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KVNBKLYN Jan 20, 2012 2:27 AM

An update on construction of the Fulton Transit Center from the MTA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_CGu...layer_embedded" target="_blank">Video Link

M II A II R II K Feb 28, 2012 12:41 AM

Subway Entrances? Not on Our Block


February 25, 2012

By CARA BUCKLEY

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/ny...entrances.html

Quote:

THERE is talk that the proposed newcomer will bring riffraff to the block, or rats or outdoor urinators. That things will be noisier. Squishier. That property values will drop. Such are the fears running along 69th Street near Lexington Avenue, home to the Union Club, neo-Georgian homes and carriage houses. They are fears normally associated with the less-charming realities of urban life, like a homeless shelter or a late-night dive bar. But in this case, they are focused on something quite different: new entrances to a subway station.

Some New Yorkers can only dream of having a subway train ferry them straight to their front door, but residents of East 69th Street say the entrances have no place on what they believe to be one of the prettiest streets around. They have formed a block association and hired lawyers, and they plan to tap an engineering firm to conduct transportation and environmental assessments that will likely show that the entrances can and should go elsewhere, or perhaps are not needed at all. Residents are feeling, in the words of one, “hysterical,” all the while trying to defuse charges of Upper East Side snobbery.

“It’s not as though any of us are sitting there riding around in limos and saying other people should ride the subways, like Marie Antoinette,” said Charles Salfeld, who has lived at the Imperial House on East 69th Street since 1976. “What we object to is this access to and from the subway done at the expense of the residential and pristine quality of 69th Street.” The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says the entrances are needed to enable crowd flow because new elevators are to be built a block away, at the No. 6 line access points on East 68th Street.

There has been resistance to new subway entrances before. Residents of a building on East 86th Street sued the transit authority a year ago in an effort to stop the construction of entrances to the coming Second Avenue subway outside their front doors; the suit was dismissed late last year. But Lois Tendler, the transit authority’s vice president of government and community relations, said resistance to elevator projects was rare and the “vociferousness of the concerns” in the latest conflict unusual. So is the nature of the residents’ complaints. People on East 86th Street feared the flood of people. The residents of East 69th Street share that fear, but a major thrust of their argument is that their blocks are simply too pretty.

.....



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ticleLarge.jpg




http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...WAY1-popup.jpg

KVNBKLYN Feb 28, 2012 4:51 AM

More updates from the MTA's Flickr page.

Outside the Fulton Transit Center:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7057/6...2f31459e_o.jpg

Inside the Dey Street passage that will link the WTC to Fulton:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/6...4a7f0c2e_o.jpg

Excavation of the cavern for the 72nd Street station on the Second Avenue line:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7207/6...854585b8_o.jpg

Escalator shaft to the new platforms below Grand Central:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6...5e2b3f78_b.jpg

uaarkson Feb 28, 2012 9:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 5607767)
Subway Entrances? Not on Our Block

Yeah, all those brand new, 21st century subway entrances are really going to stagnate the area!

KVNBKLYN Feb 29, 2012 1:24 AM

The subway recorded it's highest ridership since 1950 (when the system was larger than today due to the Third Avenue el and other later-demolished el lines in Brooklyn).

Also of note is the success of combining the old M and V routes into the new M that connects north Brooklyn directly with Midtown.

From the MTA:

Quote:

Subway Ridership at Highest Levels Since 1950!

Everyone knows there is no better way to navigate the city than riding the subway. In 2011, subway ridership increased 2.3% from 2010….that's more than 36 million trips! Weekend ridership also continues to swell. In fact, average weekend ridership topped 5.4 million, the highest weekend ridership since 1947.

Some other notes based on results through November 2011:

The Myrtle Av M line had the strongest growth of any line, likely a continuing effect of the service change that re-routed the M line via 6th Avenue in Manhattan and Queens Blvd. in Queens.

We continue to see strong growth in northern Brooklyn on the western portions of the L and J lines running through Williamsburg and Bushwick.

The Aqueduct-North Conduit Ave A station (and Aqueduct Racetrack station when open) saw a large ridership increase after the closure of off-track betting in December 2010. Ridership at Aqueduct-North Conduit Av nearly tripled after the opening of the Resorts World Casino at the racetrack on October 28, 2011.

NYC4Life Apr 4, 2012 2:01 AM

WNYW FOX 5 - NEW YORK

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/cons...attan-20120403

Construction crane collapses in Manhattan
Quote:

Updated: Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 9:35 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 7:36 PM EDT

MYFOXNY.COM - A construction crane has collapsed on the West Side of Manhattan, according to preliminary emergency reports.

At least three people have been hurt inside the West 34th Street construction site above the No. 7 line subway line extension, officials said.

The FDNY said an 80-foot section and a 40-foot section from an upright crane became dislodged, the AP reported.

At least one injury is very serious.

Police have closed West 34th Street at 11th Avenue and 11th Avenue between 34th Street and 35th Street, according to the Notify NYC system.



(c) 2012 Fox Television Stations, Inc.

