Prendergast says MTA will soon ‘run out of money’ for capital projects

[jon2305]

Clock is ticking!

 

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/03/8594628/prendergast-says-mta-will-soon-run-out-money-capital-projects

[paulrivera]

Well, when you have your construction workers building the 2nd Avenue subway while on drugs, of course you're going to run out of money....

[LTA1992]

Dude, that article failed to mention so many things that I advise people to not even bother looking at it.

 

It failed to mention when the people who failed their drug and alcohol tests actually did those things. It fails to mention the ratio between the two. It failed to mention a few others, but I posted something similar in that subway lines titular thread.

 

Just because someone failed a drug test does not mean they did it on the job. Weed can stay in your system for months, but it being in your system will not impact your job unless you were working right after you smoked, drank, or ate it.

[CenSin]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast at the Chambers St. train station. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)

I'm surprised that they didn’t use the other Chambers Street station for the main photo.

[m7zanr160s]

I'm surprised that they didn’t use the other Chambers Street station for the main photo.

Yeah, you know they won't be using that one.

[TheNewYorkElevated]

I am quite concerned about this. I hope that the capital program is passed before time runs out.... 

[Caelestor]

The only way I see going forward is to reduce station construction. The common thread of all the recent cost overruns involves subway stations costing an absurd $1 billion each (or even more when taking about ESA).

[Union Tpke]

This could save the day, and possible it could add tons more money for the MTA in the future.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160323/BLOGS04/160329935/plan-to-change-nycs-bridge-tolls-reduce-traffic-hits-albany

 

Gridlock Sam Schwartz's comprehensive plan to shuffle city tolls and alleviate traffic congestion has finally surfaced in Albany.

Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez, D-Manhattan, introduced a bill Wednesday to implement the Move New York Fair Plan. It would create a standard toll, $5.54 with E-ZPass or $8 without, around the central business district, matching the Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels' tolls. (The toll for the upper level of the Queensboro Bridge, which carries vehicles to points north of the central business district, would match the lower toll of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, formally known as the Triboro.)

In addition to the East River bridges, 60th Street in Manhattan would become a tolling point for vehicles passing north or south.

Money would be collected using digital-recording technology so drivers would not have to slow down to pay. Power to set toll prices would rest with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and new tolls could be adjusted to provide off-peak discounts.

"Our legislation provides a sustainable revenue source, reduces congestion, equalizes our tolling system, and injects $4.5 billion into transit expansion and accessibility projects throughout the five boroughs," Rodriguez said in a statement. "Fundamentally, this plan enhances our transit system and improves the lives of millions of New Yorkers."

The bill also includes a for-hire-vehicle surcharge that would apply in Manhattan south of 96th Street on the East Side and south of 110th Street on the West Side. But taxis and black cars would be able to make more trips into and out of Manhattan, as they would have fewer private vehicles to compete with, supporters say.

The plan would raise revenue for subways, buses, roads and bridges. A little less than $1 billion of the $1.35 billion it would generate annually would go to mass transit, said Alex Matthiessen, campaign director of the Move NY Fair Plan. That includes MTA fare subsidies and a $1 discount on express-bus rides, among other improved service to underserved parts of the city, he said.

A piece of the revenue would be controlled by a new Transit Gap Investment Fund board that includes city and state elected officials. The city Department of Transportation would get about $375 million to maintain bridges and roads, primarily the aging East River spans.

The Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensborough bridges have no dedicated funding stream for their upkeep, and their lack of tolls causes thousands of motorists to go out of their way to use them. The premise of the plan is to rationalize tolling to eliminate unnatural routes that clog streets in certain parts of the city, such as avenues feeding the free bridges. Schwartz has warned of an infrastructure failure on the city's bridges.

The Verrazano Bridge toll would drop by half under the legislation, which supporters hope will net the plan support on Staten Island. In fact, it would discount the tolls on seven MTA bridges in all, including the Throgs Neck and Whitestone, which should benefit Queens and Bronx drivers who use them.

