Driving mandate

 

 AMNY

The number of people traveling in and out of New York City by car is higher than ever before, even as mass transit ridership continues to lag behind levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report on MTA finances from State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli revealed.

Crossings on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels across New York City climbed to 335 million in 2023, already a record, and are expected to hit 339 million in 2024, according to DiNapoli’s report. That comes even as paid weekday ridership on the subway still hovers at around 70% of pre-COVID averages, with higher numbers registered on weekends, suggesting a permanent shift to working from home even as New Yorkers take transit for personal activities.

Even worse, MTA ridership over the next several years is expected to recover still more slowly than officials once projected: in November 2020, consulting giant McKinsey & Company predicted ridership would rise to 86% of pre-COVID levels by 2026, but MTA brass now concede it will likely average only 80% by that time.

Suck it, Open Plans.

 

Drive, we said

AMNY  

More people are driving cars in New York City than ever before, based on toll data from the MTA and Port Authority — a remarkable feat as the city prepares to implement congestion pricing in the hopes of dissuading motorists from getting behind the wheel in favor of mass transit.

Over 335 million vehicles were recorded crossing the MTA’s nine bridges and tunnels in 2023, which include the Whitestone, Throgs Neck, Cross-Bay, and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges and the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown Tunnels, among others. That’s a 1.3% increase over the previous record in 2019, when 330.7 million crossings were made, and the most ever seen in 87 years of data collection.

In 1937 — the first year that the MTA Bridges & Tunnels’ predecessor, the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority, was in operation — the bridges saw only 18.5 million crossings. Back then, the TBTA had only three bridges in its portfolio: the Triborough Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the Marine Parkway Bridge.

The Port Authority, meanwhile, has this year seen the highest number of vehicle crossings on its six spans — including the George Washington Bridge, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and Outerbridge Crossing connecting Staten Island and New Jersey — since at least 2011. Through October, the latest month that data is available, the Port Authority had recorded just over 102 million crossings.

In its 2024 budget proposal, the Port Authority projected its bridges and tunnels would see 122 million crossings next year.

New York City’s Department of Transportation could not immediately provide numbers for its bridges throughout the city, which include major spans like the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro Bridges and hundreds of short crossings all over the five boroughs. Unlike the MTA and Port Authority, the DOT does not collect tolls.

However, DOT did record that the number of vehicles registered in the city grew more than 10% between 2010 and 2021, according to the agency’s Streets Plan update earlier this year. The numbers for 2022 will be published in early 2024.

 

A bridge and bike lane too far

 

 

AMNY

The MTA is gearing up a plan to improve bike and pedestrian access to its mass transit system and bridges.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will release its so-called Bike, Pedestrian, and Micromobility Strategic Action Plan sometime this year after long resisting calls from advocates to open its bridges to New Yorkers who aren’t behind the wheel. 

“We want to improve customer access to our environmentally friendly MTA services, however they get to their train or bus,” MTA Chairperson and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement. “As a cyclist myself, I know that biking can be the perfect complement to mass transit.”

The state agency hired Sam Schwartz Engineering to consult on the project, which officials say will work toward better access to transit stations for bikes, pedestrians, and micro-mobility like e-scooters; integrating bike sharing services, and improving access to the infrastructure controlled by MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels division.

The Authority is also looking for written public comment on the project’s website. 

The MTA is required by law to come up with the plan under legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in late December, and one of the bill’s sponsors said it was time for the region’s main transportation agency to meet the growing demand for travel that isn’t dependent on cars.

“Expanding access for cyclists and pedestrians on MTA bridges, stations, buses, and trains will help us meet the growing demand of New Yorkers who are choosing sustainable forms of transportation,” said Bronx state Senator Alessandra Biaggi.

 

Governor Kathy opens bridges for biking

 NY Post

 MTA officials will be required to plan for and encourage bicycle and pedestrian access on its bridges and trains, according to legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.

The new law mandates officials “develop a strategic action plan to improve bicycle and pedestrian access at bridges, stations and other facilities operated by the authority,” and requires bicycle expertise on the MTA’s advisory commuter councils.