Busy Bee Apr 11, 2012 11:31 PM

Taxi of Tomorrow
 
Wasn't there a thread for this? Anyway... Here's some close up views of the new Nissan "Taxi of Tomorrow" at the auto show. Still think the Turkish bid should have one, or better yet a competent American one, had it existed.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....-04-04-800.jpg


Nissan NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow hands-on (video)

Still photos

mrnyc Apr 22, 2012 5:27 PM

heyy -- nothing here about mayorial candidate stringer wanting to revive the commuter tax and build out the triboro x subway line (which will loop together all the lines using existing right of ways)??

Nexis4Jersey Apr 22, 2012 5:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrnyc (Post 5675466)
heyy -- nothing here about mayorial candidate stringer wanting to revive the commuter tax and build out the triboro x subway line (which will loop together all the lines using existing right of ways)??

Watch the businessmen leave Manhattan once the tax is reinstated....1.7 Million people commute into the city from the burbs and to another tax is ridiculous.... I don't see the tax coming back , since it was ruled unconstitutional.

Dac150 Apr 22, 2012 5:59 PM

Ugh . . . I'm going to miss the classic beat up yacht sized crown vics . . . those Nissans are tough to look at.

K 22 Apr 23, 2012 9:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee (Post 5663003)
Wasn't there a thread for this? Anyway... Here's some close up views of the new Nissan "Taxi of Tomorrow" at the auto show. Still think the Turkish bid should have one, or better yet a competent American one, had it existed.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget....-04-04-800.jpg


Nissan NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow hands-on (video)

Still photos



I saw these up close the auto show last week. Got a lot of bells and whistles to it, I'll say that much.

Ibanesse Apr 25, 2012 2:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey (Post 5675489)
Watch the businessmen leave Manhattan once the tax is reinstated....1.7 Million people commute into the city from the burbs and to another tax is ridiculous.... I don't see the tax coming back , since it was ruled unconstitutional.

See, what I find ridiculous is people who come into this city and utilize its infrastructure every single day complaining that they have to pay for any part of the infrastructure because they just happen, thanks to arbitrary, imaginary lines, to not actually reside inside the municipality from whence that infrastructure is run. How is that fair? Everyone in the Tri-State area, whether directly or indirectly, avails themselves of the services of the NYC government. Either they actually use the roads and bridges and commuter rail lines and Subways and bus lines, or they in some way benefit from all of the economic activity that fuels the entire region, which is made possible by the existence of all of that infrastructure.

I can't help but feel that this particular attitude is nothing more than an extension of New York City's endless and pointlessly bizarre feud with Trenton and Albany, especially after the ARC cancellation and Cuomo raiding the MTA transit lockbox again.

Busy Bee Apr 25, 2012 3:22 AM

^Hmmm. Sounds like a little unigov might help. But that makes too much sense so nevermind....

NYC4Life Apr 25, 2012 4:52 PM

NY1

UPDATED 12:07 PM
PC Kelly, MTA Head Discuss Recent Spike In Subway Crime

Quote:

Subway crime is on the agenda today as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and MTA Chief Joe Lhota meet to discuss the recent spike in crime underground.
Lhota has already met with all five district attorneys looking for ways reduce subway crime, which is up 20 percent over the first quarter of the year.

The meeting comes as police search for two men wanted for separate lewd incidents on the subway.

The first incident happened around 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday on a Manhattan-bound L train.

A woman told police the man seen here was performing a sex act on himself while staring at her.

http://media.ny1.com/media/2012/4/25...wdsuspects.jpg

She was able to take a picture of him before he walked off the train at Union Square.

He's described a being between 20 and 25 years old, six feet tall and weighing 175 pounds.

He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, navy pants and a black hat.

Just a half hour earlier, another woman told police someone snapped a photo up her skirt while she was riding a Brooklyn-bound 4 train headed toward Union Square.

That man is described as being between 30 and 40 years old, 5'5" tall with brown eyes, short black hair and a mustache.

He was last wearing a black and orange sweatshirt.

Subway riders who spoke with NY1 say even though they've seen and heard just about everything underground, the latest incidents are concerning.

"The crime that is going on you sometimes have to be very careful whoever you come near," said one straphanger.

"I try to be alert watch my surroundings. I used to be a security guard so I am always observant," said another.

The MTA says if riders do encounter lewd behavior on the train they should contact an MTA employee or a police officer.

Anyone with information about the latest two lewd attacks should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.



© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Busy Bee Apr 25, 2012 6:25 PM

Things are really getting bad. Subway masturbaters in the past were much more discrete.

dchan Apr 25, 2012 7:02 PM

I've finally seen something that I have never seen on the subway (but which I have seen in certain restaurants): somebody smoking. I ran into an F train one morning only to be met with an acrid stench. Somebody was obviously smoking, and as I was moving through the car to get to the next car, I saw a guy sitting at the end smoking a clove cigarette.. But the weird thing is that there was a sizable number of passengers still sitting in that car who apparently didn't mind breathing in second-hand smoke, nor did they care to tell him to put it out.

Busy Bee Apr 25, 2012 7:04 PM

Ill take smoke in the air over jizz or puke on the seat any day!

NYC4Life Apr 29, 2012 8:21 PM

3:13 PM
New "Apple Green" Taxicabs Unveiled At City Hall
By: NY1 News

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9524/83481107.jpg

Quote:

The new Five Boro Taxi was unveiled today at in its signature color, and the new cabs are a "Big Apple" green.

