Transportation

TRANSPORTATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Bill Thompson understands that New York City’s mass transit system is the lifeblood of our City. A Thompson administration will:

• Appoint transit activists who are representative of the riding public to the MTA Board, unlike Bloomberg Administration officials and loyalists who have no special knowledge or even a prior familiarity with transit.

• Support legislation such as the crucial Brodsky-Perkins bill that will increase oversight of the MTA by cracking down on its out-of-control contracting and shadowy financial decision-making.

• Fight for more equitable funding within the MTA. For instance, the MTA divides bridge and toll revenue between the suburban railroads and City subway and buses using an inequitable formula that is four decades old. It shortchanges New York City by as much as $83 million annually, as revealed in Comptroller Bill Thompson’s 2007 report.

• Review MTA capital projects to make sure projects like the 7-line extension continue to make economic and transportation sense. If they don’t, look at other options like light rail or BRT that could do the job less expensively.

• Expanded Bus Rapid Transit and other initiatives to improve transit use in underserved communities. Census data reviewed by the Pratt Center shows that three-quarters of a million New Yorkers travel more than one hour a day to work. Communities like Red Hook, Far Rockaway and Staten Island will receive new attention in a Thompson administration.

• Object when the MTA tries to cut service, as it recently did on 38 bus lines with little public input and little justification.

• Involve the public from the beginning in making decisions about transportation, so that residents are not blind-sided about decisions that affect their commutes or businesses.

• Keep subway station agents on the job, since they provide invaluable service to riders and are the system’s eyes and ears.

Our City’s economic health—as well as our personal health and quality of life—depend on leadership at City Hall that speaks up for transit riders and works to reduce congestion throughout the City.

But under the current mayor, New Yorkers are left with a top-down approach to decision-making about our City’s transportation system. With two fare hikes in 15 months, service cuts, and crumbling subway stations, New Yorkers are right to ask who is standing up for them at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Unfortunately, not Michael Bloomberg. Over and over, his appointees to the MTA Board of Directors have declined to speak up for riders at MTA Board meetings or leverage the power of the mayor’s office to improve oversight, performance measurement, or transit service. As fares have gone up, he and his appointees have remained largely silent.

Bill Thompson understands that New York City’s mass transit system is the lifeblood of our City. He knows that many New Yorkers struggle to pay the fare or live too far away from decent transportation options. As mayor, he will speak up for transit riders, work to expand transit service, and exercise rigorous oversight over the MTA.

And he will listen to riders—and all New Yorkers when it comes to other transportation decisions—and level with them. This has not been a priority at City Hall or the MTA. After all, the MTA is the agency which most recently promised not to reduce service if riders and taxpayers came through and paid higher fares and taxes this June, then turned around and eliminated station customer assistant agents and reduced bus service in September. Despite the strong influence City Hall should and does have on the MTA, Michael Bloomberg has let fare hikes and service cuts go ahead.

Meanwhile, our streets remain congested—bleeding $13 billion in losses from the regional economy, according to the Partnership for the City of New York.

Transportation Challenges and Thompson Administration Responses

Transportation decision-making is out of the hands of New Yorkers

When the MTA decides to raise the fare, as it did in 2008 and 2009, or cut service, as it did this year, who spoke for riders? Who spoke for the City’s interests? By law, the MTA Board includes four members selected by the mayor; by tradition, MTA Board decisions about the City’s subway and bus system are made only with the mayor’s approval.

But no one spoke up for riders, and fares went up and service was cut.

A Thompson administration will reform how the City approaches transportation planning. Instead of doing it top-down, Robert Moses style, a Thompson administration will include New Yorkers from the beginning of the planning process.

This way, whether the question is what MTA projects the City should support or how to implement bicycle lanes or other traffic calming and congestion-reduction proposals, the public will have had input.

That doesn’t mean these projects will not proceed, but it does mean that they will have a better chance of moving forward since the public will have had a chance to debate them and they will have won community support.