“Public transit in New York should be welcoming, safe and accessible for cyclists and pedestrians,” Hochul said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign legislation that will expand access to public transit, no matter how you choose to get around.”

Cycling advocates hope the bill injects some zeal into the MTA’s approach to bike policy. It is currently illegal to pedal over any of the seven MTA bridges within New York City limits, and cyclists who disregard the rules risk getting ticketed by cops.

56,000,000

NY Post 

It’s highway robbery — and the MTA doesn’t even know the culprit.

The authority is down at least $56 million thanks to “unbillable” tolls for which officials cannot find an address to mail the bill, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Thursday.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels was unable to send bills for six million crossings through from September 2019 to June 2021 — leaving millions of dollars uncollected, the comptroller’s office said in a letter to the MTA following up on three-year-old audit into its cashless tolling.

A huge chunk of the lost revenue — $33.9 million — stemmed from the MTA and its vendors not having agreements with other states’ DMVs to access vehicle registration information, particularly for temporary plates.

Another $21.8 million went uncollected because license plates were either too dark, too bright, missing a state name — or just missing altogether. Thousands of transactions worth another $2.9 million went unbilled due to bad image quality.

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to remove tollbooths at the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels in late 2016. The program got underway a few months later.

The system’s flaws have come into sharp focus in recent months. In September, the MTA Inspector General flagged a transit employee who bragged to co-workers about eluding tolls with an obscured license plate and owed $100,000 in tolls and fines.

Giro Varrenzzano

 

 Brooklyn Paper 

As COVID-wary Brooklynites take up biking en masse to avoid crowded public transportation, a cadre of New York State legislators are looking to open the Verrazzano Bridge and other city spans to pedal-pushers — including by introducing legislation in Albany that would push the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to create cycling spaces on bridges overseen by the state agency. 

“Despite the rapid growth of bicycling in New York City over the last decade, the MTA has done little to improve bicycle access at its stations and prohibits cycling on its bridges altogether,” said Bronx state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in a Monday statement. “As more New Yorkers have turned to cycling and outdoor spaces throughout the pandemic, we must continue to make our communities welcoming to cyclists and pedestrians and encourage residents to use clean forms of transportation.”

The bill, which was simultaneously introduced in the state’s lower chamber by Queens Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, would create an advisory committee within the MTA tasked with drawing up a plan for better bike and pedestrian access on the agency’s bridges and public transportation stations.

The potential 13-member panel would be appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, and would also weigh in on the Authority’s capital projects and capital planning. 

One southern Brooklyn bike advocate hailed the move as an important first step in getting transit honchos to the table, after years of MTA bigs resisting bike access on the agency’s overpasses.

“For Brooklynites looking to bike over the Verrazzano to Staten Island or the Marine Parkway Bridge to the Rockaways, MTA leadership has been more than indifferent — they’ve been aggressively hostile, using arbitrary and false safety claims to obscure their own failures and last-place status,” said Brian Hedden, a co-founder of the advocacy group Bike South Brooklyn. “This bill will be an important first step in catching the MTA up with its peers, and ending the leadership’s pointless obstruction.”

The organization has lobbied the MTA since 2019 to close one of the Verrazzano Bridge’s 13 car lanes and turn it into a cycling and pedestrian path.

MTA trolls raise bridge and tunnel tolls

 

NY Post 

Tolls on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels are set to go up April 1, with the agency’s board unanimously approving an increase on Thursday.

Current toll rates will increase an average of 7.08 percent, the MTA said.

Tolls will increase from $6.12 to $6.55 for E-ZPass users on six crossings: the Bronx-Whitestone, Triboro, Throgs Necks and Verrazzano bridges and the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels. Drivers without E-ZPass will be charged $10.17, up from $9.50 today.

On Upper Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Bridge, tolls will increase by 20 cents for E-ZPass users and 50 cents for everyone else. The Cross Bay and Marine Parkway bridges in Queens, meanwhile, will see tolls spiked from $2.29 for E-ZPass and $4.75 for everyone else to $2.45 and $5.09, respectively.

