The mayor is against congestion pricing because he is a cheapskate and he fears having to pay it one day. How do I know he is a cheapskate? Despite making $225,000 a year, he wastes half his day going to Park Slope rather than getting a gym membership near Gracie Mansion. The other thing, he has zero interest in infrastructure. The NY Times called him out on squirreling away money from the most important project in New York, the Third Water Tunnel. As for light rail/trolleys, etc... NYC land is some of the most expensive land in the world, everything on the surface will create problems. That is why subways are built underground. The mayor fails to realize that the best way to help the working poor is to build and maintain subways, so that people can efficiently get to work from places as far away as Far Rockaway. Or maybe he really just doesn't care.
2
Most cab drivers here, whether its yellow taxi, uber or some other service, have no idea where they are going. Technology has empowered them, but it is also made them impossibly reliant -- in short, if you can't put it into GPS, they won't be able to bring you there.
Frankly, it's embarrassing; but then, most people don't know where they're walking either, unless of course their phone tells them. We have, collectively, lost our ability to think. All we know how to do is let the phone tell us where to go.
As for public transit, congestion, commutes -- let's just be real, there is no fix. New York City is finished.
Frankly, it's embarrassing; but then, most people don't know where they're walking either, unless of course their phone tells them. We have, collectively, lost our ability to think. All we know how to do is let the phone tell us where to go.
As for public transit, congestion, commutes -- let's just be real, there is no fix. New York City is finished.
3
Under Mayor Bloomberg, the city paid to extent the #7 train.
But the last big mass transit expansion occurred under Mayor Wagner when he extended the length of the IRT platforms from 5? cars to 10.
The ferry ride is nice (from Rockaway), but not much faster than the "A" train.
If Mayor DeBlasio wants a fast and cheap way to improve mass transit, he could implement QueensRail, the reactivation of the old LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch (www.queensrail.org). It would reduce the travel time from the Rockaways to midtown Manhattan from an hour and a half to fifty minutes while providing a roughly 30 minute ride between midtown and JFK and the Aqueduct casino.
The cost was most recently estimated at between 500 and 700 million dollars (depending on how much the MTA can make disappear in building stations).
But the last big mass transit expansion occurred under Mayor Wagner when he extended the length of the IRT platforms from 5? cars to 10.
The ferry ride is nice (from Rockaway), but not much faster than the "A" train.
If Mayor DeBlasio wants a fast and cheap way to improve mass transit, he could implement QueensRail, the reactivation of the old LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch (www.queensrail.org). It would reduce the travel time from the Rockaways to midtown Manhattan from an hour and a half to fifty minutes while providing a roughly 30 minute ride between midtown and JFK and the Aqueduct casino.
The cost was most recently estimated at between 500 and 700 million dollars (depending on how much the MTA can make disappear in building stations).
5
As long as I live as a New Yorker, I have to shake my head at people standing in the street staring at their phone, agonizingly awaiting their ride-hail-app car -
stuck in traffic caused by the app - as dozens of empty yellow taxi cabs whiz by.
This is definitely a new New York City.
stuck in traffic caused by the app - as dozens of empty yellow taxi cabs whiz by.
This is definitely a new New York City.
5
Yes, it is quite different from the New York I came to just 6 years ago, where you wave your hand for an hour before being picked up by a cab, or forever if you happened to live in a pocket they never went to like Chinatown.
2
Bellafante is on the mark re: de Blasio's political posturing. How did we not come up with a Democratic candidate who could challenge him? A tale of two cities, my behind!
4
As the article notes, the City relaxed its test standards two years ago so that taxi drivers didn't need to know much about the City's geography. Last year, it also eliminated the requirement that taxi drivers take the test in English; the test is now offered in a variety of foreign languages. The inevitable result -- drivers who don't know how to get to the passenger's destination and who can't understand the passenger's requests concerning routing (or anything else).
It leads me to wonder what purpose the test serves -- it's certainly not assuring that those who pass it are competent taxi drivers.