Permits for the new cabs will be provided to livery cab companies, which will be able to legally pick up street hails outside of Manhattan, and in Northern Manhattan above East 96th and West 110th Streets.

The 18,000 permits will be made available to livery companies, with 6,000 hitting the streets in June.

Boro Taxis will all be equipped with credit card machines, roof lights signaling when they are available and fare meters.

The city says a ride in the new cab will cost the same as in a yellow taxicab.



© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

uaarkson Apr 30, 2012 8:46 PM

A part of me is repulsed.

NYC4Life May 2, 2012 5:29 PM

12:13 PM
New Barriers To Go Up Near Scene Of Fatal Bronx Parkway Crash
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...-parkway-crash

Quote:

Concrete barriers are set to be installed along the stretch of the Bronx River Parkway where an SUV accident this past weekend killed seven members of the same family.

The state Department of Transportation says the barriers will be installed along the viaducts crossing the Bronx Zoo, East Tremont Avenue, and Amtrak.

The barriers will be placed on the right hand side of the north and southbound lanes.

During the installation, the speed limit will be lowered to 35 miles an hour.

The move comes after Sunday's accident near the zoo.

Police say a Honda Pilot traveling southbound struck the center barrier, careened across three lanes of traffic, and launched over a four foot guardrail.

The SUV then plunged nearly 60 feet into a private area of the zoo.

All seven people inside the SUV -- including three children -- were killed.



© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dac150 May 2, 2012 7:38 PM

Ugh . . . these new 'echo friendly' taxis are hideous . . .

NYC4Life May 16, 2012 4:46 PM

9:59 AM
Performers Audition For Coveted MTA Subway Slots
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...a-subway-slots

Quote:

Dozens of performers are warming up their vocal chords hoping to get a chance to play for a potential audience of more than eight million straphangers.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is holding its 25th annual auditions for the "Music Under New York" program today.

About 70 soloists and groups are expected to show off their talent before a panel of judges.

Among the diverse range of performers vying for a spot are an all-female mariachi band, a Latin gypsy fusion group, and a bluegrass trio.

The auditions run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall and are open to the public.



© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

M II A II R II K May 22, 2012 10:53 PM

L.I.R.R. Plan for East Side Needs More Time and Money


May 21, 2012

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/ny...y.html?_r=2&em

Quote:

Creating a Long Island Rail Road link to the East Side of Manhattan will take six years longer to accomplish than originally expected and will cost nearly $2 billion more than the initial estimate, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Monday.

- The new completion date for the project is August 2019, and officials put the cost at $8.24 billion, up from an estimate of $6.3 billion in 2006. The 2006 estimate came after $2.6 billion in federal financing for the ambitious project was announced, and transportation officials said then that they thought the project would be finished by the end of 2013. It has been delayed a number of times.

- The announcement of the new cost and time estimates came during a meeting of the transportation authority’s board in Manhattan. The authority’s capital construction president, Michael F. Horodniceanu, described several factors that he said had contributed to the delay. Among them were the difficulty of building beneath an existing web of tracks and equipment in Queens and complications caused by unrelated projects, including building developments on the West Side of Manhattan and the planned replacement of tracks inside Amtrak tunnels running beneath the East River.

.....

Towersteve Jun 11, 2012 7:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibanesse (Post 5678435)
See, what I find ridiculous is people who come into this city and utilize its infrastructure every single day complaining that they have to pay for any part of the infrastructure because they just happen, thanks to arbitrary, imaginary lines, to not actually reside inside the municipality from whence that infrastructure is run. How is that fair? Everyone in the Tri-State area, whether directly or indirectly, avails themselves of the services of the NYC government. Either they actually use the roads and bridges and commuter rail lines and Subways and bus lines, or they in some way benefit from all of the economic activity that fuels the entire region, which is made possible by the existence of all of that infrastructure.

I can't help but feel that this particular attitude is nothing more than an extension of New York City's endless and pointlessly bizarre feud with Trenton and Albany, especially after the ARC cancellation and Cuomo raiding the MTA transit lockbox again.

It's false that those who don't live in NYC don't contribute to it's infrastructure. We pay for tolls, bus passes, state sales tax, city sales tax (yes they have that), and state taxes that go to the MTA.

J. Will Jun 20, 2012 10:30 PM

New Retail Zone Proposed at Columbus Circle Station

COLUMBUS CIRCLE — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Wednesday that it plans to develop a major retail concourse at the renovated 59 Street-Columbus Circle subway station and is seeking bids from real estate firms to manage the project.
The MTA is proposing an 11,500-square-foot, 13-store retail zone on the mezzanine level of the busy station — the seventh most-trafficked in the city with 21.3 million customers entering in 2011.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...#ixzz1yNKobtCH


I was really surprised at the lack of retail in the NY subway. In fact, I don't think I even saw a Newstand/Snackstand in any of the subway stations I used. In Toronto every station (at least every one I've been to) has at least a Gateway Newstand. Yonge/Bloor has two (one on the northbound Yonge platform, one on the soutbound Yonge platform). Some stations also have bakeries, delis, dry cleaners, coffee shops, etc.

