Lessons From NYC For Chicago Transit?

Chicago has the second largest transit system in the U.S., moving 1.5 million riders a day, compared to New York City's 7.5 million. While transit officials there are planning a half-billion dollar expansion of the heavily-used Brown Line, precarious finances threaten the rest of the system, including Chicago's fabled downtown El. The New York Times just reported the financial woes of that city's transit authority. The story talks about financial challenges to maintenance and bringing the system to a state of good repair. It's food for thought as New York heads towards its own financial challenges.

Posted Mar 28 2007 by Gene Russianoff | Add your comments

Transportation Funding For The Future

Dear riders-

We'd like to invite you to an important upcoming event to discuss the future of transportation funding in our region. We hope to see you there!

The Mayor's office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability in cooperation with The New School for Social Research, NYU Wagner, Pratt University, Columbia University School of Architecture Planning and Preservation and School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York

Invite you to a panel discussion:

"How Can We Finance Improvements to Our Aging Transit Infrastructure?"

Thursday, March 15th
8:30 - 10:30AM

The New School
Tishman Auditorium
66 W. 12th Street

Introduction: Daniel Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding

Moderator:
Chris Jones
Vice President for Research
Regional Plan Association (RPA)

Panelists:
Charles Brecher
Professor at NYU's Wagner School
Research Director, Citizens Budget Commission.

Allison L. C. de Cerreño, Ph.D.
Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
New York University, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School

Robert E Paaswell
Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering
Director, University Transportation Research Center

Gene Russianoff
Senior Staff Attorney
Straphangers Campaign
New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)

Posted Mar 7 2007 by Gene Russianoff | Add your comments

MTA Fares And Finances

We put out the following statement today regarding MTA fares and finances:

Today, Governor Eliot Spitzer said "we will do everything possible to avoid a [transit] rate hike ...We will increase state investment in transportation - both capital and operating sides of the budget - because that is the only way to maintain our transportation..." The governor was responding to a question about the likelihood of a fare hike by year's end.

The Straphangers Campaign agrees with Governor Spitzer.

In the next three years, the MTA will face huge spiralling deficits: $800 million in 2008, $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2010.

The single largest growing cost is paying off the interest on massive borrowing by the MTA used to buy new subway cars and buses, to fix crumbling stations and repair infrastructure, such as signals and track. The borrowing was necessary because New York State under Governor George Pataki stopped investing state funds in MTA repairs.

By 2010, some 20% of all MTA operating funds will go to pay this "debt service."

How to solve the MTA financial woes?

Today, all the "stakeholders" benefiting from decent transit contribute to the MTA through dedicated taxes and fees: drivers through tolls and gas taxes; real estate through mortgage recording and real property transfer taxes; consumers through a sales taxes; businesses through a corporate income tax; and riders through fares.

The Straphangers Campaign looks to all these beneficiaries to increase their support transit, which is the engine for the down state economy.

Posted Mar 7 2007 by Gene Russianoff | Add your comments

Sustaining Transit

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed planning for the year 2030, when he estimates the City will have a million more people.

Below is testimony the campaign gave before the City Council about how to add capacity to the transit system.

Testimony
Of
GENE RUSSIANOFF
Senior Attorney
NYPIRG STRAPHANGERS CAMPAIGN
before the
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL
Hearing on
NYC2030 SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
City Hall
March 1, 2007


Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Not surprisingly, the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign supports the goal of PlanNYC 2030 to “improve travel times by adding transit capacity for millions more residents, tourists and workers.” And we believe much can be done to achieve this goal. This is especially possible if the City increases funding for capacity expanding projects such as computerizing signal systems, increasing the size of the subway and bus fleets, and helping to create Bus Rapid Transit routes.

But before discussing this 2030 goal, we would like to make the case for adding another goal — reducing traffic congestion, a goal that makes adding transit capacity even more important.

Reducing Traffic Congestion

The campaign was not surprised to read in Mayor Bloomberg’s February 6, 2007 news release that “the largest numbers of responses [to the 2030 sustainability web site], accounting for 45% percent of the feedback, have been about reducing traffic congestion and ensuring that every New Yorker lives within 10 minutes of a park.” New Yorkers across the city understand that far from being a boon to the City’s economic growth, traffic congestion costs businesses dearly and greatly undermines the quality of life in many neighborhoods.

A typical suggestion found in the PlaNYC 2030 web site archives — among the 2,500 suggestions the City has received over the Internet — comes from Jane, 31, of Prospect Heights. She wrote: “Explore ways to dramatically reduce traffic in the city, provide new ways to get people out of their cars like Bus Rapid Transit. Do a trial run or a study of East River Bridge tolls and congestion pricing to see their ability to reduce traffic.”

In light of what the City Administration has been hearing — both from many civic groups and the public — the campaign would urge the City to include in its goals reducing traffic by at least 15% by 2030. This ambitious but achievable goal has been met by cities across the world.

It is also critical that - in achieving the 2030 goal of "improving travel times by adding transit capacity for millions more residents, tourists and workers" - the City keep pedestrians in mind. While motorists should have more reliable and less maddening trips, pedestrians must also benefit from wider sidewalks, safer conditions and faster trips in what is the greatest walking city in the world.

Adding Transit Capacity

Achieving the goal of traffic reduction is only possible if the transit system can handle the increase in ridership from individuals shifting from driving to the subways and the buses. Ridership on the subways is already at its highest since 1952, with1.5 billion subway trips last year and an average daily weekday ridership of 7.2 million.

The City can help add transit capacity by providing added funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s core rebuilding program.

That program — at a price tag of $11 billion between 2005 and 2009 and with four more five-year multi-billion dollar increments through 2030 — now includes some funding for projects that would expand transit capacity.

These include buying more subway cars and buses to modestly increase the size of the transit fleet and modernizing signal systems to allow for computer-driven subway cars that run faster and safer at more frequent service levels.

Some $21.9 million has also been set aside to help create Bus Rapid Transit routes across the city. These BRT routes uses a series of strategies to make bus service faster and more reliable, including better marked and wider exclusive bus lanes; bus-mounted cameras to enforce bus lanes; priority traffic signal treatment for buses; re-designed bus stops to reduce conflicts between buses and curb side private vehicles; and pre-boarding fare payment.

All these projects could be more quickly advanced and have more ambitious goals with additional funding.

Right now, the City’s funding of the MTA’s core capital plan is the lowest it’s been in twenty years. The city now gives $70 million a year in general transit capital funds, a total of $350 million over the life of the 2005 to 2009 MTA capital plan. That’s about 3% of the funding for the plan.

During the Giuliani Administration, the City gave $100 million a year; in the last term of Mayor Edward Koch, the City gave $200 million a year.

Tying specific goals to the 2030 timetable would help achieve the goal of added transit capacity set by Mayor Bloomberg. For example, the MTA and the City should move to computerized signals and a large transit fleet well before 2030 if they hope to move a City with a million more people.

Posted Mar 1 2007 by Gene Russianoff | Add your comments