It leads me to wonder what purpose the test serves -- it's certainly not assuring that those who pass it are competent taxi drivers.
5
Contrast the laxity of geographical knowledge of NYC's cab drivers with London. My impression from reading their requirements is that a British taxi driver has the equivalent of a PhD in knowing the city of London. Not only do they know the map of the city inside and out, far beyond popular tourist destinations, they're akin to tour guides. Why lower the standards? Raise them considerably. Or is their zero unemployment in NYC? Unlike Uber drivers, NYC cabbies represent the city in an unofficial way. For visitors, especially those from overseas, their experiences while taking cabs form an indelible impression on what they think about NYC, something they'll share when they return home.
As per Joe's comment about cabbie's not being able to speak English, that's unacceptable and inexcusable. Fluency in English should be a bare minimum standard. How did our politics get so dysfunctional that they can't even do a decent job deciding who's qualified to drive a cab? And we're supposed to expect them to fix the subway?
As per Joe's comment about cabbie's not being able to speak English, that's unacceptable and inexcusable. Fluency in English should be a bare minimum standard. How did our politics get so dysfunctional that they can't even do a decent job deciding who's qualified to drive a cab? And we're supposed to expect them to fix the subway?
4
I have taken innumerable taxis in NYC never met a driver who couldn't speak English. As far as I can tell, this is just another myth perpetuated by anti-immigrant xenophobes, along with that of all the Mexican immigrants who supposedly hate the United States.
2
I agree. My experience with NY cab drivers were all positive; I never had a bad ride or driver. And, they could tell you a lot about different neighborhoods.
1
I haven't been in a NYC cab for a few years; however, they used to be reliable and informative. My worst memories of cabs are from living in D.C. where suddenly cabs were taken over by Nigerians with facial scars, earrings, minimal English, and threatening manners. It was worth carrying a good pair of walking shoes if the distance was at all doable.
1
The city's decision to ease up on test standards is indefensible. Yes, "technological advances" are a great help, but the real world reality is they are the default go to and people have zero incentive to learn anything at all. As a passenger it's not my job to give the driver instructions on going to places any New Yorker should at least have a basic knowledge of (including those riders - the vast majority - who don't even have a car but still know better!).
GPS routing systems are a great tool and aid. But they are not a substitute for actually learning the city; and they are not always correct. It's just like teaching arithmetic. Why teach how to add or divide or multiply whey kids can just use a calculator, the thought process went years ago; well, they still have to understand the basics and without that foundation become utterly reliable on the availability of a device (witness cashiers who couldn't make change to save their lives if the register didn't tell them what it is!).
That's not "progress" by any intelligent or reasonable definition.
GPS routing systems are a great tool and aid. But they are not a substitute for actually learning the city; and they are not always correct. It's just like teaching arithmetic. Why teach how to add or divide or multiply whey kids can just use a calculator, the thought process went years ago; well, they still have to understand the basics and without that foundation become utterly reliable on the availability of a device (witness cashiers who couldn't make change to save their lives if the register didn't tell them what it is!).
That's not "progress" by any intelligent or reasonable definition.
7
It is clear that Phoenix and the Twin Cities are getting transit right with light rail. It is equally clear that transit-starved Chicago and transit-free Indianapolis are 12th and 13th men on the team. Chicago has not had an improvement in transit in a century and has largely regressed and retracted. Myopic, tax-scared folks in Central Indiana could have light rail along the Nickel Plate line and out to the new airport. They have a fantastic extant rail line running west to Terre Haute and east to Muncie that could provide an enlarged labor pool and link the entire region. But in a state that acts more like it is in the South, even a one cent tax seems to frighten people who miserably sit in traffic jams.
5
The MTA seems to be dragging its heals on awarding the contract for a subway system upgrade to put the system more on par with London, Chicago, Sydney, Vancouver. For some reason, it is being delayed. It was supposed to have been awarded already. I hope they act soon.
1
You're still using Uber? Seriously? After all the reporting, from this paper alone, on how the company treats its workers?