Forest Glen Jun 20, 2012 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J. Will (Post 5741060)
New Retail Zone Proposed at Columbus Circle Station

COLUMBUS CIRCLE — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Wednesday that it plans to develop a major retail concourse at the renovated 59 Street-Columbus Circle subway station and is seeking bids from real estate firms to manage the project.
The MTA is proposing an 11,500-square-foot, 13-store retail zone on the mezzanine level of the busy station — the seventh most-trafficked in the city with 21.3 million customers entering in 2011.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...#ixzz1yNKobtCH


I was really surprised at the lack of retail in the NY subway. In fact, I don't think I even saw a Newstand/Snackstand in any of the subway stations I used. In Toronto every station (at least every one I've been to) has at least a Gateway Newstand. Yonge/Bloor has two (one on the northbound Yonge platform, one on the soutbound Yonge platform). Some stations also have bakeries, delis, dry cleaners, coffee shops, etc.

Are you sure about that? Most of the stations I use on a daily basis (Jamaica Center/Lexington-53rd) have newsstands.

M II A II R II K Jun 24, 2012 5:00 PM

Freeway Removal Hits a Roadblock in the Bronx


Jun 20, 2012

By Sarah Goodyear

Read More: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/com...ck-bronx/2327/

Quote:

Reports of the death of the Sheridan Expressway have been greatly exaggerated. For years, neighborhood advocates have been pushing for the removal of this elevated freeway in New York City’s South Bronx, and it looked like they had a decent chance of winning their fight to replace the aging structure with parks, housing, shopping, and reconnected streets. The Sheridan has been something of a poster child for the increasingly popular concept of urban freeway demolition. It was number two on the Congress for the New Urbanism’s list of “Freeways Without Futures,” and it made the Urban Land Institute’s short list of potential teardown projects as well, in part because of a federal TIGER grant that was awarded to New York to study options for the future of the 1.2-mile strip of asphalt, options that explicitly included removal.

But the city announced this month that it will no longer consider tearing down the road, which carries only about 30,000 vehicles per day (surrounding roads see as many as 127,000 vehicles per day). Instead, the focus will be on rehabilitating the highway. Responding to questions from WNYC’s Transportation Nation, a city official cited concerns about truck traffic headed for the nearby Hunts Point Produce Market, the city’s main wholesale outlet for fruits and vegetables, as well as other potential traffic problems. Veronica Vanterpool of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign says that the coalition of advocates for removal, the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance, will push to get the city to reconsider. "All of us in the larger South Bronx community are very disappointed," she says. "We thought it was very shortsighted. It’s really incongruent with many of the progressive transportation policies that Mayor Bloomberg has been promoting." Vanterpool points out that the administration is subsidizing the relocation of the grocery delivery service FreshDirect to the Bronx, even though that will mean increased truck traffic for the borough.

.....



http://cdn.theatlanticcities.com/img...in/largest.jpg

NYC4Life Jun 25, 2012 5:46 PM

News 12 The Bronx

http://www.news12.com/articleDetail....news_type=news

The Bronx takes top spot for reverse commuting in U.S.

Quote:

(06/25/12) THE BRONX - Traveling to and from The Bronx is on the rise, making it the largest reverse commute market in the United States.

According to the MTA, more people are traveling from Metro-North stations in the borough to areas in Westchester County and Connecticut every morning for work. It says the commuter numbers have grown 150 percent since 1990.

Officials say more employment opportunities in northern areas are what's driving the numbers up.



(©) News12 Interactive, Inc. 2012

M II A II R II K Jul 12, 2012 10:05 PM

City Expands 20 M.P.H. Zones Across More Neighborhoods


July 10, 2012

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/ny...imes&seid=auto

Quote:

New York City drivers, anguished by bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, have long insisted that the Bloomberg administration was slowing them down. On Tuesday, in a rare moment of harmony, the city agreed. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a broad expansion of the city’s so-called neighborhood slow-zone program, which will lower the speed limit to 20 miles per hour from 30 in designated areas across as many as 13 neighborhoods.

Mr. Bloomberg, speaking at a news conference in Corona, Queens, cited the city’s recent safety gains, which, he said, have driven annual traffic fatalities to their lowest rates since the age of horse-drawn carriages. He called the program the latest tool in “our assault on the No. 1 traffic killer — speeding.” The city’s first and only neighborhood slow zone was instituted in some areas of the Claremont section of the Bronx in November. Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, said speeding in the zone had fallen about 10 percent.

The new zones, which may also feature speed bumps and special signs, were tentatively selected based on crash history, community support and proximity to schools, senior centers and day care centers, among other factors, the city said. The neighborhoods include Corona, Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, Riverdale in the Bronx, Inwood in Manhattan and Rosebank on Staten Island. Ms. Sadik-Khan noted that, according to traffic data, a pedestrian hit by a car going 40 m.p.h. had only a 30 percent chance to survive. Those struck by a car at 30 m.p.h., she said, survive 80 percent of the time. At 20 m.p.h., the figure climbs to about 95 percent.

.....

M II A II R II K Aug 2, 2012 7:19 PM

Mayor Bloomberg’s transportation reforms have unclogged New York’s streets and made them safer.


