some ways I have a love/hate fascination for Robert Moses. I hate what he did but admired that he had the you-know-what's to do it.

You have to break eggs to make an omelet. Yes, I realize that line of thinking has led to many abuses in the past, but the city simply cannot go the other direction and calcify itself into extinction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qubert (Post 7040171)

You have to break eggs to make an omelet. Yes, I realize that line of thinking has led to many abuses in the past, but the city simply cannot go the other direction and calcify itself into extinction.

In 2015 the fear of using eminent domain is far more destructive than using it. So many transit projects get canceled or needlessly rerouted for a tiny minority of individuals who refuse to budge.

Taxi interests sue city, predicting collapse of their industry

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Four taxi medallion lenders filed a lawsuit against Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Wednesday, alleging they are letting Uber illegally pick up street-hail passengers.

The lenders—Melrose Credit Union, Montauk Credit Union, Progressive Credit Union and LOMTO Federal Credit Union—are seeking a preliminary injunction ordering the city to enforce the law that prohibits any vehicle other than a yellow taxi from responding to street hails.

"It is inconceivable that we have to ask the city to enforce the law, but we've done our part," said Todd Higgins, an attorney for Melrose. "We've made numerous requests, to no avail. The crisis is now upon us; there simply is no more time. The city has left us no choice but to pursue legal action in the courts, and that is what we have done."

The four lenders, which collectively hold almost $2.5 billion in medallion loans secured by more than 5,000 medallions, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court in Queens. They claim that unless regulators properly enforce Title 19 of the New York City Administrative Code and the Hail Act of 2012, medallion values could collapse, as could the entire taxi industry. The city's refusal to enforce the law has allowed Uber to expand rapidly in New York, poaching drivers and market share, they said.

In a response to Mr. Higgins, the TLC's lead counsel disputed the claim that summoning a car via a smartphone app is the equivalent of hailing a cab on the street.

"We dispute the very premise that an electronic app cannot both be used to electronically hail a yellow taxicab and prearrange prompt [for-hire vehicle] service," Christopher Wilson, general counsel to the commission, wrote in late April. "Indeed, pushing a button on a smartphone, enabling an electronic dispatcher,= and receiving prompt FHV [for-hire vehicle] service is no different from dialing that same smartphone, talking to a dispatcher and receiving prompt FHV service."

Uber and other app-based ride-share services have also argued that they are not violating medallion cabs' exclusive right to pick up street hails.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...their-industry

from the post where else?!!

Squirrel attacks subway operator — for second time in two weeks

By Rebecca Harshbarger and Joe TacopinoMay 29, 2015 | 2:21am

Squirrel attack sends subway operator to hospital

Nutty squirrels are going off the rails on the city’s subways.

In the second such incident in two weeks, a squirrel accosted a train driver Thursday after running through a window of a Coney Island-bound Q train north of the Cortelyou Road station at about 9:20 a.m., according to transit sources.

After the motorwoman hit the brakes, riders helped her chase the squirrel out. It was unclear if it was at the next station or between subway cars.

Last week, a train operator was sent to the hospital when a squirrel attacked her on the stairs at a Bronx subway station and chomped on her middle finger.

The 24-year transit veteran was bitten at the Woodlawn station in the Norwood section of the borough.

She was treated at Jacobi Hospital for the wound.

NYC Subway Station Destroyed on 9/11 to Reopen in 2018

NBC

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A New York City subway station that was destroyed when the World Trade Center towers collapsed onto it in 2001 is still under construction and likely won't reopen until 2018.

The Cortlandt Street 1 train station was crushed beneath falling debris from the towers Sept. 11, 2001. About a year later, downtown 1 trains began whizzing through it again, restoring service to other downtown stations. But the station itself has been a vacant shell ever since.

On Monday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board of directors voted to take over the project from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at a cost of about $101 million. The cost includes an additional $31.5 million to the original price tag to compensate the contractor for construction delays.

Because the station runs directly underneath the World Trade Center memorial, the Port Authority and the MTA had debated for years over who should pay for the station's repairs. Meanwhile, the memorial was carefully built around the empty station. The Port Authority owns the ground above the station, while the MTA is responsible for operating the city's subway system.

Here is the station before 9/11

• Video Link

Here is the station post 9/11

http://erausa.org/img/slideshows/2001/09-28/11.jpg

http://nycsubway.org.s3.amazonaws.co...i1/img_230.jpg

Current Plans

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ay.graphic.jpg

Port Authority Trans-Hudson: A Tour Of The World Trade Center Station

• Video Link

DOT Reveals Plan To Make Changes To 4th Avenue Permanent

http://1u243h1b9mto1l6ls91hg4e6.wpen...6/image001.jpg

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The Department of Transportation announced their plan to make the traffic plan and wider medians on 4th Avenue, implemented in 2012, permanent, at the Community Board 7 Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday night.