9
Yeah, but who wants to take Lyft with Valerie Jarrett on its board?
Regarding Uber and taxi drivers using GPS for a "no brainer" short haul they may be using the "Waze" app, it indicates traffic congestion and street construction sites, thus giving the driver alternate routing.
1
I am a lifelong supporter of Unions, and find companies like Uber et al. atrocious money-grabbing scam artists. No one who owns a car, let alone a late year model, should be using it as a taxi. The costs of operating a vehicle, especially in large metropolitan areas, is enormous, and dangerous. It's not just a tank of gas and a oil change that takes a toll on a vehicle.
As an independent contractor the chumps who drive for these despicable corporate criminals do so at their own risk. All responsibility falls on their shoulders, including their driving record of violations and privileges. It's a lose-lose situation for the driver not the company.
I would drive a taxi, if the company who hired me provided me with the vehicle, period. Let Uber provide their drivers with late year models, just like car rental companies do. Anyone taking all the risks for crumbs is an fools. The money they think they're making is fool's gold. Be forewarned.
DD
Manhattan
As an independent contractor the chumps who drive for these despicable corporate criminals do so at their own risk. All responsibility falls on their shoulders, including their driving record of violations and privileges. It's a lose-lose situation for the driver not the company.
I would drive a taxi, if the company who hired me provided me with the vehicle, period. Let Uber provide their drivers with late year models, just like car rental companies do. Anyone taking all the risks for crumbs is an fools. The money they think they're making is fool's gold. Be forewarned.
DD
Manhattan
9
People who work for a living, even for bad bosses, are not chumps. People who sneer at them are condescending and arrogant elitists.
1
There is no such thing as customer support at Uber. Try it.
6
I have tried Uber customer support to challenge the appropriateness of a fee I was charged for cancellng a (non-appearing) Uber . The charge was removed from my bill immediately.
NO privately owned cars below 96th st. Express buses on EVERY N-S route. SAFE bike lanes on all major streets. Reinstitute taxi geography tests. TRAMS on major E-W Manhattan routes. CONGESTION taxation to enter Manhattan at all hours. There are just too many cars in Manhattan. Period. Until someone with any clout and courage steps up and admits this fact every other so-called improvement will be just baby steps. Btw, if more of us could travel reliably by other means the subway would magically become less crowded.
17
You have perfectly described what needs to be done.
2
Congestion pricing is just another tax. The victims are people and businesses who MUST, not want to, use their cars to get to work in mid- and downtown Manhattan. And people who use taxis and car services, who will pass the cost of the congestion tax on to the passengers. I own and park a car on the Upper West Side. Will I get dinged for driving down the West Side Highway to the Lincoln Tunnel to leave the city for points west and south?
6
Yes, we need more taxes on antisocial behavior - driving. New York City is a great place to try to eliminate the American "car "culture" that is so destructive to finances, the environment, fee time and even lives. it would be trivial to supply licenses to businesses that actually need to use vehicles in the city to do their business and just tax commuters. Also, there should be ABSOLUTELY NO FREE PARKING in Manhattan below 96th street, ever. An unbelievable giveaway of public space to people rich enough to own cars. Metering everything would go a long way to providing funds we need for improving transit in the city.
7
TM: Yes...you will, and yes, you should. You cause a great strain on the City's resources. Pay your fair share, if you choose the "car way..."
4
"Will I get dinged for driving down the West Side Highway to the Lincoln Tunnel to leave the city for points west and south?"
No.
No.
2
One of the fastest ways to enrich the City coffers is to take the traffic cops off the meter beat (a car parked overtime is no threat to anyone) and have the police ticket the bikers who threaten everyone's lives by going too fast, ignoring street signs, cursing pedestrians, and are giving a bad rap to two wheelers. I heard on the radio today that the number of bikers ticketed this year as compared to last is 750, up from 500 in 2016. Big deal. I see at least fifty bikers a day breaking the rules and scaring everyone in their paths. Try taking a walk in Riverside Park at 7am. You might as well be strolling on the Westside Highway.
