NYC Congestion Charge

[antinimby]

Patterson as in the governor of NYS, not Paterson NJ.

[MikeW]

^
I guess I should have made that more clear.

If it were Paterson, NJ, they'd just slap a toll on Rt. 80 (which would probably be very lucrative)

[Stroika]

I've been digging for a link, but can't find one. Apparently Patterson is refloating congestion pricing as a way of plugging the MTA budget problems.

This (http://wcbstv.com/seenon/congestion.pricing.comeback.2.757138.html) might be what you're looking for. It sounds like there may be some movement and the physical possibility of congestion pricing returning to the table, but it's very tenuous. And of course, leave it to the CBS anchorbabe to frame the story in the dullest, most populist way possible. ("Already-pinched drivers may be forced to throw open their wallets by the state once again, if... ")

[brianac]

September 15, 2008, 5:13 pm

Could Selling Bridges Solve Congestion?

By William Neuman (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/neuman/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/12/05/nyregion/05congestion.7575.jpg

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/roads_and_traffic/congestion_pricing/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=congestion%20pricing&st=cse)barely squeaked by a divided City Council (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/council-panel-approves-congestion-pricing-measure/?scp=2&sq=congestion%20pricing&st=cse). Then it was blocked by an antagonistic State Legislature. (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/congestion-pricing-plan-is-dead-assembly-speaker-says/index.html?scp=4&sq=congestion%20pricing&st=cse)

But what if there was a way to get some of the benefits of congestion pricing while circumventing those pesky legislative bodies?

That is what was proposed on Monday by Lucius J. Riccio, a former city transportation commissioner, who called for the mayor to sell the Williamsburg (http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/williamsburg/) and Manhattan Bridges (http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/manhattan/) to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (http://www.mta.info/). According to Mr. Riccio, the authority could then charge tolls on the bridges, which would both reduce traffic and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for transit — the main goals of congestion pricing.

Mr. Riccio said the mayor had the right to sell city assets, such as the bridges, without approval by the City Council. And because subway trains run across the bridges, they can be considered transportation facilities, giving the authority the legal basis to acquire them.

Mr. Riccio suggested that $1 would be a fair price, since the authority would take over the costly maintenance of the aging bridges. He spoke at a hearing of the state commission created by Gov. David A. Paterson to recommend a solution to the transportation authority’s financial crisis. The commission is headed by Richard Ravitch (http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/press_0610083.html), a former authority chairman, who has said he is open to looking at reviving discussion of congestion pricing as a way to generate money for transit projects.

The congestion pricing proposal that was killed by the Legislature last spring would have charged drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

“It is doable,” Mr. Riccio told the commission, which met at the Kimmel Center of New York University.

But Mr. Ravitch seemed unimpressed with the idea. “I appreciate Lou’s imagination,” he told reporters during a break at the hearing. He said that the commission was seeking to come up with a proposal that would draw broad support from public officials.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to do something like that without it being part of an overall plan that would be done with the consent of elected officials,” Mr. Ravitch said.

He added, “You can’t just do two bridges, in my opinion.”

City Hall was less quick to dismiss the idea. “We look forward to reviewing all the Ravitch commission proposals once we receive them, and we eagerly await the report as it will be critical for finding solutions to mass transit funding,” said Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for the mayor.
Some city officials, however, said it was not clear if the sales could be done without legislative approvals.

The Ravitch Commission is expected to make its recommendations in early December.

Some proponents of congestion pricing have advocated simply placing tolls on the four East River bridges as a simpler alternative. Under Mr. Riccio’s proposal, the other two bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge, would remain free. That could lead to heavier traffic over those bridges as drivers flocked to the remaining free crossings.

The City Council has long opposed attempts to place tolls on the East River bridges. Other ideas that emerged at the hearing included a new payroll tax that would go directly to finance mass transit, which was proposed by James A. Parrott, the deputy director of the Fiscal Policy Institute (http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/), a liberal research group.

Carrol Kellermann, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission (http://www.cbcny.org/), called for increases in fees the state charges to register motor vehicles and renew drivers licenses, with the proceeds dedicated to mass transit.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/could-selling-bridges-solve-congestion/

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[brianac]

$10 Million Extra in Tolls, but What Price in Ill Will?