In 2012, after discussions with the CB7 community, the DOT reduced the number of lanes on 4th Avenue in the district in both directions from three to two, widened the parking lanes to 13 feet, and widened the median by four feet on either side in order to reduce the number of crashes and injuries on the thoroughfare.

According to the DOT, since the implementation of these safety improvements, pedestrian injuries declined by 30%, total crashes were reduced by 18%, and crashes with injuries were decreased by 16% along the 4th Avenue segment from 15th-65th streets.

The DOT’s new Great Streets proposal will make these improvements permanent along the entire length of 4th Avenue by installing a two-foot-high raised median with planters, including trees and shrubs, and raised subway vents, as well as adding benches at the pedestrian cut-throughs.

The proposal also includes installing curb extensions at the southeast and southwest corners of the 4th Avenue and Prospect Avenue intersection, and widening the east sidewalk near the Green-Wood Cemetery, in order to make these areas more friendly for pedestrians.

The first phase of the project will be in two segments: from 8th Street to 18th Street, which is partially funded by the 2014 District 39 participatory budgeting vote, and 33rd Street to 52nd Street, and construction is expected to start in spring 2017.

The second phase of the project will cover 18th Street to 33rd Street and 52nd Street to 60th Street, and construction is estimated to begin in spring 2018. The DOT is still trying to secure funds for the final two sections, from Atlantic Avenue to 8th Street and 52nd Street to 65th Street.

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http://southslopenews.com/blog/trans...enue-permanent

^ medians?? bah. a shame they dont think to widen the sidewalks. why are pedestrians always the afterthought when it comes to transit changes? they make up the bulk of it. i never understand that. broadway below columbus circle should be the freakin champs elysee. /rant

Yeah I agree. Essentially everyday on a weekday is just people spilling into the street. Sidewalk expansion is a must. 8th Avenue needs widening, and especially 7th. For now 5th is okay, but as the summer progresses, it gets bad. December on 5th Ave is a different story. :runaway:

The MTA’s Accessibility Gap

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The MTA, for all our complaints, does several commendable things. Its customer costs are relatively low, especially when accounting for its 24/7 service, relative train frequency, and extensive system. However, one area where they aren’t so great is on accessibility. Of the five largest subway/light rail systems in the country, two (San Francisco and DC) are fully accessible. Two more have far more than half of their stations accessible (Boston—only some Green Line stations non-accessible; Chicago—primarily some Blue and Red line stations non-accessible). This leaves New York. While there are 490 stations in the New York system (including Staten Island), barely more than 100 stations are accessible:

Clock's ticking on half-funded capital plan, but MTA is slow to spend

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pb...creen&maxw=770

Quote:

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast is predicting "deep trouble" if lawmakers in Albany neglect to come up a plan to fully fund the agency's $32 billion, five-year capital plan. But the agency often lags in its state-of-good-repair spending anyway, a budget watchdog is reporting.

The city's Independent Budget Office analyzed two decades of capital spending by the transportation authority and concluded that the MTA's spending plans serve less as specific timetables and more general frameworks for carrying out major projects. Case in point: At the end of 2014, the MTA had signed contracts to spend $18 billion of its $31.9 billion capital plan covering 2010 to 2014. (MTA supporters note that Albany has a history of funding the agency's capital plans in piecemeal fashion, which makes them more difficult and expensive to execute.)

The MTA spent even less than it contracted: 37% of the previous capital plan, less projects related to Superstorm Sandy. By the end of the 2000 to 2004 and the 2005 to 2009 plan periods, about 45% of each plan’s total funds had been spent.

Of the $4 billion the transportation authority spent on capital projects in 2014, about three-fourths was for projects in the 2010 to 2014 plan, 20% for projects in the 2005 to 2009 plan, and 4% for projects in the 2000 to 2004 plan. But there was even a small amount spent that dated back to the last 1990s plan.

Nonetheless, an MTA spokesman said the IBO report backed up the agency's call.

"Without an approved and fully-funded 2015 to 2019 capital program, the MTA will be forced to make difficult choices between key priorities such as buying new subway cars, rail cars and buses, replacing tracks and rebuilding switches, installing more countdown clocks and extending the Second Avenue Subway into East Harlem," the spokesman said. "We appreciate the IBO's efforts to explain why delaying this vital work will hurt New York."

Construction work and major purchases, like new subway cars built to order, are often delayed, but the IBO is not suggesting that fully funding the MTA's next capital plan should lack urgency. "If the transportation authority’s new capital plan continues to remain on hold for much longer, it could compromise the agency’s ability to continue its capital investments at a steady pace," the IBO said.

