Testimony of Noah Budnick, Projects Director, Transportation Alternatives

Hello, my name is Noah Budnick. I am Projects Director for Transportation Alternatives, the advocates for bicyclists, pedestrians and sensible transportation. Today, I will focus on Intro 192, which would change the law regarding reporting street and sidewalk defects.

Transportation Alternatives is pleased that City Council is examining the irrational laws that govern street and sidewalk maintenance. The primary goal of this process should be to keep New York's streets and sidewalks in the best condition possible.

With that goal in mind, Transportation Alternatives opposes Intro 192 for four reasons:

1. Intro 192 would make it more difficult to report street and sidewalk defects.
2. Intro 192 would require each defect to be reported separately.
3. Intro 192 would extend the City's response time from fifteen to sixty days.
4. Intro 192 would retroactively invalidate every notice of defect submitted prior to the effective date of the new law.

Intro 192 requires that street and sidewalk defects be submitted with an excessively long list of information. This will make it more difficult for people to report defects and deter people from reporting them. Ultimately, the city's streets and sidewalks will be in worse condition for longer periods of time.

In addition to contact information, reporters would be required to provide 1) the length, width and depth or height, 2) the address of the nearest property, 3) the names of the nearest streets and cross streets, 4) the distance from the curb or building line, 5) the distance and direction from an easily identifiable landmark and 6) a photo or diagram of the defect. Reporters would also be required to sign a written notice submitted to the DOT. This and the photographic requirement would make reporting street and sidewalk defects to the DOT's CALLDOT telephone hotline and on the DOT's website impossible.

Currently, the CALLDOT telephone hotline and the DOT's website are easily accessible to the public and provide the DOT with sufficient information to inspect and take the proper recourse to repair dangerous street and sidewalk conditions.

Intro 192 also mandates that each street or sidewalk defect must be reported separately, which would make submitting a list of defects impossible. Street and sidewalk surveys would become extremely inefficient as the paperwork, time and money involved with reporting and repairing each defect would be compounded. This year, Transportation Alternatives' Operation Hazard ID program compiled and submitted five lists of street defects to the DOT, totaling over 400 hundred individual hazards. If Intro 192 were passed--instead of filing five relatively efficient reports with the DOT--we would have filed 400 individual letters of notice and received 400 individual responses from the DOT. This bureaucratic logjam would waste time and money better spent making sure the defects are repaired.

Liability claims are filed because there are street and sidewalk defects, not because the defects are reported to the city. New York's streets are in bad shape. In 1999, the Mayor's Management Report rated only 0.5% of New York's streets in 'poor' condition. But, that same year, a Fund for the City of New York survey (released in 2001 entitled "How Smooth are New York City Streets") reported that 42% of New York City's streets had an "unacceptable" number of potholes and hazards. The seven million cars, trucks and busses that rumble through New York everyday exact a toll on the roads. This wear and tear is made worse by out of control contractors who leave the streets in shambles after completing work.

If the Mayor and the Council want reduce the number of claims filed against the city, then they should help the DOT reduce defects and improve street and sidewalk conditions. The DOT must reign in contractors by monitoring them carefully.

The DOT needs more street inspectors, and stricter regulations and higher standards for contractors. In 1992 the DOT had 150 street inspectors. Today there are 80. This is simply not enough resources to survey the daily wear of seven million vehicles and hundreds of utility projects. Contractors dig up streets and sidewalks, leaving hazards such as metal plates and partially filled street cuts for weeks or even months after their work is finished. (This is unacceptable and extending the City's response time from fifteen to sixty days will only make the situation worse.) There should be tighter regulations, mandating that contractors return the street to its original condition within 24 hours of completing their work. They should be fined for not complying or working passed the date on their construction permit.

If the City saw to it that contractors finished their work properly the first time, there would be fewer defects to report, fewer crashes and the City would face fewer injury claims.

The smoothness or roughness of streets and sidewalks are visible, audible and tactile evidence of a government's ability to serve its citizens. People often judge the performance of city government based on street maintenance. Smooth streets equal government competence. Rough, pothole riddled streets equal the government not doing its job.

If passed, Intro 192 will only result in rougher streets and sidewalks.

Thank you.