The Oil Drum: Local

Average weekday subway ridership rose to 5.076 million in September, the highest level since transit officials began making monthly calculations in 1970, New York City Transit said yesterday. It was the first time since 1970 that the average weekday figure passed 5 million on the subway. Combined subway and bus ridership in September was 7.61 million on an average weekday. That was the highest combined figure since December 1970, when it was 7.627 million.

However this is still significantly down from December 23rd 1946 when almost nine million (8,872,244) trips were made on NYC transit subways and buses.

Photograph of crowded L train from lauratitian on Flickr

New Mezzanne at Grand Central for Long Island Railroad

I've looked at some of the big projects that are in the works on the Hudson side of Manhattan, like the new Hudson River Tunnels, the possible extension of passenger rail service back to Scranton and Binghamton, and New Jersey's innovative Transit Village town planning initiative. Another project that deserves more attention than it is getting is the $6 Billion East Side Access project that the MTA is undertaking currently and will be completed by 2013. This project will double the capacity and quality of rail transportation into New York from Long Island while reducing the overcrowding and the commute times of many people. It will also allow Long Island to redesign it's LIRR towns around increased rail service to NYC.

The MTA is reporting that their new Orion VII hybrid buses are making a big dent fuel consumption. Orion VII hybrid buses have improved fuel economy of more than 30% compared to conventionally powered buses. In addition, the Orion hybrids significantly reduce emissions with 90% less particulate matter, 40% fewer oxides of nitrogen, and 30% fewer greenhouse gases. The MTA estimates that they saved over 1 million gallons of diesel fuel last year.

One great example of New Urbanist, mixed use development in the Northeast is the New Jersey Transit Village program. Qualifying towns and villages get a high level of cooperation from important state agencies in helping reshape the area and up to $1 million a year in state grants. This would be a great program to emulate along the MTA's commuter rail lines in Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut.

While we continue to discuss congestion pricing as a way to curb the number of people using automobiles to enter the Manhattan Central Business District (south of 60th), there is already a de facto congestion pricing policy in place for New Jersey at all the major Port Authority Crossings - Holland, Lincoln Tunnels and George Washington Bridge. And those crossings are completely maxed out in terms of capacity so, New Jersey state agencies have been working harder and harder on ways to increase the capacity of its heavy and light rail, buses and building transit oriented development. That's where the NJ Transit Villages come in.

First to present their side were a collection of folks from the MTA, city DOT and state DOT. The first disappointment to most of the people in attendence was that despite the broad-based community support for faster, more efficient and higher quality bus services all that is being discussed by city/state/MTA officials is a STUDY that will examine 15 routes to pick JUST 5 in June 2007 and then (assuming the planets are aligned) to implement by late 2008.

They have been dragging this study out for years. People are starting to get frustrated at the lack of progress and continuing uncertainty around the actual implementation. And you could almost understand the time to plan this out if their plan was even semi-ambitious, but alas it's about as minimal as BRT can get and even still honestly call it "BRT".

[Editor's note: In a complete reversal, Bloomberg and Pataki announce plans for an intermodal transit hub at the New Yankee Stadium. Cynical folks are already emailing me saying that this is a last minute snowjob before the city council vote tomorrow. Seems like a delay is in order to consider this new information.]

The proposed plan for the new Yankee Stadium is going from bad to worse. First there was the news story last week that the Empire State Development Corporation is helping to subsidize extra parking garages to the tune of $70m. Then we hear that a long anticipated additional Metronorth stop for the Hudson River Line is "not in the cards". One would hope that this monumental opportunity to build a great transit hub connecting the 4,5,D subway lines and Metronorth in the South Bronx is not lost. Moreover, they are moving the existing parkland into the semi-industrial area nearby and some of it is going to rest on the top of the parking garages.

The lack of metronorth access combined with the increase in parking spaces would create a traffic and pollution nightmare for an area trying to finally get back on it's feet ever since Robert Moses destroyed this area in the name of more highways and the resulting social instability. All so the Yankee players and their suburban fans can fit their SUVs and HUMMERs into a parking space.

The South Bronx needs less cars, not more. It needs to become more sustainable.

Yesterday not only marked the end of the transit strike here in New York, but also a milestone in transit ridership 59 years that has not been matched since then. On Monday December 23rd 1946, almost nine million (8,872,244) trips were made on NYC transit subways and buses. Since then mass transit ridership has declined and recent made a comeback with the drop in crime, but has never come close to reaching the levels of ridership 59 years ago.

From the NYTimes:

The system was providing about eight million rides a day in the 1940's. With the postwar population booming, it would register an annual record in 1947 of 2.05 billion passengers.

On July 1, 1948, the fare was raised to a dime, but ridership had already begun to decline as private cars proliferated, wartime shortages of gasoline ended and the economy slowed. By 1982, the annual number dipped below one billion for the first time since World War I. With the city's population growing again and billions of dollars invested in subway improvements, ridership began to rebound. Today, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with MetroCards replacing coins or tokens, subway ridership averages 4.5 million on weekdays and about 1.4 billion a year.

Happy Holidays Readers and enjoy your time with Family, Friends and Neighbors.

I meant to finish this last night, but after walking something like 20 miles over the last 3 days and handing out information for Transportation Alternatives at the Queensboro bridge last night  I was a little tired so you'll have to forgive me. :)

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Now that the strike is over and the trains and buses are running again, we can take stock of the third transit strike in 40 years (1966, 1980, 2005) and the third time that NYC's transportation system has been disrupted for more than 24 hours in less than 5 years (Sept 11, Blackout 2003, the Transit Strike). All of these events have illustrated the value of mass transit, the inability of cars to replace it and the need for more transportation alternatives to both mass transit and automobiles.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE, 7:30am As we enter day 3 of the transit strike, it's a good time to reflect on public opinion. NY media coverage has focused mostly on commuter frustrations and heated words between the heads of the MTA, TWU, Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg (who actually has no control over the MTA). If you were to just watch the local Fox News channel, with their "Illegal Strike" graphics, you would think everyone hates the union and there is no public support for the strike. However, according a new Marist Poll, New Yorkers are actually pretty split about who's to blame for the strike with 39% blaming the MTA vs. 40% for the TWU. As you could imagine, due to the many inconveniences, a majority (55%) of New Yorkers are against the strike, but surprisingly 38% of people actually favor the strike. When broken down on ethnic and racial lines, there is a wide divide between support for the strike between New Yorkers who are white (23%), Latino (44%) and African-American (61%).

While no public official gets high approval rating for their handling of the strike, TWU president Roger Touissaint's approval is 39% vs. 27% for Pataki (who really controls the MTA's board). Bloomberg has a 43% approval rating for the strike.

In general I think this shows that there is little love for the MTA and shows that minority groups have higher support for unions taking action.