Read More: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_...portation.html

Quote:

Back in February 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that, in three months’ time, New York City would permanently close Broadway to car and truck traffic in Times Square and Herald Square. The plan would “ease traffic congestion throughout the Midtown grid,” the mayor said. Though he called it merely a “targeted adjustment,” everyone understood that the initiative marked a big shift away from a century’s worth of New York transportation policy, which had generally tried to ease traffic by adding ever more space for cars. Many New Yorkers were upset by the proposal. “I’m worried because I don’t know if it will work,” Charlotte St. Martin, the director of the theater industry’s Broadway League, told the New York Times. “I certainly don’t want things to be worse for theatergoers.” A cabdriver, Garba Mahaman, got right to the point: “Now they’re going to make it worse.” City public advocate Bill DeBlasio spoke for many when he later complained, “We cannot make such a fundamental change to Times Square without first giving the community a greater say.”

Three years on, it’s clear that the worriers were wrong and the mayor right. Midtown traffic flows better, not only for cars and trucks but for the majority of people who use the area: pedestrians. A walk down the closed section of Times Square—Broadway between 47th and 42nd Streets—makes it hard to imagine changing things back. Where stuck drivers once fumed, people sit happily in chairs munching on dumplings. More important is that the district’s huge crowds can now walk down the middle of the street instead of overflowing the sidewalk. Though drivers in New York City are a minority, outdated traffic engineering long allowed them to reign unchallenged, with clogged streets and too many accidents the results. Over the past five years, however, the city, led by transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, has devised ways to reduce that dominance. Through several new initiatives, mostly outside Times Square, New York has been rationally using its limited physical space to get more people moving more quickly—and that means not in automobiles. New York has achieved its improvements on the cheap. Better still, the changes have saved lives.

Closing Broadway was a straightforward solution to a serious problem: frustrated car drivers and even more frustrated pedestrians. Broadway wasn’t like other city avenues. A diagonal thoroughfare, it cut not only across streets, as Manhattan’s other north-south avenues did, but also through other major avenues. Indeed, its intersection with Sixth and Seventh Avenues was what created Herald Square and Times Square, respectively. So three separate sets of drivers, rather than the usual two, had to share those spots. Many were unfamiliar with the area, faced too many choices, and didn’t have enough time or room to make them effectively. The drivers competed with pedestrians, too—more than a quarter of a million daily in Times Square, ten times the number of drivers there. The number of pedestrians has been swelling yearly since the 1990s, when the seedy district was transformed into a tourist hot spot. Ellen Goldstein of the Times Square Alliance, a group of business and real-estate interests, recalls that Times Square “rehabbed itself so very quickly” that “we went from not much to huge numbers [of pedestrians] in a short time. We spent many years worrying about the lack of pedestrian space.” By the new millennium, Times Square’s walkers were crowding off the sidewalks and into the car-choked avenue. The city government had to give them more room somehow—hence Bloomberg’s solution, closing Broadway to cars.

The change hasn’t, as many drivers have fretted, made traffic worse in Midtown; in fact, it has sped things up by reducing confusion. Back in 2008, drivers averaged only 6.7 miles per hour in Midtown West, where Broadway is. In just one year, the closure improved speeds overall to 7.2 miles per hour, a 7 percent increase. By tracking GPS data from 2 million taxi trips, the city found that northbound cabdrivers between Fifth and Ninth Avenues (the area through which Broadway slices) went 17 percent more quickly in 2009 than in 2008. Southbound drivers did see a 2 percent slowdown—not surprising, since they had lost Broadway, a one-way avenue running south—but it was far exceeded by the substantial northbound gain. As a control measure, the city measured speeds on the unaffected east side of town and found that they increased by about 5 percent (the recession accelerated traffic, since fewer cars entered the city). The mayor’s plan also improved life considerably for Broadway’s primary constituents. In the first year of the pedestrian plazas, Times Square attracted 11 percent more walkers than it had the previous year, climbing to 22,381 people per hour at peak times, on average. Herald Square attracted 6 percent more people on foot, a peak-time hourly average of 17,311. The new people aren’t all tourists; they include walking commuters, who’ve switched routes because they find Times Square more pleasant, as well as local residents and workers. A Times Square Alliance survey found that two-thirds of workers in the area liked the changes. “I used to not go out at lunchtime,” Goldstein says, because the four-block walk from 46th Street to 42nd would take 20 minutes. It now takes three.

.....



http://www.city-journal.org/assets/images/22_2-ng.jpg

M II A II R II K Aug 4, 2012 4:36 PM

Tunneling Below Second Avenue

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/ma...imes&seid=auto


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Busy Bee Aug 4, 2012 5:26 PM

Does anyone know what they are doing with the schist rubble? They could easily sell that to landscapers or even give it to the parks dept. to do interesting things with...

ardecila Aug 4, 2012 10:28 PM

That was my first thought too... CUNY is building a new medical-research complex in Harlem and had to import Chinese gneiss because there's no local source of schist.

I'm guessing it will be recycled for breakwaters and the like.

jd3189 Aug 4, 2012 11:31 PM

They could build an underground city here.

N830MH Aug 5, 2012 4:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jd3189 (Post 5788441)
They could build an underground city here.

No, actually, they will have a subway. This could be built new subway station.

jd3189 Aug 11, 2012 10:33 PM

:previous: I know they're building a subway, but there's seems to be space for more than that. If they wanted to, they could build an underground city.

ardecila Aug 12, 2012 6:22 PM

These will be large subway stations with significant space dedicated to ventilation equipment.