By WILLIAM NEUMAN (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=WILLIAM NEUMAN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=WILLIAM NEUMAN&inline=nyt-per)
Published: September 24, 2008

A top city official warned on Wednesday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_transportation_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org) was putting its relations with City Hall at risk by deciding to make official city vehicles, including fire trucks and police cruisers, pay tolls to cross the authority’s bridges and tunnels.

Despite the warning from the official, Mark Page, the city budget director, the authority’s board decided to go ahead with the new charges by an unusually close vote of 7 to 6. Among those voting against the measure were Mr. Page and the three other mayoral appointees on the board.

The move, which also applies to state and county agencies and even some volunteer fire departments, reverses a longstanding policy of giving many public agencies free E-ZPass tags. It is expected to bring the authority an additional $10 million in yearly revenue.

Mr. Page cited a series of potentially divisive financial issues that were yet to be worked out between the city and the authority and said there might be unanticipated costs.

“I think that the bookkeeping management, argument and ill will arising from this proposal is going to be more expensive, in terms of the likelihood of coming together on the extremely serious issues that face all of us, than it’s worth,” Mr. Page said, during a lengthy discussion of the E-ZPass change at the board’s monthly meeting.

Both the authority and the city are struggling with budget shortfalls which look to grow only more serious in a worsening economy. City officials have said that any increase in payments to the authority will mean cuts to other city services.

The measure was supported by the authority’s chairman, H. Dale Hemmerdinger.

The vote comes after a miniscandal this year over the free use of E-ZPasses by current and former board members. After a barrage of intense, negative publicity, the authority rescinded those privileges in June, although sitting board members may still use the payment tags without charge when conducting official business for the transportation authority.

“I want to be able to say to all the hard-working people that use our system that the M.T.A. is not giving a free ride to anyone,” said Doreen A. Frasca, a board member who supported the decision to begin charging the city. “This is a very important message in these troubled times.”

The authority said that about 1,813 employees and 1,035 retirees of the authority’s bridges and tunnels division still receive free E-ZPass tags.

Authority officials described the change as little more than a matter of accounting. Currently, city vehicles like police cars have special E-ZPass tags that allow them to drive free through toll plazas. In the future, the city will simply incur a charge when those vehicles pass through, just as private cars do.

Elliot G. Sander, the chief executive and executive director of the authority, told reporters after the board meeting that the authority’s relationship with City Hall was “very strong.”

“From time to time there may be issues where we disagree,” Mr. Sander said. “The mayor in general has been very supportive and that’s where we’re headed, and I think we’re in a relatively good place with them.”
But City Hall later issued a blistering rebuff.

“This is an underhanded gimmick to poach $10 million more from city taxpayers,” Marc La Vorgna, a mayoral spokesman, said in a written statement. “The M.T.A. should get their own house in order before they start charging police cars, fire trucks and ambulances tolls while they are protecting the public.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/nyregion/25mta.html?ref=nyregion

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[Ninjahedge]

Poach $10m from the taxpayers?

Come ON! It is not like they do not use it!

The biggest problem with these tags is not that official use is so high, but we all know these guys are probably taking a tag home with them at night or letting family/friends "borrow" it.

I doubt that there will be $10M extra coming in because of this. Once it is no longer free, you will see a lot less crossing and a lot less abuse. You will probably see half that number.

The problem with most of these things is that they ARE abused and a lot of $$/resource is wated because of it. But the numbers they bring up as potential profit (or loss, depending on how you word it) are always inflated. The classic is the RIAA. If every downloader bought the stuff they DL'd, yes you would see $$$. But if they could not get it for free, 80% of the stuff they are DLing they would never get...


So whatever.

Reality?


“I think that the bookkeeping management, argument and ill will arising from this proposal is going to be more expensive, in terms of the likelihood of coming together on the extremely serious issues that face all of us, than it’s worth,” Mr. Page said, during a lengthy discussion of the E-ZPass change at the board’s monthly meeting.


Translation? They will spend more money fighting it than what they could earn/save.

[brianac]

A Parking Experiment, With the Village as the Lab

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/18/nyregion/18parking01-600.jpg Annie Tritt for The New York Times
Justyna Marriott feeds a meter in Greenwich Village, where the city has raised rates in hopes of discouraging long-term parking.