24
The last time a New York City cyclist killed someone in traffic was November 2014. The last time a New York City driver killed someone in traffic was yesterday.
Self-righteously advocating focusing on annoyances like cyclist rule-breaking, while ignoring the much greater 225 deaths and 50,000 injuries a year at the hands of rule-breaking drivers is moral midgetry. The NYPD has limited resources for traffic enforcement and if drivers are doing > 99.9% of the killing (all but ten of the city's 5,000 deaths since 2000), ticketing cyclists won't save a single life, the highest priority on our streets.
Self-righteously advocating focusing on annoyances like cyclist rule-breaking, while ignoring the much greater 225 deaths and 50,000 injuries a year at the hands of rule-breaking drivers is moral midgetry. The NYPD has limited resources for traffic enforcement and if drivers are doing > 99.9% of the killing (all but ten of the city's 5,000 deaths since 2000), ticketing cyclists won't save a single life, the highest priority on our streets.
6
Yes, the 100% innocent pedestrians. Never, crossing against the light. Nor crossing the street where ever they feel like it, dangerously walking out between parked cars making them difficult to see. Pedestrians never forgo their sidewalk space to meander in a bike lane or just on the street.
Spare me.
Truth. NYers are all entitled, selfish, law breaking travellers. No matter the means of transportation a good percentage of them break the laws and rationalize their law breaking while condemning all others. Cyclists might suck but so do the walkers.
Spare me.
Truth. NYers are all entitled, selfish, law breaking travellers. No matter the means of transportation a good percentage of them break the laws and rationalize their law breaking while condemning all others. Cyclists might suck but so do the walkers.
5
There is no reason to spend millions on a streetcar when buses running on existing streets could provide the same service at the same speed. Why must the most complicated proposals get the most attention.
9
Not correct. "Streetcar" here is a misnomer. Light rail could operate on reserved right-of-way in a street or off a street entirely. There could be stations with prepaid fare areas, facilitating rapid boarding and alighting using all doors. If demand warrants it, light rail could operate in two-car trains, with just one operator on board the train. Some of these advantages (but not the multiple unit operation) could also be provided by bus rapid transit, but that would involve almost as much infrastructure expense as for light rail.
2
The streetcrs/trams I have ridden in Europe operate on reserved rights of way and are much faster than buses. The problem with our politicians and transportation executives is that when they go on their research junkets to Europe, they are chauffered around. Never take public trans. Even DeBlasio, when he goes to visit family in Italy, gets driven all over.
12
As I recall the trolley plan, there was no dedicated right of way. That means anybody stopped on the tracks cuts off service. Given New Yorkers' parking everywhere and 3 layers deep, there aren't enough cops or tow trucks to keep the route open. And an accessible trolley stop, especially one with a fare-paid zone, is like a concrete battleship on the sidewalk. The DC and Atlanta trolleys show that "light rail" is neither as easy or cheap as it was when paved streets were a new idea. A trolley bus, especially a battery-powered one with intermittent charging like Boston's Silver Line, would be much more suitable.
2
The NYC Ferry service is a winner!!! More ferries and connections to ferries, please! Add small boats in addition to big boats. I think Rotterdam does this. We are a city of islands. Let's act like it.
6
In the 1940's and perhaps in the 1950's we had numerous ferries -- and they carried cars also -- my family used to go from Jersey City or Hoboken, NJ to Manhattan -- and I think (not sure) they docked at both downtown and mid-town Manhattan. We also had trolley cars in both NJ and NYC! No air conditioning though!
5
Ferry Service is a smart move but follow the $$$ of the lobbyist behind Hornblowers and their donations.
2
The reason taxi complaints are down may be that the complaint outfit never seems to resolve anything, so people know better than to go there in the first place. I filed a complaint about 7 years ago about a driver who refused to take me from 8th Av. and 42d to 2d Av. and 42, went to a hearing (where the driver didn't show up), but never got the promised something or other in the mail regarding ultimate disposition of the case. What a waste of my time. Of course, if there had been a tram running on 42 st, the cab wouldn't have been necessary in the first place.