NYC4Life Aug 20, 2012 7:28 PM

WABC-TV - NEW YORK

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...rbs&id=8779793

Board approves plan for new Tappan Zee Bridge
Updated at 03:10 PM today

http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/wa...15_448x252.jpg

Quote:

NEW YORK -- A New York state transportation board on Monday approved an estimated $5.4 billion plan to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge in the New York City suburbs.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council voted unanimously to approve the project.

The county executives from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, who all sit on the board, said last week that they would vote for the project. They did not attend Monday's meeting but sent representatives who cast votes in favor of the project.

Each of the three in effect held veto power because the council must unanimously approve a project to qualify it for federal funds.
Following the vote, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a letter of intent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to formally apply for the funds to build a new bridge.

"We have done more in the last couple of months than we have in the past 13 years," Cuomo said of the plan's progress. "We have asked the federal government to expedite our application. We are going to Washington to apply."

When asked whether he believed the federal funding would be granted, Cuomo said: "They are going to say yes. You gotta believe, they are going to say yes."

Cuomo had garnered support from other officials but the three county executives - Rob Astorino of Westchester; Scott Vanderhoef of Rockland and MaryEllen Odell of Putnam - had expressed some doubts about the new bridge, principally over its lack of a full-scale mass transit component.

Under the current plan, the bridge would have a dedicated bus lane during rush hours but ambitious plans for a commuter rail line or bus mass transit were dropped because of high costs.

Howard Glaser, director of state operations, called the vote "an important step forward."

"There's been 10 years of study, hundreds of public meetings, and finally we'll begin to move forward," Glaser said. "The bridge is outdated, it's unsafe. Residents of Westchester and Rockland and Putnam deserve better, and it's an important economic lifeline for all of New York State."

The existing bridge, spanning the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties, is overcrowded and deteriorating after more than 55 years of use.

The environmental group Riverkeeper on Friday criticized officials for giving only three days' notice for the vote on the new bridge.

In a statement Monday, Riverkeeper called the vote "a major departure from past promises of transparency and inclusiveness."

---
Associated Press Writer Fay Abuelgasim contributed to this report.



Copyright ©2012 ABC Inc., WABC-TV/DT New York, NY. All Rights Reserved.

Busy Bee Aug 20, 2012 8:57 PM

HOW FUCKING HARD is it for a bridge to contain two railway tracks that they are claiming is too expensive too pursue? What the hell is the cause of the added cost if its essentially engineering the bridge piers for the added weight of trains? If built without transit, its going to be a generational regret the moment the ribbon is cut.

Nexis4Jersey Aug 20, 2012 9:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee (Post 5804954)
HOW FUCKING HARD is it for a bridge to contain two railway tracks that they are claiming is too expensive too pursue? What the hell is the cause of the added cost if its essentially engineering the bridge piers for the added weight of trains? If built without transit, its going to be a generational regret the moment the ribbon is cut.

They rebuilt the ROW on the Rockland side and the Westchester side was to be tunneled....the BRT would have just used to the highways....the cost was 15 Billion a few years ago for a full corridor upgrade which is badly needed.

Dac150 Aug 20, 2012 9:59 PM

It's great that the proposal cleared this hurdle, however I find it very disappointing that commuter rail will not be incorporated into the project. I suppose the only 'saving grace' is that the toll fee shouldn't spike as much . . . yet that will remain to be seen.

NYC4Life Aug 21, 2012 7:32 PM

UPDATED 3:18 PM
Crews Survey Damage Caused By Second Ave. Subway Blast
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...--subway-blast

Quote:

Emergency crews this afternoon are investigating damage caused by a blast related to the construction of the Second Avenue subway line on the Upper East Side.

The New York City Fire Department says it happened just before 1 p.m. in the area of 72nd Street and Second Avenue.

Sources tell NY1 that some ground-level windows were broken and debris is on the sidewalk.

Fire and MTA officials say there were no reported injuries and all of the agency's workers were accounted for.

An MTA spokesman says it was part of a series of daily "controlled" blasts supervised by the city fire department.

All blasting at the 72nd Street site has been suspended.

The agency has been using explosives to create the tunnels for the new subway line whose first phase is slated to open in 2016.

The Office of Emergency Management says East 72nd Street is closed between First to Third Avenues and the M72 bus is being re-routed.

Delays can be expected in the area.



© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NYC4Life Aug 22, 2012 9:30 PM

UPDATED 4:24 PM
Subway Blast Site Was Not Properly Equipped, MTA Says
By: Vivian Lee

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...pped--mta-says

Quote:

Work remains suspended on a section of the Second Avenue subway line after yesterday's blast, which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says was conducted at a different angle and intensity than planned, rocked an Upper East Side street and sent passersby running for cover.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, MTA officials said the incident happened during a controlled tunnel blast at the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Second Avenue -- an area the agency says was not equipped to handle the force of the blast.

"The force of the blast was concentrated in one particular area. That was not anticipated. The other factor was, the area it was all focused on, was not ever anticipated to take that kind of blow," said MTA Spokesman Adam Lisberg.

Agency officials say the explosion knocked off the wooden piling and steel plate covering the blast section, allowing debris to fly into the street.