By MARTIN ESPINOZA
Published: October 17, 2008

Justyna Marriott, a sales manager for Fiji Water, drives all day from one Manhattan hotel or restaurant to the next, pulling quarters from a shiny, gold-colored coin purse at least five or six times a day to feed the meters.

The purse felt a little lighter on Wednesday afternoon after she drove into an area of Greenwich Village where the city is trying out a form of congestion pricing (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/roads_and_traffic/congestion_pricing/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) for parking. “This is no joke, huh?” Ms. Marriott said. “One dollar for 30 minutes — it’s still cheaper than the parking lot, where it’s $10 for half an hour. But it’s annoying, absolutely.”

Ms. Marriott was not the only driver bemoaning the pilot program, which began Oct. 6 and doubled the meter rate in part of the Village to $2 an hour from noon to 4 p.m.

The hope is that the added expense will discourage people from using curbside spaces for long-term parking. That, in turn, could increase turnover in metered spots while reducing the time drivers spend cruising for a place to park, as well as the tendency to double-park, transportation officials said.

The area chosen for the six-month trial stretches from Houston Street to Charles Street and includes portions of Seventh Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas. Within the test area are a number of residential streets with unmetered alternate-side parking, where rules remain unchanged.

On Wednesday, shortly before noon, Sal Rincione sent one of his employees to feed the meter where his 2008 Acura sedan was parked on Seventh Avenue South.

Mr. Rincione, who runs Five Guys Burgers and Fries on the corner of Bleecker and Barrow Streets, lives in West New York, N.J. The increase, Mr. Rincione said, is not likely to change his parking habits.

“Even at $2 an hour, it’s still cheaper than putting your car in a garage,” he said.

Phil Mortillaro, the owner of Greenwich Locksmiths on Seventh Avenue South, said he did not think the trial program would meet its goals. Standing in front of a wall of keys in his small shop, Mr. Mortillaro said there was little traffic congestion in Greenwich Village during the hours the meter rate is higher.

“It would have been better to run the trial at night when this place is full of tourists, not just during the day,” he said. “It’s like Disneyland (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/disneyland/index.html?inline=nyt-org) out here.”

Like several others interviewed, Mr. Mortillaro questioned the city’s motive for the pilot program, saying it was probably a way to generate more revenue.

Seth Solomonow, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation, said that neither the rate increase nor the structure of the pilot program was designed to increase revenue. The goal, he said, is to encourage people to use metered parking for only as long as is absolutely necessary.

He said transportation officials would collect data next month, measuring traffic volume, parking space occupancy rates and the frequency of double-parking, and compare it with parking patterns before the program began. He said that at the end of the trial period, the department would conduct a survey of merchants and drivers to get their opinions.

Mr. Solomonow said that although the program had just started, “we’re really encouraged by what we’re seeing on the streets itself, and we are seeing available spots on the street.”

Ian Dutton, vice chairman of the transportation committee for Community Board 2, which includes Greenwich Village, said that his group supported the experiment and that results might not be evident so quickly.

Mr. Dutton, however, said he thought the $1-an-hour increase might not be enough to stop people from continually feeding meters. Although most spots have a one- or two-hour limit, the city acknowledged that it rarely tickets cars for staying longer, so long as the meter has not run out.

“That extra $1 an hour is still nowhere near what a commercial lot will charge,” Mr. Dutton said. “Far too many people use cars when there are better ways to meet their needs.”

At Bedford Street and Avenue of the Americas on Wednesday, a white van sat double-parked behind a larger gray delivery truck, also double-parked, in front of a corner deli. The van scrambled as soon as the driver heard sirens down the street.

A few yards up the avenue, a man sat in his car, double-parked just behind a car that looked as if it was about to pull out of its parking space. Instead, the two women who had been sitting in the parked car got out and walked away.

“I thought they were leaving,” said the man in the double-parked car.

Asked if he thought the meter rate increase would free up more parking spaces, the man, just before pulling away, said, “Tell you the truth, I don’t think so.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/nyregion/18parking.html?ref=nyregion

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[Ninjahedge]

Suggestion:

Make the meters electronic and vary the payment on them based on how much time you need.

Call it "short term parking". Charge something innocuous for the first 30 minutes. 25 cents, 50 cents, whatever. But then crank it up after that.


