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With phase one complete and phase two underway, Regional Transit Service (RTS) today provided an important update on Reimagine RTS, the study of a redesign of the public transit system in Monroe County. At a press conference earlier today, RTS CEO Bill Carpenter announced the proposed guiding principles and goals, provided a recap of phase one, and discussed next steps.
“The release of the guiding principles and goals is a significant moment in the Reimagine RTS study process,” said RTS CEO Bill Carpenter. “The guiding principles are important for two reasons. First, they are a result of the input provided by customers, employees and stakeholders throughout the community during the first phase of the study. Second, they will serve as the foundation of the recommended network changes we will receive from our consultant in May. We will conduct more outreach to our employees and the community to review the guiding principles and goals, and ensure we correctly captured their input.”
Recent polls and media stories show a strong demand for communities where people of all ages and abilities can safely and comfortably walk and bike. Walkable and bikeable communities have many benefits: opportunities for people to be healthy and active, reduced pedestrian injuries, less traffic congestion and air pollution, reduced crime due to more “eyes on the street,” and economically viable downtowns where people can walk, bike and shop. Creating walkable and bikeable environments requires the active collaboration of people with interests in safety, land use, economic development, transportation, education, law enforcement and health promotion. This symposium will bring together people from these various disciplines and provide participants with the tools to work together to create walkable and bikeable communities in New York State.
Actually, governance – the leadership work of governing boards in close collaboration with their chief executive officers – isn’t yet a full-fledged field. It’s getting there, but still can’t claim the set of universally accepted core principles and thoroughly tested best practices that you expect a fully developed field to have. Instead, principles and practices are heatedly debated, and oodles of really dangerous advice – what I think of as “insidious foes” – can damage board performance and erode the board-CEO working relationship. I call these dangerous bits of advice “insidious” because they can sound quite plausible – and might even be strongly recommended by one self-proclaimed governance guru or another.
Early last fall, Governor Cuomo’s “Fix NYC” task force chose my intricate Balanced Transportation Analyzer, or BTA, spreadsheet model as its analytical tool to figure out which vehicle tolls and surcharges could best fulfill the governor’s pledge to implement congestion pricing in New York City.
Congestion pricing — tolls to drive into the Manhattan Central Business District (CBD), south of 60th Street, and surcharges on for-hire vehicles (taxicabs, Ubers, etc.) operating within the Manhattan “taxi zone” — stands to benefit our city by thinning traffic in and near the CBD and generating revenues to improve subway service. No part of the city will benefit more than Lower Manhattan.
President Donald Trump’s war with his hometown over one of the nation’s priciest transportation projects shows the challenges ahead for his plan to upgrade crumbling public works by having locals pay more of the bill.
The $30 billion Gateway proposal, which includes a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, has bogged down in an acrimonious fight with the states as Trump prepares to roll out his infrastructure plan on Monday.
Survey results show a large share of ride-hailing trips are substituting for transit, an indication of how badly the MBTA needs to improve bus and train service.
Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are exacerbating rush-hour traffic jams in Boston,according to new research by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The results should be a wake-up call about the need to improve bus and train service and prevent further shifts to car travel.
MAPC surveyed 944 ride-hailing passengers in greater Boston about their travel habits, using questionnaires administered via tablets during ride-hailing trips. More than two out of every five — 42 percent — said they would have taken transit if the ride-hailing service were not available. Another 12 percent said they would have walked or biked.
After dockless bike-share companies blanketed cities in China with millions of bicycles, firms like ofo and LimeBike set their sights on American markets, backed by heaps of venture capital. They’ve put thousands of bikes on the streets of Seattle, Dallas, and Washington, and they aren’t about to stop there. If they haven’t tried to set up shop in your city yet, odds are they will soon.
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