I think the thing you really need to do before you get into any taxi or uber these days is ask them if they know how to get where you're going, and have them tell you right then and there, before you get in, what the route is. If he/she doesn't know, then don't get in, or get in but negotiate an arrangement where there will be no fare due if they have to backtrack, make U turns, etc. because they did not in fact know how to get there/were not capable of understanding GPS instructions.
One of my favorite taxi stories is from the early 90s, another low point in transit history. A man wrote a letter to the NYT that when he recently got in a cab, there were 2 men in front:driver and passenger. When he got in, the front passenger turned to him and said "Hello, I am the translator."
I think the thing you really need to do before you get into any taxi or uber these days is ask them if they know how to get where you're going, and have them tell you right then and there, before you get in, what the route is. If he/she doesn't know, then don't get in, or get in but negotiate an arrangement where there will be no fare due if they have to backtrack, make U turns, etc. because they did not in fact know how to get there/were not capable of understanding GPS instructions.
One of my favorite taxi stories is from the early 90s, another low point in transit history. A man wrote a letter to the NYT that when he recently got in a cab, there were 2 men in front:driver and passenger. When he got in, the front passenger turned to him and said "Hello, I am the translator."
8
Actually, what may have to happen before we get improvement with taxis and uber is dead tourists. I recall that during a bad period in the late 80s and early 90s there started to be fatal accidents, including one in Queens on the way in from the airport in which one or more tourists were killed. There was also the dead Mormon incident in the subway, when a Mormon from Utah here for the NY Open was stabbed to death on a subway platform (think was the E or F at 7th Av in Manhattan). As I recall, both of these incidents prompted changes -- that is, stricter regulation of hack licenses and better security on the subway (at least on lines to US Open).
1
What a lovely post! 'Dead Mormon'? You mean the murdered Utah visitor who happened to be a Mormon. I remember the incident, it was during the reign of deBlasio's former boss David Dinkins. Also during his reign we ended up with plenty of murdered Catholics, Jews and Protestants.
As an architect and urban designer who thinks about these issues a lot, I've felt for some time now that what New York needs is a peripheral public transit system that could complement and interface with the subways and commuter rails. Right now, we basically have a hub-and-spoke system with Manhattan at the center, meaning that congestion gets worse the closer you get to the center. A circumferential system -- perhaps a combination of light rail (LRT) and bus rapid transit (BRT) -- would promote faster connections between the outer boroughs and potentially promote new employment centers (much as downtown Brooklyn, the Navy Yard and Sunset Park are becoming). The BQX is a step in the right direction. The Regional Plan Association has proposed a Queens-Brooklyn LRT line they call the TRX. Others have proposed a new LRT line on Staten Island's northwest shore. What we need though, is a comprehensive blueprint for a SYSTEM rather than a piecemeal approach to the problem. Yes, it should have been planned years ago, but the longer we wait the worse things will get.
11
Streetcars with tracks on the street and overhead power lines are a hugely expensive and outdated concept in an age where self driving vehicles will be common. Plans for public transit ideas that would not be implemented for 5-10 years should be about self-driving buses on a dedicated lane whose flow and number can be constantly adjusted based on use and that will cost far less than any light rail system and be far less disruptive. Time for 21st century thinking about public transit.
4
We live far from subway lines in Spuyten Duyvil. So we suffer from both the grossly inadequate bus service (Bx10 andBx20) and hideous subway service. The same problems that the Times has described for subways (crowding leading to delays leading to more crowding, etc) hold true for the Bx10 bus line. The MTA tries desperately to undercount ridership by having drivers block the fareboxes (MTA counts riders by fare) and ignoring the number of riders who enter by the back door. MTA has made a shambles of planning for both bus and subway service, as well as for system maintenance. All of us in the old "two-fare" zones have double suffering. It's time for legislative hearings and real oversight.