MTA officials opted to retain a discount for Queens residents for those two bridges, as well as the Verrazzano Bridge’s Staten Island rebate — which will now apply to all borough residents regardless of how many trips per month they take across the bridge.

At the same time, the MTA has created a middle-tier for toll collection: E-ZPass users whose devices are not affixed properly will be charged a “special rate” in between the regular and E-ZPass rates.

The MTA has hiked fares and tolls every two years since 2010. But transit officials delayed scheduled transit fare hikes last month, citing widespread financial hardship and low transit ridership.

Lefferts Blvd businesses worried about winter

From AMNY:

Merchants in a Kew Gardens retail strip atop a Long Island Rail Road overpass want years of delayed repairs iced out before the winter, when they say the lack of insulation leaves people shivering and water freezing in pipes that are prone to shatter, exacerbating the damage sustained from leaky roofs.

The businesses say the LIRR has been issuing notices to the management company contracted to maintain and lease the storefronts, but a tougher stance is needed to end the years-long saga.

"The railroad sent a letter, sort of an ultimatum, to Zee N Kay Management," said Nathalie Reid, who owns Thyme Natural Market, at 81-22 Lefferts Blvd., about a notice issued last month. "We've been sort of sitting here holding our breath to find out what's going on, and no one has gotten back to us."

"If we have another bad winter and our pipes freeze and they start exploding again, then we're going to be back to square one," said Reid. "We would like them to at least address something to do with the plumbing."

Hope for Lefferts Ave Bridge?

From the Queens Chronicle:

The battle to save the Lefferts Boulevard bridge — and the handful of small businesses atop it — has been raging for more than a year now.

But at no point in that fight has Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal (D-Flushing) been more optimistic that Kew Gardens residents and leaders alike will win in the end.

“Their attitude has changed to, ‘How can we save the bridge?’” Rosenthal said of the MTA. “There are a lot of obstacles ahead, but things are looking up.”

His optimism stems from a May 24 Borough Hall meeting hosted by Borough President Melinda Katz and attended by a laundry list of officials, including new Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng, state Sens. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Rosenthal, aides to Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing), MTA State Legislative Affairs Director Tim Ellis, Community Board 9 Chairman J. Richard Smith and a handful of Kew Gardens civic activists.

At the gathering, Eng expressed a willingness — even a desire — to save the bridge that no one else at the MTA or LIRR had done with similar vigor, according to multiple attendees who spoke with the Chronicle this week.

“We’re all on the same page. We all want to save the bridge,” Addabbo said. “We’re starting from common ground.”

According to Kew Gardens Improvement Association President Sylvia Hack, Eng told the crowd that he will take about four weeks to look over internal engineering reports before coming back to the community with a more informed opinion about how, or if, the bridge can be salvaged.

New contractor for belated bridge project

From the Queens Chronicle:

A new contractor has been selected to pick up where the old one left off at Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road on the Middle Village-Ridgewood line.

Almost three months after the city’s contract with Mugrose Construction to replace the bridge deck below the intersection defaulted, the Department of Transportation announced Monday that New Jersey-based Beaver Concrete Construction has been tapped to finish the long-delayed project.

“In business since 1946 and a member of the General Contractors Association of New York, Beaver Concrete Construction has completed several bridge rehabilitation projects for the DOT, including repairs to the Trans-Manhattan Expressway Connector Ramp in Manhattan,” the agency said in a press release. “It is also currently under contract for a multi-bridge component rehabilitation project for bridges in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.”

Looks like work may have started:

More MTA tolling shenanigans reported

From Eyewitness News:

Cashless tolling seems like a win-win. Still in its infancy in our area, it has reduced traffic, commuting times, and vehicle emissions, making it good for the environment.

And it's already generating big bucks in profit for agencies that run it - like the MTA, which oversees E-Z Pass on bridges and tunnels in New York City.

But we're hearing from scores of consumers who are are saying it's a big loss for them after getting hit with fines in the thousands - facing collections - even after some say they've paid the tolls.

