JuliaKite-TransAlt's Comments

I want to see Move NY adopted sooner, not later. I am disheartened how Governor Cuomo has dismissed it as a non-starter when in truth this is the most realistic way to both tackle congestion and raise badly-needed revenue for the MTA. Every day we hear more and more complaints about subway overcrowding, bus delays, etc. - those will not improve without more funding, but we all saw just how difficult it was to plug the gap in the latest MTA Capital Plan. And the worse public transportation services get, the more likely people are to abandon them and turn to cars, whether their own or for-hire vehicles. That only makes congestion worse. If we want to reduce the number of cars in the CBD, then we need to make the alternatives more appealing. Move NY will provide the money needed to do that.

Traffic speeds (and congestion) are unlikely to improve significantly without major changes to arterial road design.
There are currently no streets in Manhattan that fit the standards of a “Complete Street” with designated spaces for all road users and proven safety improvements. Contrary to popular belief, bike lanes do not worsen congestion - we actually have evidence that they can speed up traffic, because with dedicated bike lanes, everybody is in their proper place and there's no conflict about who gets which spot on the road. Plus, safety is improved when bikes and cars aren't swerving around each other - and that's what we need in order to achieve Vision Zero. Along with bike lanes, a complete street has dedicated bus lanes, pedestrian islands, benches, wayfinding amenities, green features like bioswales, retimed signals that prevent streets from becoming speedways, and more. Of course, these things cost a lot of money. But if Move NY is implemented, some of the revenue could potentially be reserved for complete streets. Everybody can use a complete street - drivers, cyclists, transit users, and pedestrians of all ages and physical abilities. They need to be a priority.

Select Bus Service is so much less expensive to implement than digging a new subway line! As we've seen on Fordham Road in the Bronx, SBS can link up multiple subway and commuter rail lines that are otherwise unconnected the the borough. And I'd love to see SBS in places under-served by the subway system, where personal car ownership is higher, because then residents would have an alternative to expensive and congestion-causing cars. It But bus routes don't need to be converted to SBS in order to improve. Something as simple as designating more dedicated bus lanes can speed up service. This is a relatively inexpensive but useful intervention.

MTA should not raise fares so soon after the most recent increase, because this is putting an unfair burden on low-income New Yorkers who do not have many other transportation options. We should be incentivizing public transit usage, not making it less appealing. However, the reality is that we do need more revenue - and the Move NY plan is the most effective and beneficial way to get it. Keeping subway service regular and reliable - preventing breakdowns, reducing overcrowding, and maintaining frequent service - is crucial to the functioning of New York, and so signal replacements and track repair should be prioritized. If subway service gets worse, then cars will seem more appealing, and traffic and congestion will increase and more people take to the roads in their own cars, taxis, Ubers, etc.

Bike lanes do not worsen congestion, contrary to popular belief. Data from the DOT has shown that congestion can actually be reduced by street redesign that adds bike lanes because when everybody is in their designated place, traffic flows more smoothly. Plus, a well-designed bike lane that feels safe and gets you where you want to go encourages more people to try cycling, and there is safety in numbers. Fewer cyclists will run red lights or ride on the sidewalk out of fear for their own safety if our streets are designed to be safer. I know it's hard for drivers to accept proposals that may reduce on-street parking in their neighborhood, but we're facing a crisis of both congestion and safety. We need redesigned streets from which all New Yorkers can benefit, and so we're going to have to accept fewer parking places. Cars are private property being stored on public streets, and they shouldn't be allowed to have a stranglehold over redesigns from which everyone can benefit. That's simply a sacrifice that needs to be made for the sake of saving lives and moving everybody around faster.

Often times, when cyclists break the rules, it's because dangerous drivers and threatening their safety and they need to do something quickly to prevent a crash. Of course, the rules of the road apply to cyclists, and everybody needs to know them and follow them. But when you look at how many people cyclists have killed in NYC over the past decade (single digits) compared to the number of people killed by car crashes (over 2000!), it is clear that enforcement should focus on drivers if our goal is saving lives. Better street design where cyclists have a protected path, away from the threat of cars, will also lessen rulebreaking. Let's think of this as triage in a hospital - we should dedicate our law enforcement resources toward what threatens the most lives.

*"are threatening their safety," sorry for typo!