30min = 25 cents
Next 30 = $1
Next 30 = $3
Every other 30 up to limit on meter (4 hours?) $5

Yes, it would be cheaper than parking, but you would run out of quarters awfully fast. It would also not punish people coming in to check out NYC, or who need to pick up dry cleaning, or whatever. The ones that come and go. It will just make it less convenient for some of these people to park their car their all day making it harder for anyone else to come and go (causing the parking-surfers and double parking delays/congestion).

Hell, if they still get people at these meters plunking in mass amounts of quarters, maybe they would be able to lower the parking garage taxes a bit and encourage people, if they insist on driving in, to keep their cars off the street?

[Merry]

If only...;)

Envisioning a Manhattan-Brooklyn-Queens Merger


http://curbed.com/uploads/2010_1_eastriver.jpg

Scholars have been wrestling with the slow pace of Manhattan traffic ever since Henry Ford first hosed down a bikini babe on the hood of his Model T. But one brave official came up with the perfect solution for the problem way back in 1924. His idea? Throw a couple dams up, drain the East River, add miles of landfill and then dig a canal out of western Brooklyn and Queens to not shut out ships entirely. Genius! The plan was illustrated in the December 1924 issue of Popular Science, found by Gothamist (http://gothamist.com/2010/01/16/1924_traffic_congestion_solution_dr.php) over the weekend. The graphic also accounts for a massive new City Hall on the fresh terra firma, because, well, why not? Fascinating idea, but is a world without Roosevelt Island really a world worth living in?

1924 Traffic Congestion Solution: Drain the East River! (http://gothamist.com/2010/01/16/1924_traffic_congestion_solution_dr.php) [Gothamist]

http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/18/envisioning_a_manhattanbrooklynqueens_merger.php

[Ninjahedge]

but is a world without Roosevelt Island really a world worth living in?

I truly hope that was sarcasm!!! ;)

[milleniumcab]

This is not an idea to connect Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.. If that was the case why create a canal in Brooklyn and Queens?.. It is an idea to enlarge Manhattan and I don't like it.. The Sound would probably turn into one of the most polluted bodies of water in the World..

[antinimby]

Plans to relieve traffic congestion? In 1924?!

Wow!

Another example of just how early 20th century New York was so far ahead of its time in so many ways.

[ablarc]

Suggestion:

Make the meters electronic ...

Call it "short term parking". Charge something innocuous for the first 30 minutes. 25 cents, 50 cents, whatever. But then crank it up after that.

Yes, it would be cheaper than parking, but you would run out of quarters awfully fast. ...

Hell, if they still get people at these meters plunking in mass amounts of quarters, maybe they would be able to lower the parking garage taxes a bit and encourage people, if they insist on driving in, to keep their cars off the street?
I don't see why street parking should be one bit cheaper than a parking lot. Parking lots damage the city, and on-street parking does not.

The city needs the money, anyway. The meters should accept dollar coins.

[Ninjahedge]

1. Nobody uses dollar coins. They are big, clunky and innefficient.
2. Parking outside stands nore of a chance, theoretically, of having damage to your car.
3. My main gist was that parking meters should charge more as people sit longer. While parking lots charge less per hour the longer you poark, meters should charge more, encouraging people to NOT leave their cars in the same spot all day.

My suggestion was in response o the articles main picture caption:


Justyna Marriott feeds a meter in Greenwich Village, where the city has raised rates in hopes of discouraging long-term parking.

You discourage long term by making it impractical to leave your car in a metered spot all day.

The only other solutions are: NO streetside parking (you will not win any friends from residents or buisness owners). High rates (again the grumbling, the additional cost of changing meters to accept other currency or CC's) or increased patrols and marking cars (if the sign says 2hrs....).

All of which would not be popular, and two of which would cost more money to either institute or enforce.

BTW, how does a parking lot "damage" the city? I know it isn't pretty, but I do not see it causing any damage......

[ablarc]

BTW, how does a parking lot "damage" the city? I know it isn't pretty, but I do not see it causing any damage......
It's not an integral part of any real city; it's the ABSENCE of the city. If I removed your arm, you could consider yourself to be damaged.

If a developer removes a building for a parking lot, the city is damaged.

If you remove enough buildings for parking lots, you can end up with a Sunbelt city ... which is not a city at all.