Thruway tolling system also screwing drivers

From Eyewitness News:

A local lawmaker is demanding an overhaul of the way tolls are collected along the New York State Thruway.

State Senator David Carlucci hosted a forum Wednesday in Nanuet where drivers told how they unknowingly racked up thousands of dollars in fines.

Most of the complaints stem from the cashless toll system implemented at the Tappan Zee Bridge. Under the system, drivers without EZ Pass are supposed to be billed by mail. But many motorists say they never received the bills but did get letters only after steep fines were imposed for unpaid tolls.

Drivers who do not pay can have their registration suspended.

Is cashless tolling really a trap?

From CBS 2:

Countless drivers are reporting that ever since cashless tolling took effect at Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels, they have gotten hit with a mountain of fines.

As CBS2’s Jessica Layton reported, cashless tolls have transformed the speed to get through the city’s congested bridges and tunnels. But now, commuters are complaining cashless tolls have caused them countless problems.

Since cashless tolling took effect, surprise fines have been piling up on unsuspecting drivers like never before.

Tom Reilly of Staten Island said at one point, he owed $2,200.

“It’s amazing,” he said.

Reilly did not know his debit card information was not up to date until he got hit with more than a mortgage payment’s worth of violations at the Hugh Carey Tunnel. And in another dilemma, drivers do not know when their account has a low balance – because those convenient indicators are gone with the new gantries.

Engineer volunteering to help Kew Gardens bridge businesses

From the Queens Tribune:

A once-dim future for the Lefferts Boulevard bridge businesses in Kew Gardens appears to be getting brighter.

Recently, three engineers—from the MTA, city Department of Transportation and a volunteer retired engineer from Kew Garden—examined the bridge after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told the business owners that the platforms on which their buildings are located must be demolished.

Al Brand, the retired engineer, floated the idea that an additional concrete slab could be installed underneath the bridge.

Concerns regarding this proposal include whether the slab would allow adequate clearance for Long Island Rail Road trains underneath and the possible cost of the project.

Michael Cohen, communications director for Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D- Forest Hills), said that Brand is volunteering his expertise and acting as a representative for the Kew Gardens community and Koslowitz in the MTA’s discussions.

Cohen noted that there are still many questions that need to be answered regarding the site. He said that Koslowitz is pleased that the MTA is considering the alternative. He added that the agency has committed to hosting a meeting before Aug 1. to discuss bringing in a third-party consultant to review this matter and making a recommendation.

Kew Gardens business has problems with MTA

From CBS 2:

A business owner in Queens blames the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a company hired to oversee repairs for a loss in customers.

There are growing fears among store owners and residents that the problems will lead to stores shutting down.

Anil Argawal says for the past week, he’s had no electricity in half of his store, and it’s led to fruits and vegetables going bad.

He says it’s cost him thousands of dollars in lost business.

“I’m totally devastated, I’m totally ruined,” he said.

Argawal and his brother own the market on Lefferts Boulevard right off Austin Street in Kew Gardens. The property, along with others, is on a bridge above the Long Island Rail Road tracks — owned by the MTA.

The agency hired management company Zee N Kay to oversee repair work.

Agarwal says the repairs have taken too long to make. The management company disagrees.

“We have fulfilled each and every one of our obligations,” Kunal Kapoor from Zee N Kay said.

Last Thursday, an electrician the company hired started to fix a panel because the electricity had been tripping. But four days later, an MTA Fire Marshal issued a stop work order — saying the agency needed to approve all electrical plans beforehand.

“Typically, LIRR takes several months to get back to you and we couldn’t wait that long,” Kapoor said.

Merchants say they feel repairs are dragged out because of possible plans in the future by the MTA to shut down stores on the historic bridge.

Locals have come up with a solution to the bridge problem. Will the MTA listen?

Lefferts bridge businesses endangered

From DNA Info:

About a dozen mom-and-pop businesses lined along the Long Island Rail Road bridge in the heart of Kew Gardens fear they may face demolition as the MTA tries to figure out what to do with the aging structure, local residents and officials said.