Traffic modeling predicts that the Move NY Fair Plan would decrease unnecessary car traffic on the toll-free bridges. The tolls and the taxi vehicle surcharge, which would apply to all for-hire vehicles including taxis and Uber cars, could be adjusted by time of day to help smooth traffic patterns. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey already uses time-of-day pricing at its Hudson River tunnels.

The bill has 14 co-sponsors but is getting a late start in the legislative season and still needs a Republican to introduce it in the GOP-controlled state Senate. It will face opposition from some Queens legislators with constituents who love the free bridges. But mass-transit groups have supported the plan or its concepts for years, as have business groups, editorial boards, environmental organizations and others. Still, political support has been slow to come, likely because of the demise of a congestion-pricing plan backed by the Bloomberg administration in 2008. That legislation was hampered by its failure to discount any existing tolls, a flaw that Schwartz corrected.

The Partnership for New York City, the key business-group backer of the Bloomberg congestion pricing plan that died in 2008, issued a statement Thursday saying the Move New York plan needs further study by a consultant not affiliated with the organization. It was a rather unenthusiastic statement, but Move New York tried to cast it in a positive light, responding, "We are pleased that the Partnership views the Move New York effort as an impressive and thoughtful one that has sought to squarely address the city and region's serious transit needs. Moreover, we applaud the Partnership's call on the city and state to take up the cause of addressing the city's grinding traffic and transit underinvestment problem."

Mayor Bill de Blasio said last year that the new plan deserves consideration, but he has not pushed it, perhaps fearing that would hurt its chances with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo himself has said the plan has merit but would face a tough road in the legislature.

The governor has shown no sign of being willing to spend political capital to get it passed, although he could be tempted to use its revenue to close the MTA capital plan's funding gap of about $8 billion. He included no funding to make up the deficit in proposing a state budget, which is due by April 1. That could be seen as a promising sign by backers of the Schwartz plan, which would devote a portion of its revenue to support bonding by the MTA.

[RailRunRob]

This could save the day, and possible it could add tons more money for the MTA in the future.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160323/BLOGS04/160329935/plan-to-change-nycs-bridge-tolls-reduce-traffic-hits-albany

They have something similar they're ushering in London.. I can foresee even a little further down the road. The Business District Center going fully autonomous. You'd park your car at  60th street persay and signal a fully autonomous vehicle to your location to complete your trip. I think self driving cars and that technology in general will start in zones. Central areas of cities, highways and interstates. Imagine accessibility with something like that in major cities around the world. Buses and pods without the biological limitations of humans and their perception. Science fiction? I think not friends closer than you think.

[QM1to6Ave]

Oh god, not congestion pricing again. It will raise prices without doing much to allieviate traffic, as there is not sufficient mass transit infrastructure for Queens-Manhattan travel to allow people to use mass transit in droves. Delivery vehicles will have to use the crossings regardless. 

[RailRunRob]

Oh god, not congestion pricing again. It will raise prices without doing much to allieviate traffic, as there is not sufficient mass transit infrastructure for Queens-Manhattan travel to allow people to use mass transit in droves. Delivery vehicles will have to use the crossings regardless. 

I agree with that point you want to discourage people from driving into Midtown but you don't give them any alternatives.

[Wallyhorse]

Oh god, not congestion pricing again. It will raise prices without doing much to allieviate traffic, as there is not sufficient mass transit infrastructure for Queens-Manhattan travel to allow people to use mass transit in droves. Delivery vehicles will have to use the crossings regardless. 

Yes, but if it reduces those who drive by choice who CAN use public transit, even if that's only a small dent it will make a difference.

[bobtehpanda]

Oh god, not congestion pricing again. It will raise prices without doing much to allieviate traffic, as there is not sufficient mass transit infrastructure for Queens-Manhattan travel to allow people to use mass transit in droves. Delivery vehicles will have to use the crossings regardless. 