Interestingly enough, they've figured this out in the Sunbelt, and they're now building on their parking lots, and are placing the parking underground or in a structure. The very best example of this is Miami Beach, which is almost fully cured of parkinglotitis.

[Ninjahedge]

It's not an integral part of any real city; it's the ABSENCE of the city. If I removed your arm, you could consider yourself to be damaged.

If a developer removes a building for a parking lot, the city is damaged.

Few parking lots are "built". They are usually made from vacant lots that have had a building demolished that was, in most cases, unusable without substantial repair (if possible).

So that is why I can't see why they destroy a city. They may be what grows after something is demolished, but they are not the ones doing the demolition....

[ablarc]

Few parking lots are "built". They are usually made from vacant lots that have had a building demolished...
Who demolished the building? Oh, it just got itself demolished ...


that was, in most cases, unusable without substantial repair (if possible).
Bullshit.

Tell me about the Drake: a future parking lot.

It's profitable to replace an underperforming building with a parking lot.

It's profitable to rob banks.

[ZippyTheChimp]

NH, what are you talking about?

[Ninjahedge]

NH, what are you talking about?


Lemme line it up.


Justyna Marriott feeds a meter in Greenwich Village, where the city has raised rates in hopes of discouraging long-term parking.


My suggestion:


Suggestion:

Make the meters electronic and vary the payment on them based on how much time you need.

Call it "short term parking". Charge something innocuous for the first 30 minutes. 25 cents, 50 cents, whatever. But then crank it up after that.


Abl's response:


I don't see why street parking should be one bit cheaper than a parking lot. Parking lots damage the city, and on-street parking does not.

My rejoinder:


3. My main gist was that parking meters should charge more as people sit longer. While parking lots charge less per hour the longer you poark, meters should charge more, encouraging people to NOT leave their cars in the same spot all day.


I was not talking at all about parking lots. Not really, so I do not know why that was brought up with a quote to my post, but lets continue:


BTW, how does a parking lot "damage" the city? I know it isn't pretty, but I do not see it causing any damage......

Abl:

If a developer removes a building for a parking lot, the city is damaged.

If you remove enough buildings for parking lots, you can end up with a Sunbelt city ... which is not a city at all.

As my next line talks about, few if any buildings were EVER demolished to build a parking lot. Parking lots came AFTER. The building was either in too poor condition to be reconstruction, to which ABL responded:

Bullshit
And developers are not interested in spending that much money on a development just for prservationalist purposes. Too much outlay, not enough return.

But nobody looks at a lot with an existing building on it and says "That would make a DAMN fine parking lot!!!". So parking lots coming in and destroying buildings to ruin a city makes no sense.
As for the Sunbelt, many of THOSE lots were built on empty land. Abl, coming from Mall country in NJ, I am quite aware of the off-the-highway strip mall and parking lot arrangement. It is NOT desirable, but has little if anything to do with the city.

AAMOF, many lots were shut DOWN because of DEVELOPMENTS. Someone saw a chance to get the financing they needed to build something and was able to purchase the lot and develop it.

So I still do not see where parking lots are destroying the city. They may be a symptom of the problem, but they are not the problem in and of itself.

ABL, if you have any other absolute "Bullshit" analogies, like robbing banks, keep them to yourself. And please, watch your F'n mouth.

[milleniumcab]

....... :confused: .......

[Merry]

Gridlock May Not Be Constant, but Slow Going Is Here to Stay

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

If you are thinking of driving in Manhattan on a Wednesday, perhaps to take in a Broadway matinee, think again: it is the most congested day of the week.

Pretty much all of November is a slog, too. And when the United Nations is in session in September? Forget it.

Rainfall, parades and motorcades — they all have their effect on traffic. And when calamity and Wednesdays collide, watch out: July 29, a Wednesday, was among the 25 worst traffic days last year.

It happened to include a torrential downpour — not to mention a visit from Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, who crisscrossed Manhattan on a tour of the city, entourage in tow.

Traffic in Manhattan has a rhythm all its own, and, according to a new study by the city, it is not quite the constant gridlock that it seems.

Using data from the GPS devices in all New York City cabs, officials tracked the routes of tens of millions of taxi trips over the past two years. The result: a database of speeds and travel routes that can be broken down by minute, month and neighborhood.

“It’s like an M.R.I.,” said Bruce Schaller, a deputy transportation commissioner who supervised the city’s study.