8
But in Spuyten Duyvil don't you have Metro North, a far faster and more comfortable way to travel, at least if you're headed in the vicinity of east midtown?
4
I work at Columbia Medical Center. Metro North is absolutely useless for me and for many who don't commute to Midtown. In fact, lots of people who use MetroNorth have to take a bus to the station and curse the operation of that particular bus line the way those of us dependent on the Bx10 curse the Bx10. The state and city have reneged on their social contract that implicitly was signed when the immense post-war development in Riverdale was pursued. How can we have such intense development without adequate public transportation?
3
What a great relevant question! The only wee issue is it would have been so much better to ask this a good 15 years ago. Quick rewind, just to understand what happened: Bloomberg is the brand new mayor, Pataki is the New York governor, New Jersey sees 5 different acting governors in less than 10 days, and P. Kalikow is the MTA chairman. Of those, the only official with a clear objective is Mayor Bloomberg. He wants to decrease the motorized traffic in the City, push on the gentrification of the 5 boroughs and increase public transportation traffic. The 3 other officials proved to be rather bland in this, with very little impact.
Comes 2017, we witness the 5 boroughs' population increasing by over 600,000, a broken down subway/bus system which could shame a developing country, deplorable roads and streets, Port Authority incapable of maintaining trains and tracks, and a daily nightmare of a surface traffic.
Diminishing the number of cars and increasing the foot traffic is a great project, true. But it seems to me that no nobody thought to tell the MTA and Port Authority that it meant more people and commuters. It seems also that strategical thinking has been greatly lacking across the board. No one had the idea to see this perfect storm gathering on the horizon.
Oh, wait, are they not elected or appointed (and quite nicely paid, thank you, except Mayor Bloomberg) mainly for this mission? What happened with the billions of dollars budgeted each year for transit?
Comes 2017, we witness the 5 boroughs' population increasing by over 600,000, a broken down subway/bus system which could shame a developing country, deplorable roads and streets, Port Authority incapable of maintaining trains and tracks, and a daily nightmare of a surface traffic.
Diminishing the number of cars and increasing the foot traffic is a great project, true. But it seems to me that no nobody thought to tell the MTA and Port Authority that it meant more people and commuters. It seems also that strategical thinking has been greatly lacking across the board. No one had the idea to see this perfect storm gathering on the horizon.
Oh, wait, are they not elected or appointed (and quite nicely paid, thank you, except Mayor Bloomberg) mainly for this mission? What happened with the billions of dollars budgeted each year for transit?
12
The morning of the NYC Marathon, I jumped in a tax in Queens for the Staten Island Ferry. The cabbie could barely mutter any English besides "GPS" while handing me his Iphone. Honestly, he did not know how to reach the Wall Street area from Queens, something you think you'd figure out just by watching "Law and Order" a few times. He also did not know the difference between the Staten Island Ferry and Staten Island itself and did a U turn in the middle of Canal Street when I told him to turn on Broadway (even though I had told me 4 or 5 blocks back where to turn). Disgraceful. When I moved here (1990s) cabbies were a virtual font of wisdom about this great city, its back alleys, side streets, traffic patterns and the like. I remember one night in the 1990s a cabbie told me about (very difficult) exam one had to take to get the hack license. What changed ?
20
Joe- please see paragraph #5 of the article
3
Joe: Just think about it...if your driver that day had watched a few episodes of "Law and Order," he might have asked you "How do I get to 963 West 81st Street?"
1
Next time you are going to SI take the subway from Queens to Manhattan and transfer to one of the many comfortable Staten Island express bus routes. More expensive ($6.50 fare) but the coach style buses have soft high-backed reclining seats and IIRC some of the newer buses have wi-fi.
http://web.mta.info/nyct/service/bus/sisch.htm#xpress
http://web.mta.info/nyct/service/bus/sisch.htm#xpress
1
Without an end to the unbridled construction, there will be no solution to our transit woes, above or below ground.
9