Metropolitan
from "Mobilizing the Region"

The Region: Independence Day For NYC Subway and Bus Riders
Beginning July 4, NYC transit riders will have free and unlimited transfers between buses and subways. The end of the punitive "two-fare zone" in which transit riders had to pay an additional fare when transferring between bus and subways is expected to give a big boost to bus ridership in Brooklyn and Queens. The free transfer and the sale of discount transit cards is the first real benefit transit riders have gained from the $700 million Metrocard system. While the Independence Day move is welcome, it was promised three years ago, and comes in the wake of budget and service cuts to NYC Transit by the City and State that have left subway lines crowded and dirty, and transit riders paying the highest share of the systems cost of any transit provider in the country.

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Connecticut: Highway Foes Wary of State Scheming
To reach a compromise in the controversy over Route 6, the Asst. Secretary of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will appoint a negotiator to meet with Gov, Rowland and Rep. Sam Gjedson. Local residents, officials and environmentalists oppose the Connecticut DOT'S plan to build a new east-west superhighway extending the 1-384 spur east of Hartford. Opponents of Route 6 believe that State highway officials are attempting a political override of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has repeatedly said the DOT'S proposal is "environmentally unacceptable" and will involve paving over fragile wetland habitat.

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New York City Still Light Years from Traffic Calming
On April 11, the Daily News blasted Mayor Giuliani for handing out traffic lights like expensive cigars to his supporters throughout the boroughs. The Mayor's Christmas-in-April was prompted by hundreds of complaints about traffic, dangerous intersections and pedestrian problems. While the Mayor is responding to the right issue, he is employing the wrong solution. Traffic lights can actually cause more speeding and traffic volume; a study in Philadelphia found that traffic lights increase the frequency and severity of crashes. Unfortunately, many community groups - uninformed, and groping for any answer to their traffic problems - latch onto lights as their only hope.

Four years ago, the DOT created a "Pedestrian Projects" group to address these kinds of long standing community concerns. But the Mayor was not out dedicating speed humps, traffic circles, chicanes, median islands or any of the many other traffic calming tools that the DOT has available. Indeed, no effort seems to have been made to inform the various block associations that they have more effective and flexible options than traffic lights. While the entire DOT is working overtime putting in expensive and inappropriate lights, the pedestrian group is installing only a handful of speed humps and new traffic islands on an ad hoc basis.

The irony is that traffic calming is an issue this Mayor could profitably embrace as a major quality of life and community outreach success. For the time being, only the sweat and swears of organized citizens are likely to produce any progress.

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New Jersey: Problem: Speeding and Dangerous Driving 
Solution: Spend $10 Million to Move School.
Parents in Newark's South Ward are demanding protection from speeding and reckless drivers after the death of an 8 year-old boy in March. Amazingly, NJDOT has responded to their concerns by promising $10 million to move a school away from a highway access road. This despite the fact that the child was not in school when he was struck and killed by a speeding motorist. At a public forum Tri- State Transportation Campaign Executive Director Janine Bauer blasted DOT'S mindless non-solution and instead suggested that Newark install traffic calming devices like speed humps, wider sidewalks and raised crosswalks to create a safer pedestrian environment. Mayor Sharpe James supported the idea. Newark leads New Jersey in serious pedestrian injuries, averaging 900 a year.

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