 

Delivery vehicles are currently encouraged to cut through Manhattan going westbound, as there is no toll. Only drivers making local deliveries should really be going into the core.

[QM1to6Ave]

Delivery vehicles are currently encouraged to cut through Manhattan going westbound, as there is no toll. Only drivers making local deliveries should really be going into the core.

Any delivery guy/truck driver I've ever spoken to detests Manhattan and avoids it at all costs. I don't know any that choose to use Manhattan as a shortcut because it is so prone to traffic. But I'm sure there are some that do. The question is whether that is worth instituting all these tolls without having the needed infrastructure to support significant increases in mass transit

[CenSin]

Any delivery guy/truck driver I've ever spoken to detests Manhattan and avoids it at all costs. I don't know any that choose to use Manhattan as a shortcut because it is so prone to traffic. But I'm sure there are some that do. The question is whether that is worth instituting all these tolls without having the needed infrastructure to support significant increases in mass transit

This is a chicken-or-egg problem. Without the tolls, there won’t be enough improvements to mass transit. Without the improvements, the tolls will overwhelm the unready mass transit.

[QM1to6Ave]

Yes, but if it reduces those who drive by choice who CAN use public transit, even if that's only a small dent it will make a difference.

In theory, yes, but my issue is that there is simply not enough infrastructure to allow enough additional people to commute in via subway, LIRR, or even express bus to make a significant difference to the environment.

[QM1to6Ave]

This is a chicken-or-egg problem. Without the tolls, there won’t be enough improvements to mass transit. Without the improvements, the tolls will overwhelm the unready mass transit.

If the government prioritized mass transit and devoted more money to it (and, at the same time, devoted more money to the upkeep of roads and infrastructure), the tolls would not be needed. But instead we prioritize lots of other things.

[Jcb]

-double post, delete-

[Jcb]

This could save the day, and possible it could add tons more money for the MTA in the future.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160323/BLOGS04/160329935/plan-to-change-nycs-bridge-tolls-reduce-traffic-hits-albany

No. Congestion pricing is not an option.

This is basically preventing Brooklyn and Queens residents from entering other areas without paying. The plan is not going to be good for business, and will most likely overload public transit options, as all but one of the East River crossings are already at capacity. This toll plan is also unfair because it causes everyone but Bronx residents to pay. If they want to leave, they can just drive across the Harlem River and take the GWB, and it's a done deal. Total toll : $0.

For a Brooklyn or Queens residents, however, with this new $5 toll on the bridge, and another one to enter the CBD, you pay once to leave your borough (or pay $10 and risk SIE traffic) and pay once more to enter Manhattan. This is patently flawed logic. Brooklyn and Queens residents would not stand for this plan.

And besides, we all know that the extra money will be co-opted for other purposes and tolls will be raised to the old levels, just everyone gets to pay and no one wins.

[SubwayGuy]

Any delivery guy/truck driver I've ever spoken to detests Manhattan and avoids it at all costs. I don't know any that choose to use Manhattan as a shortcut because it is so prone to traffic. But I'm sure there are some that do. The question is whether that is worth instituting all these tolls without having the needed infrastructure to support significant increases in mass transit

 

You've hit the nail on the head.

 

As I've said in numerous threads, politicians and the self promoting in the media love stupid stopgap measures like congestion pricing (and others) despite the long term costs to city residents and commuters, and despite their extreme ineffectiveness with the overall problem. (yay me! I bailed a tablespoon of water out of the sinking Titanic! Vote for me again!) because these are quick things with quantifiable numbers that can generate "results" within an election cycle and further the self-back-patting of the politicians.

 

Meanwhile the original issue remains unsolved. "But at least I did something!"

[QM1to6Ave]

You've hit the nail on the head.