To restore the public voice in decision-making and help return democracy to the MTA, a Thompson administration will:

• Involve the public from the beginning in making decisions about transportation, so that residents are not blind-sided about decisions that affect their commutes or businesses. That will not be an excuse for avoiding new initiatives intended to reduce automobile use or make City streets and sidewalks safer, but to ensure greater support for those plans so they are implemented with wider public understanding and support;

• Appoint transit activists who are representative of the riding public to the MTA Board, unlike the Administration officials and loyalists who have no special knowledge or even a prior familiarity with transit;

• Support legislation such as the crucial Brodsky-Perkins bill that will increase oversight of the MTA by cracking down on its out-of-control contracting and oblique financial decision-making. Michael Bloomberg has opposed such legislation;

• Select a transportation advisor who will have the authority to monitor MTA contracts, initiatives and capital projects and will hold the MTA accountable. A Thompson appointee will report directly to the mayor and will oversee all transportation-related initiatives—including zoning changes that impact on transportation, street use and a traffic law enforcement;

• Hold regular transportation forums where the mayor will hear and respond to the concerns of transit riders, pedestrians, business owners and all others who depend on our City’s subways, buses, commuter rail lines and roadways.

• Attend MTA meetings at least twice a year as a way of holding the Authority accountable.

New Yorkers see higher fares, less service on the City’s subways and buses

With two fare hikes in 15 months and service cuts just last month, New York City’s subway riders are paying more but getting less. One reason for this is that the City and State have shortchanged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the MTA itself has shortchanged City subway and bus riders compared to its commuter railroad riders.

Thanks to enormous investments made in the 1980s and 1990s, the subway system is immeasurably better today than in the 1970s, when it was near collapse. But in recent years, the City and State have effectively slashed their mass transit funding—even during the recent economic expansion. A study Comptroller Bill Thompson issued in 2007, Putting the Brakes on the Bus and Subway Fare, detailed how New York State redirected existing hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated transit subsidies away from the subways and buses to its own general fund, effectively robbing City riders of funds they were entitled to by state law.

The study also showed how the City had severely limited its contribution under Mayor Bloomberg through reduced school-transit funding, among other subsidies, and slashed its contribution to the MTA’s capital budget as well.

This has contributed to the MTA’s current predicament—a 2010-2014 MTA Capital Program that is short $10 billion. It has also contributed to higher fares because the MTA has paid for much of its capital work with fare- and toll-backed bonds.

A Thompson administration will:

• Fight for more equitable funding within the MTA. For instance, the MTA divides bridge and toll revenue between the suburban railroads and City subway and buses using an inequitable formula that is four decades old. It shortchanges transit by as much as $83 million annually, as explained in Comptroller Bill Thompson’s 2007 report. Michael Bloomberg has made no attempt to get the formula changed.

New York City subway and bus riders pay a higher percentage of the operating expenses through the fare box than riders on virtually every other mass transit system in the nation, including the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Commuter Railroad.

• Look for innovative ways to fund transit, such as the weight-based vehicle registration proposal Bill Thompson issued in 2008. That proposal would have reduced the number of heavy, high-polluting vehicles on our City and region’s streets and spread the transit funding burden across the 12-county MTA region;

• Maintain support for the vital Second Avenue subway project and make this long-delayed project a City priority. Beleaguered Lexington Avenue riders, whether they are from East Harlem, the Upper East Side or the Bronx, deserve far better service. A Thompson administration will also advocate for the long-range expansion of the Second Avenue project so that it continues into the Bronx and serves Co-op City, as originally proposed.

A Thompson administration will bring Bus Rapid Transit to First and Second Avenues. Michael Bloomberg promised this in 2001 and did not deliver.

• Review MTA capital projects to make sure projects like the 7-line extension continue to make economic and transportation sense. If they don’t, look at other options like light rail or BRT that could do the job more inexpensively.