The bridge on Lefferts Boulevard, between Austin and Grenfell streets, near the Kew Gardens LIRR station and the Kew Gardens Cinemas, is one of the most distinct spots in the neighborhood.

Built more than nine decades ago, it's been compared by locals to the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge in Florence known for shops built along it.

But over the years the aging structure has become a hazard as falling bricks and pieces of crumbling facades continue to put residents and passing trains at risk, local merchants and officials said.

Now, the MTA is considering not renewing the lease for the property operator when it expires in 2020, instead commissioning a developer to figure out what to do with the run-down structure, prompting concerns that new buildings could replace the 13 businesses currently located along the bridge, according to several people who participated in a meeting with MTA representatives which was held at Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s office earlier this month.

Removal of toll booths is in the works

From the Office of the Governor:

Open road tolling will be completed at all MTA bridges and tunnels by the end of 2017. The schedule is as follows:

Hugh L. Carey Tunnel – January 2017
Queens Midtown Tunnel – January 2017
Rockaway Bridges – Spring 2017
RFK Bridge – Summer 2017
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge – Summer 2017
Throgs Neck Bridge – Fall 2017
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge – Fall 2017

With the implementation of open road tolling, state-of-the-art sensors and cameras will be suspended over the highway on structures called "gantries" that read E-ZPass tags and take license plate images, so vehicles no longer have to stop to pay the toll. Vehicles with E-ZPass tags are automatically charged. Non-E-ZPass vehicles have their license plates recorded and a bill is mailed to the registered owner of each vehicle every 30 days.

Bye, bye Bayside pedestrian bridge

From the Times Ledger:

Representatives from the Queens DOT commissioner’s office announced at Community Board 11’s meeting Monday night that the 216th Street pedestrian bridge in Bayside will be dismantled with no plans for a replacement. The decision comes after the concrete foundations underneath the two sides supporting the structure was found to be in decline in 2006.

The rickety structure of twisting, rusted steel and cracked concrete connects the north and south ends of Bayside, cut in half by the LIRR’s Port Washington Line.

Transportation Planner from DOT Richard Gippetti said plans for a new, ADA-accessible overpass were shot down by the community board on the basis that the winding ramp for wheelchair-bound users did not fit the aesthetic desired. DOT said the bridge’s deterioration has reached the level where it must be demolished as a public safety measure which cannot be avoided with repairs.

Gipetti told the crowd assembled in the MS 158 auditorium that because the handicap-accessible bridge was not approved by the community, no bridge at all will be permitted to take its place.

The pedestrian bridge is expected to be closed as early as the end of November, Giapetti said.

Can't speak on behalf of Bayside, but there really isn't all that much at the end of either end of that bridge. So what if the bridge is ugly? You need to cross the tracks...

Woodhaven Blvd bridge to close for repairs

From DNA Info:

The hectic area around the Queens Center Mall will become even more congested during an upcoming closure of Queens Boulevard this month.

The busy, six-lane thoroughfare between 57th Avenue in Elmhurst and 62nd Drive in Rego Park will close in both directions from Friday, Aug. 19, at 11 p.m. through Monday, Aug. 22, at 5 a.m. in order to fix the Woodhaven Boulevard Bridge, according to the Department of Transportation.

All traffic on the boulevard will be directed to service roads, which will remain open, according to the agency. Parking will be restricted.

The busy stretch, which runs beneath the Long Island Expressway, features numerous bus stops, including the Q11, Q21, Q29, Q38, Q53, Q60 and Q88, which may also be affected by the flow of traffic.

149th Street bridge reopens

State Senator Tony Avella (D-Queens) announced Wednesday that the 149th Street Bridge has finally reopened.

Senator Avella first learned of the news that morning after the Department of Transportation (DOT) informed him that the long-awaited renovation of the crucial overpass would reopen within the hour. Local merchants and small businesses had expressed concern over the lack of access to their shops and inadequate parking while the bridge was closed.

“While I’m happy that the 149th Street Bridge overpass is finally open, it should not have taken this long. At least now the residents, business owners, and customers can travel on this important access road,” said Senator Avella.

The community has worked to help ensure the bridge’s completion for over five years.