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota is calling the incident "completely unacceptable."

While it was somewhat of a chaotic scene with windows shattering, no one was hurt.

MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu told reporters on Wednesday that the agency will retain an independent safety consultant for the project and that a blasting consultant will be more involved in the process.

Transit officials are also re-evaluating the decking system and adding protective matting in the blast area, according to Horodniceanu, and that the 72nd Street construction site was not equipped to handle such force.

John Carbone, a doorman who was working at the time of the blast, tells NY1 he did hear the customary warning whistles whenever crews are about to detonate.

"I heard the whistle go off, then the explosion, and ran out," Carbone said.

"I just went and hit the floor you know and covered my head waiting for another blast or something and it was just, you couldn't see anything around it was just total dust and the smell of sulfur and flying debris and glass," said one witness.

The Buildings Department says the explosion did not cause any structural damage to surrounding buildings.

Blasting has been halted at 72nd Street and Second Avenue but will continue along the rest of the avenue.

Meanwhile, an MTA spokesman confirms back on August 8 there was some shifting in a pit at the site of Tuesday's blast.

That incident - which took place on the southeast corner - also caused some small rocks and debris to be spewed onto the street.

A nearby art gallery was also issued a vacate order and reports say its floor is unstable.

In a statement, Chairman Lhota said he understands the community's concerns about the project and will work to address them.

Quality of life on the Upper East Side has been an issue since the Second Avenue subway project got underway.

Local residents and businesses say Tuesday's blast is just the latest problem they have had to endure.

Construction dust has been an ongoing complaint, but air quality appears to have improved thanks to more careful debris transfers and air filtration systems.

The community has also had to deal with loud sirens being sounded before crews blast inside the tunnels.

Business owners also say they are hurting from less foot traffic along the construction route.

"At least 50 percent of the business has gone down, for sure. You know, the construction, the noise, everything, the pollution in the air, has definitely affected us," said one Second Avenue merchant.

"I have a lung problem, so the air is sort of important. It's just endless," said one Upper East Side resident.

This is just the first of three phases of construction heading from 63rd to 96th Street.

The Second Avenue line is expected to open by December 2016, according to Horodniceanu.


© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

K 22 Aug 23, 2012 9:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jd3189 (Post 5795685)
:previous: I know they're building a subway, but there's seems to be space for more than that. If they wanted to, they could build an underground city.

Yeah - I wonder if they're going for deep DC-style cavernous stations for 2nd Av.

M II A II R II K Aug 24, 2012 4:31 PM

New York MTA’s Payroll Tax Rejected in Blow to Agency


August 23, 2012

By Esmé E. Deprez

Read More: http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...blow-to-agency

Quote:

A payroll tax projected to pump $1.26 billion into the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget this year may not provide another penny after a state judge struck it down as unconstitutional. The MTA said it may lead to “extreme” service cuts and fare increases.

- Judge R. Bruce Cozzens Jr. held the levy violated a so- called home-rule provision in the state constitution, and required a two-thirds vote to pass the Legislature, which it didn’t get, according to a copy of the decision sent by the MTA. Cozzens agreed with Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s request to overturn the law that created the tax.

- In a follow-up statement today, the agency said: “Removing more than $1.2 billion in revenue from the Payroll Mobility Tax, plus hundreds of millions of dollars more from other taxes affected by yesterday’s ruling, would be catastrophic for the MTA and for the economy of New York state.”

- Mangano, a Republican who led the plaintiffs in the suit filed in 2010, celebrated today alongside state and county legislators at a news briefing in Mineola. He called the decision as a “victory for taxpayers and job creators throughout the state.” He and others present urged the MTA to drop its appeal.

- Mangano said his administration was studying whether it could retroactively get the taxes back from the MTA on behalf of the businesses that have paid them, which have totaled $9.9 million since 2009. The MTA “should find another way for efficiencies and cost-cuttings before they turn to the taxpayer or the rider,” Mangano said.

.....

NYC4Life Aug 27, 2012 6:58 PM

UPDATED 12:32 PM
Work Resumes On Section Of Second Ave. Subway
By: Natasha Ghoneim

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...nd-ave--subway

Quote:

Construction work resumed Monday at the site of last week's Second Avenue subway explosion. NY1's Natasha Ghoneim filed the following report.

The intersection of 72nd Street and Second Avenue is rumbling again with the sounds of construction. But for the time being, people who live in the area will not be shaken by the sounds of controlled blasts to make way for the Second Avenue subway line.

Last Tuesday, a planned explosion went bad, sending a shower of rocks and dust shooting into the air, breaking store windows and rattling residents.

"Most tenants would like to go on a long vacation because of what happened last Tuesday," said one Upper East Side resident.

"We have to hope what they say will work out and they'll be more careful," said another Upper East Side resident.

Despite days of investigating, MTA Construction President Michael Horodniceanu says he's not exactly sure what went wrong. But this week an independent safety expert will be at the site to determine what has to be done to prevent a repeat.

"Blasting will not start until I personally know what caused the problem and that we address every issue," Horodniceanu said.

"I have to trust and that's the only thing you can do. Just to make sure this doesn't happen again because it would be the worst thing in the world if someone got hurt," said one Upper East Side resident.