A Thompson administration will fight for increased and better subway, bus and taxi service, an obligation Michael Bloomberg has neglected as mayor. Among other initiatives, a Thompson administration will:

• Keep subway station agents on the job, since they are the system’s eyes and ears—and provide invaluable service to riders. Under the MTA’s most recent plan, at least 158 locations will no longer have a subway station agent; unfortunately, the City’s MTA representatives failed to express any objections. Bill Thompson urged the MTA to use federal stimulus money to keep these essential workers on the job. As mayor, he will use his influence and get these workers back on the job.

• Object when the MTA tries to cut service, as it recently did on 38 bus lines with little public input and little justification. Riders on the Bx12, the M15 and other lines in every borough now are making due with fewer buses, although the MTA has offered little explanation for these reductions. Michael Bloomberg and his MTA representatives failed to object to these cuts.

A Thompson administration will make it easier for buses to get through traffic more easily by enforcing bus lanes and preventing parking in bus stops. It also work with the MTA to widen the use of pre-boarding fare collection, which reduces loading times.

• Force the MTA to significantly improve how it measures service quality. Bill Thompson’s recent review of the MTA’s bus and subway performance indicators shows that service quality information is difficult to understand, incomplete and in some cases seems designed to hide how the subways and buses are actually running. Accurate and understandable information is vital and will be one key way that the MTA can win back the trust of riders in the light of its current reputation for insensitivity toward riders.

• Increase accessibility for wheelchair users and other persons who are mobility-impaired by mandating wheelchair-accessible yellow taxis and other improvements. These can include simple things like ensuring that bus stops have benches. A fully accessible taxi system would reduce City expenses for Access-A-Ride, a rapidly growing cost as the need for such transportation increases. Unfortunately, Michael Bloomberg has refused to require wheelchair-accessible yellow taxis and did not object to the proposed doubling of the Access-A-Ride fare earlier this year.

Congestion is making it difficult to do business and harming our quality of life

A Thompson administration will lead the fight to reduce traffic congestion as a necessary element of our economic well-being and to improve our quality of life. Among the measures a Thompson administration will pursue are:

• Time-of-day based tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels.

• A requirement that the Sanitation Department keep bus stops clear of snow and that the Police Department keep bus stops clear of cars and trucks so buses can pull over to the curb. A Thompson administration will support placing cameras on the fronts of NYC Transit buses, not only to take pictures of licenses plates of cars blocking bus-only lanes so the owners can be sent tickets, but of cars blocking bus stops.

• Expanded Bus Rapid Transit and other initiatives to improve transit use in underserved communities. Census data reviewed by the Pratt Center shows that three-quarters of a million New Yorkers travel more than one hour a day to work—and two-thirds of those earn less than $35,000 annually and 19 out of 20 earn less than $75,000 a year. Communities like Red Hook, Far Rockaway and Staten Island will receive new attention in a Thompson administration.

• A City-wide and regional discussion of how to make tolls more equitable, as transportation experts have proposed. A Thompson administration also will support a full review of the assumptions made in the Kheel-Komanoff proposal for free buses and reduced-fare subways.

• Development and implementation of a comprehensive plan to reduce truck traffic—the fastest growing user category on our roads—including a cross harbor rail freight tunnel and other initiatives.

• Zoning changes that encourage transit-oriented development and reduce the amount of parking space in residential developments as a way of discouraging driving.

• Neighborhood parking-permit programs to discourage park-and-commute traffic.

Hazardous streets for pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists

In a Thompson administration, motorists who put other New Yorkers at risk will no longer get a free pass on our streets. The Thompson administration goal: reduce traffic fatalities by half in four years.

A Thompson administration will:

• Make the enforcement of speed limits a priority for the NYPD and, as appropriate, its traffic agents.

• Support the increased use of innovative technology, including speed cameras (and decoy cameras) to penalize speeders.

• Conduct public-education campaigns targeting all drivers to slow down and stop risky behavior behind the wheel.

• Promote street designs that encourage drivers to drive more slowly and safely.