 

As I've said in numerous threads, politicians and the self promoting in the media love stupid stopgap measures like congestion pricing (and others) despite the long term costs to city residents and commuters, and despite their extreme ineffectiveness with the overall problem. (yay me! I bailed a tablespoon of water out of the sinking Titanic! Vote for me again!) because these are quick things with quantifiable numbers that can generate "results" within an election cycle and further the self-back-patting of the politicians.

 

Meanwhile the original issue remains unsolved. "But at least I did something!"

Ha, the Titanic metaphor is very apt

[Union Tpke]

You've hit the nail on the head.

 

As I've said in numerous threads, politicians and the self promoting in the media love stupid stopgap measures like congestion pricing (and others) despite the long term costs to city residents and commuters, and despite their extreme ineffectiveness with the overall problem. (yay me! I bailed a tablespoon of water out of the sinking Titanic! Vote for me again!) because these are quick things with quantifiable numbers that can generate "results" within an election cycle and further the self-back-patting of the politicians.

 

Meanwhile the original issue remains unsolved. "But at least I did something!"

 

Congestion pricing would keep drivers who don't need to drive off of the road helping relieve congestion. The tolls on these bridges would help provide much needed money for the upkeep and expansion of transit. Why should drivers going over the East River have to pay nothing while people in other parts of NYC without any transit options have to pay high tolls.

 

• Miles driven within the charging zone during tolling hours shrank as well, from 582 million miles a year, to 500 million — a decline of 14 percent.

"At a hearing about Manhattan traffic this morning convened by Borough President Gale Brewer, a simple consensus emerged: The fundamental issue is the limited amount of street space in the Manhattan core and the practically unlimited demand to use it. Unless New York puts a price on roads, traffic congestion is going to remain intense.

“We can’t unsnarl our streets unless vehicles that take up the space on the street are charged a price. Otherwise, the space that we clear out today — by capping tour buses or Uber cars or 18-wheelers — will be filled tomorrow by other vehicle owners,” said transportation economist Charles Komanoff. “And the price needs to apply to all vehicles… based on the space that they take up. Because space is a finite resource.”

“The least efficient mode of transportation is the single-occupant car,” said “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, who in addition to his Move New York toll reform proposal, backed the elimination of parking placards for most government employees. “There is no reason to be parking for free on the most valuable land possibly on Earth.”

Others proposed more aggressive ideas, like banning personal cars completely. “Private vehicles coming into Manhattan is insanity,” said Steve McLoughlin, an organizer with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 15, a union for black car drivers. “I don’t think that Manhattan can handle much more than the professional drivers, than the trucks that are necessary to supply our businesses, and the first responders.”"

http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/09/17/message-from-brewers-congestion-hearing-its-the-road-pricing-stupid/#more-350586

[Union Tpke]

http://iheartmoveny.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Move-NY-Fair-Plan-150217v1.pdf

[P3F]

Why should drivers going over the East River have to pay nothing while people in other parts of NYC without any transit options have to pay high tolls

"It sucks for these people, which is unfair. Let's make it suck for everyone!"

[Union Tpke]

"It sucks for these people, which is unfair. Let's make it suck for everyone!"

 

It won't suck for everyone. In fact, it is a win.

There will be less cars on the road in Manhattan meaning that for people who can't avoid driving, there will be time savings. Also, there would be less injuries due to less congestion. There would finally be a stable funding source for the MTA so that every four years we don't have to go through this long and tedious process. With additional money there could be critical expansion projects such as the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, as well as possibly a Queens Bypass, Utica Avenue Line, or Park Avenue Line in the Bronx. As the MTA controls the Bridges and Tunnels, there would also be benefits there as well. People in the far off reaches of Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island who don't have many choices could then save money and with this money they could reinvest in our economy. Eventually, under my control of the area's transportation system, there would be better service between the outer boroughs meaning that the fares on the bridges on the outer reaches of the city could then be raised.