The explosion damaged a neighborhood art gallery. The MTA claims the explosion only revealed pre-existing problems there. Either way, the gallery remains shut down.

"My business is closed at least a month. As far as what happened, there was an explosion, the floor buckled and the Department of Buildings shut us down," said Kolb Art Gallery Owner Claude Kolb.

Despite the temporary delay at 72nd Street, controlled blasts continue elsewhere along the construction site. The MTA says the project is still on schedule, though the end is a long way away. Right now, construction is not expected to finish until the end of 2016.




© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NYC4Life Sep 3, 2012 12:29 AM

UPDATED 4:56 PM
Select Bus Service Comes To Staten Island
By: Tara Lynn Wagner

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...-staten-island

Quote:

Many bus passengers on Staten Island got a faster ride Sunday, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched Select Bus Service on the S79 line.

The service is expected to reduce travel times by about 20 percent, with dedicated bus lanes and longer green lights for approaching buses.

It also cuts the number of stops on the line from 80 to 22. The route goes from the Staten Island Mall, runs along Richmond Avenue and Hylan Boulevard, crosses the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and ends at 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Riders can also get a free transfer to the R train in Brooklyn.

"Imagine riding on an elevator that stopped 80 times before it got to your floor. By streamlining the number of stops to 22, we're bringing a red carpet to the borough's busiest bus corridor," said Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Unlike other select buses in the city, riders will not have to pay before boarding.

Riders who spoke with NY1 on Sunday they already noticed a difference.

"It only take me 15 minutes to get over here. It used to take me about 45 minutes," said one rider.

"I take S79 every Sunday because my kids play soccer and it's good," said another rider who said she now has an extra 10 minutes of sleep.

Additional service has been added to the S59 and S78 to serve stops eliminated from the S79 route.

Local drivers, however, fear the buses taking a lane away from already busy streets will create even more traffic nightmares.

A whole Facebook page has sprung up for drivers to complain about the new lanes.

South Island Councilman Vincent Ignizio also said the buses will not help the overall flow of traffic.

"If you're saying those taking the bus are going to save 12 minutes, that's great. But if my constituents going to the mall are going to add an additional 20 minutes, how did you help anybody in that matter?" said Ignizio.

The councilman said he has spoken to DOT officials, who assured him they will be monitoring traffic and will make adjustments as needed.

This is the fourth Select Bus Service line in the city, following the Bx12 in the Bronx and the M15 and M34 in Manhattan.

For more information, visit mta.info.




© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NYC4Life Sep 4, 2012 7:55 PM

UPDATED 12:11 PM
New Taxi Fare Hike Goes Into Effect Today
By: Roger Clark

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...o-effect-today

Quote:

Starting today, taxi drivers in the city can begin collecting the 17 percent fare increase approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission back in July.

The base fare stays $2.50, but passengers will now be charged 50 cents every fifth of a mile, not 40.

The flat rate between Manhattan and JFK Airport also rises from $45 to $52.

Only drivers who have re-calibrated their meters and posted updated fare prices on their cars can charge the higher rate.

It's the first rate hike since 2006.

New Yorkers will be able to locate the updated cabs who will sport a simple "T" logo as opposed to the old "NYC Taxi" version.

Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky says changes since then have made it tougher for drivers to make ends meet.

"Gas prices are up almost 50 percent since then," Yassky said. "They're also paying credit card fees they weren't paying at that time. You put all that together and the average driver is taking home maybe $25 less a shift than they were six years ago. Now, you can't support your family that way. So, this brings drivers back to where they were. It's a modest increase. I think passengers understand that it's necessary."

The TLC says drivers cleared about $150 per shift in 2006, and that lately it has been only $130. The fare increase will bring them to about $170, roughly what they made in 2006, adjusted for inflation.

"Yeah, that's better, that's better now, I can make more than usually," said one cab driver.

While most riders who spoke with NY1 were okay with paying more to better improve the lives of drivers, others say they will be cutting back on cab trips.

"I mean gas is higher, they are just trying to recoup some of their losses. I'm not saying that it's great, everything is more expensive," said one taxi rider.

Drivers will not have to implement the new fares until their first scheduled inspection at the end of September, so riders may see cabs charging different prices for awhile.


© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dac150 Sep 5, 2012 12:22 AM

Taxis are undergoing a new look . . . thought that was interesting considering a new logo emerged just a few years ago.

yankeesfan1000 Sep 25, 2012 3:39 PM

BREAKING: Feds Gives Final OK to Tappan Zee Replacement
By Kate Hinds | 09/25/2012 – 11:27 am

http://transportationnation.org/wp-c..._z-600x399.jpg

"The federal government has given its final approval to New York State’s plans to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge. It’s the final regulatory hurdle the $5 billion project had to cross before the state could award a contract and begin construction...

... The state is currently reviewing bids from three contractors. Once a team is picked, which is expected to be later this year, it will be constructing the bridge under New York’s new design-build legislation. Last week, the governor named a design team to help review the bids and provide aesthetic guidance.

But one big question has yet to be answered: how the state will pay for the new bridge. New York is in the process of requesting a low-interest loan from the federal government, and Cuomo has said that the basic source of financing will come from tolls. But the state has yet to release a comprehensive finance plan..."


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