Local Track

Our Hero (Not)
City Councilmember Ken Fisher (Brooklyn) and the ever-automobile oriented press are trumpeting the creation of 2,500 on street parking spots in lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. Fisher successfully pressured the City into removing obsolete fire hydrants to create the new spots. Not surprisingly, only car parking is being considered for the newly available street space. Bike parking, space for vendors, or even planters is not contemplated. Just what NYC needs: More parking for more cars. Thanks a lot, Ken.

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Parking Mania For Downtown Brooklyn
In addition to 500 "fire hydrant" spots soon to be created in downtown Brooklyn, parkers will also have access to spaces created by a change to night-time street cleanings, freeing up 1,000 daytime spaces.

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Give Me Monorail
Commuting Survey of 500 NYC area residents by Lehner International, a L.I. firm, found the following: 80% described rush-hour traffic as a "nightmare" or "unpleasant".

68% said they would be willing to have $100 of their State taxes spent on "Building a high speed mono-rail over major highways entering NYC." Why is it always monorail?

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Hudson Street Disappointment
Citing expense and delays, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has refused to grant Manhattan Community Board 2's request to incorporate pedestrian safety features or a viewing garden into its plans for rebuilding Hudson Street. DOT has never expressed much enthusiasm for the idea, and as usual seems more concerned about traffic flow than pedestrian safety.

Though claiming to have a more friendly and accommodating attitude towards pedestrians, dinosaurs at DOT's Bureau of Highway's find a way to reject almost all pedestrian or traffic calming proposals.

Pols Get Reprieve From Parking Tax
The IRS has postponed enforcing a new law requiring that every dollar of free parking over $155 month be taxed as regular income. 'Me free, police guarded, reserved parking at City Hall has an estimated value of over $400 a month, which means that motoring City Council members could face up to $900 a year in new taxes.

Motoring Councilmembers are not amused by this new threat to their life of motoring privilege.

Noach Dear, Chair of the City Council Transportation Committee said this about his City Hall parking space. "It's not a lot per se, but it's like a public space where you can park." Councilmember Helen Marshall felt her heavily guarded space was "worth two cents."

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Buffalo Auto-Free Street Lives!
Contrary to a NY Times report the car-free transit mall in downtown Buffalo is here to stay. Lewis G. Harriman Jr., the Chairman of Buffalo's Citizens Rapid Transit Committee, reports that a recent downtown forum, attended by important civic and business interests, produced an overwhelming vote against returning cars to the street.

No More Free Lunch?
Transpo Officials Debate Road Pricing
Roadway pricing charging motorists the 6A cost of car and truck use - is inching onto the agenda of New York-area transportation planners. Government, business and environmental groups met in April to discuss how charging more to drive could help fund transit and discourage driving in the New York region. The meeting was convened by New York Metropolitan Transportation Council director Ray Ruggieri, in response to proposals in the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's December 1993 Citizens Action Plan. Though no commitments were made, officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the meeting was an important first step in getting the bureaucracy to take roadway pricing seriously.

For a copy of Charles Komanoffs "Pollution Taxes for Roadway Transportation" (35pp.) send $4 to KEA, 270 Lafayette St., Room 400, NYC 10012.

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