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 Socks and gloves are often the most needed and requested items at homeless shelters in Western New York, yet they are among the least often donated. Those from the Matt Urban Hope Center, the NFTA, the Buffalo Zoo, and BNMC are working together to change that, and are announcing the first annual Sock and Glove drive for the Homeless. Starting on Wednesday, January 31st until February 14th, these essential items will be collected both for adults and children for local citizens in need.
All items donated will be distributed by the Matt Urban Hope Center. Collection boxes will be located at the MTC at 181 Ellicott Street, the Buffalo Zoo, the Matt Urban Center, BNMC, 1404 Main TPD Headquarters and the Buffalo Airport Rescue and Recovery Facility.
Frank P. Proto took over as chairman of the TCAT Board of Directors at its first meeting of the year on Thursday, January 25.
Proto, a former long-time Tompkins County legislator and TCAT board member, follows David Howe, who served as the board’s chairman in 2017.
Proto said this year he will place heavy emphasis on strategic planning, as well as addressing TCAT’s need for a larger facility, which will be a long-term and costly project involving local, state and federal stakeholders. The purchase and acquisition of new Gillig buses next month, he said, will be a big help in replacing TCAT’s aging fleet.
 The Capital District Transportation Authority is proud to announce that Jaime Watson has been promoted to Director of Corporate Communications. In this role, Watson will be responsible for managing and implementing CDTA’s communication strategy, including both media and community relations. She also serves as the Authority’s spokesperson. Watson previously held the title of Communications Manager.
“Jaime has been a significant asset to CDTA over the last four years,” said Carm Basile, Chief Executive Officer of CDTA. “She has done a fantastic job of communicating to the public all of the great services that CDTA has to offer and played a key role in CDTA recently being named the Best Mid-Size Transportation System in North America by the American Public Transportation Association. We are lucky to have her as a part of our team.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to make sweeping changes to a state law that sets goals for hiring minority- and women-owned businesses in New York, including establishing workforce participation rates broken down by race and gender.
Annual goals would be set for hiring specific minority groups on state contracts, such as "black men," "Hispanic women," "Asian men" and "Caucasian women" in each construction trade, profession and occupation.
If approved by the Legislature, New York would be among the first states in the nation with workforce participation goals on government contracts for specific minority groups, according to the governor's office. Similar laws are in place at the federal level and in some cities.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Bill Shuster(R-Pa.) on Thursday said he received a “mixed” reaction when he brought up the gas tax during an infrastructure meeting at the GOP retreat.
Shuster said the subject “was the elephant in the room” during a working session that included several lawmakers, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn.
A new study by SUMC for the Transit Cooperative Research Program finds that peak use of transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft comes on weekends and evenings, not during rush hours when public-transit use is highest. SUMC’s findings were based on one of the first uses of origin-destination trip data provided by a major TNC. This finding was presented in TCRP Report 195, Broadening Understanding of the Interplay between Public Transit, Shared Mobility, and Personal Automobiles.
“Public transit is the backbone of any urban transportation system,” said Sharon Feigon, SUMC’s executive director. “Having this data and doing this study gave us a lot of new insights. In a congested environment, generally nothing is more efficient at moving lots of people than public transit. But we can see where TNCs fit into the gaps where the transit systems don’t work as well. People want flexibility and frequency and services like Uber and Lyft are filling in the gaps. We want to create an ecosystem of choices to create a multimodal system that can work for all.”
A month after it launched, Arlington's experiment with an on-demand ride-share service is expanding its reach.
Via, the ride-share company that has partnered with Arlington, is adding the areas north of Interstate 30 to Lamar Boulevard and south to Arkansas Lane in east Arlington.
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