The MTA spokesman argued that the IBO's findings underscore the urgency of funding the current plan.

"The Independent Budget Office report highlights the crucial importance of fully funding the MTA's 2015 to 2019 capital program to renew, enhance and expand the mass transit network that makes New York possible," the spokesman said. "As the report notes, all recent capital programs have been approved after the plan period begins, and commitments and expenditures continue after the plan period ends."

Transit advocates are aghast by Albany's indifference to the MTA. On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls a plurality of appointments to the MTA's board and therefore the agency itself, spent much of his Monday giving television interviews about an upstate prison break, and later hosted a documentary screening about sexual assault on college campuses. He has penned op-eds for the city's daily papers on his education tax credit and rent regulation plans, but said little about how the MTA will find the $14 billion it is still seeking. Lawmakers are eager to get out of the state capital after a punishing six months punctuated by high-profile corruption arrests.

Mr. Prendergast traveled to Albany last week, but there was no immediate word on a deal to find money for the capital plan. Funding the MTA is politically problematic for legislators. A previous capital plan was funded in part by a new payroll tax, which Republicans used to bludgeon Democrats in state Senate campaigns. The issue helped the GOP regain control of the chamber and may have left legislators gunshy about raising revenue for the next capital plan.

The payroll tax, which originally was uniformly applied throughout the MTA's 12-county region, was later scaled back for small businesses and those on the periphery of the transit system. The MTA was made whole with an allocation from the state budget.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...-slow-to-spend

New experimental Door Closing Voice along with New shorten announcements

• Video Link

Sources: De Blasio to cut cars in Central and Prospect parks

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Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce this week that he will further close Central and Prospect parks to car traffic, according to several knowledgeable sources.

De Blasio intends to close the West Drive of Prospect Park permanently to traffic, the sources said. Today, the West Drive of Prospect Park is only open to southbound traffic from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays.

The East Drive will remain open.

The mayor also plans to close a portion of the northern end of Central Park to traffic, according to two of the sources.

The de Blasio administration had no immediate comment.

When de Blasio was the councilman representing Park Slope, he appeared at a rally calling for a three-month, car-free trial in Prospect Park.

“You didn't get the sense he was burning hot about the car-free park issue,” bike advocate Aaron Naparstek told Capital last year. “But when our campaign dropped 12,000 signatures on his desk and thousands of them were from his district, he was impressed. Of the five Council members from around Prospect Park, he became the biggest and most important advocate."

Advocates have been trying to make Central Park car-free since the 1960s.

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http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...prospect-parks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey (Post 7045894)

• Video Link

Wow! Very nice. When they will be opened? How, when or what?

Christie, Cuomo back measure to overhaul Port Authority

Under the new plan, the executive director and deputy of the bistate agency would be replaced by a new chief executive and a rotating chairman, who will hold term for two years.

Quote:

A stalled effort to overhaul the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey received a jolt Thursday when Govs. Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo announced their support for a new measure.

The governors in December vetoed a bill passed unanimously in both states' legislatures, angering many lawmakers. Instead, the governors called for enacting reforms put forward by their own bistate commission.

They said the new legislation, introduced in New York, is comprehensive and accomplishes the changes legislators want.

Among other features, the proposal would replace the authority's executive director and deputy with a new chief executive, rotate the chairmanship every two years between the two states and prohibit the chairman or commissioners from also holding staff positions.

Both states must enact the legislation to effect an overhaul.

New York legislative leaders and the Democratic governor said they're in agreement on the proposal. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the legislation should improve regulation and transparency at the agency, which operates airports, tunnels, bridges and ports in the region.

Mr. Christie, a Republican, and New Jersey Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. called on Democrats, who control the legislature, to pass the new proposal immediately. Mr. Kean offered a proposal earlier this year that was rejected in New Jersey but ultimately helped form the basis for the new proposal, Mr. Christie said.

Other key lawmakers in New Jersey were skeptical. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said the two-year rotating executive is a sticking point for her because New York would take control of the post in August under the proposal.

Ms. Weinberg and New Jersey Democratic state Sen. Bob Gordon worried that the Port Authority bus terminal might become a lower priority than revitalizing LaGuardia airport.

"I find it a little bit surprising that six months after vetoing the bill that had been agreed to unanimously by all four houses of the two states, both governors suddenly came up with a new bill that is being rushed through the New York legislature that I was apprised of approximately 48 hours ago," Ms. Weinberg said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Mr. Gordon said he expects to work through the summer to work out differences with New York's lawmakers and governor.

"As much as we want these reforms, we don't want to do damage to New Jersey either," he said.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...port-authority

New York Subway Train Tracks and Signals Outside Queens Plaza Station, 1950

http://images.fineartamerica.com/ima...ks-everett.jpg

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