For traffic planners, the data provides an entirely new resource for targeting their tweaks to the streetscape. Officials are already using the information to help improve traffic patterns along 34th Street.

But the trip data also offers a glimpse of the desires and frustrations of New Yorkers moving around their metropolis: where they want to go and the obstacles in their way.

To create a day-by-day look at the city’s traffic, officials crunched GPS information from nearly every yellow taxi trip taken in Manhattan’s business district — from 60th Street to the Battery — between November 2008 and October 2009.

In that 12-month period, weekday traffic in the district moved at an average of 9.5 miles per hour — about the speed of a farmyard chicken at full gallop.

Thursday, Nov. 13 was the slowest weekday of the year studied, with an average speed of 7.5 m.p.h. — about the speed of the typical jogger in Central Park. Excluding holidays, the fastest weekday: Monday, Sept. 28, at a speed of 11.7 m.p.h.

The four fastest days to drive in Manhattan, in order of average speed: New Year’s Day, Christmas, Memorial Day and July 4. (Thanksgiving Day? Hindered, presumably, by the Macy’s parade.)

On weekdays, speeds predictably peak between 5 and 6 in the morning (at a jaunty 16 m.p.h.), then decline sharply in the morning rush.
Not so predictably, speeds then stay low all day, even midday when commuters are at work. Traffic barely improves until the evening rush wanes about 7 p.m., hovering around 9 m.p.h. for much of the day.

Officials blame the midday congestion on a high level of commercial deliveries, which can clog side streets and stop up intersections. The data has helped officials as they consider raising daytime street parking rates to ease traffic tangles in Midtown.

Traffic in most major cities, Mr. Schaller said, returns to normal between the morning and evening rush. But Manhattan’s business district is far bigger and more dense than most. “Walk around downtown San Francisco at 11 o’clock in the morning and there’s not much going on,” Mr. Schaller said. “You go to SoHo, and it’s really busy.”

A sweeping thunderstorm rolled through the city on Aug. 19, also among the slowest 25 traffic days in the study period, knocking down trees and generating some of the worst storm damage in decades. On June 18, another congested summer weekday, more than an inch of rain fell.

In previous eras, city planners had to rely on arbitrary test runs and data from the city’s tunnels and bridges to measure traffic. Now, the taxi GPS machines put a vast amount of previously unavailable information at planners’ fingertips. “We’ve known what goes on along the edge of Manhattan, but we’ve never known what’s inside the beast,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner.

According to the data, cars are starting to move faster, partially because of New Yorkers’ greater reliance on mass transit and a drop in traffic caused by the recession. From the fall of 2007 to last autumn, cars moved about 13 percent faster on weekdays. In the same period, the number of cars driving into Midtown from north of 60th Street fell to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, a trend that officials attributed to increased mass transit ridership.

On a typical Tuesday night, about 13,000 cabs travel south from the Upper East Side to a destination between 14th Street and Canal Street; on Saturdays, about three times as many cabs (38,000 on average) make the trip.

Small changes in speeds also seem to have an outsize psychological impact on impatient New Yorkers. On weekdays, when few people expect a trip to go quickly, speeds in east Midtown average about 6.3 m.p.h. in the daytime. On Saturdays, the average speed is about 8.5 m.p.h. — not an enormous difference, even though drivers report feeling more comfortable on weekends.

Despite the line at the Macy’s returns counter, January clocked in as the least-congested month of the year. November, hindered by the frenzy of Thanksgiving and holiday shopping, was the most congested.

And, as any political observer will tell you, diplomats really bring things to a standstill. United Nations General Assembly week, in late September, accounted for four straight weekdays when Manhattan traffic turned to sludge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/nyregion/24traffic.html?ref=nyregion

[Merry]

Wonder if this would work in NYC? :)


Venezuela trains mimes to fight traffic chaos

Venezuela is sending mimes into the streets of Caracas to crack down on lawless drivers and wayward pedestrians, following the lead of other Latin American countries that have hired traffic safety mimes.

http://www.globalpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/gp3_small_article/mimes_directing_traffic_10_08_2011.jpg (http://www.globalpost.com/photo/5677325/mimes-directing-traffic-10-08-2011)

Venezuela is using mimes to try and control the notoriously chaotic traffic in Caracas, the capital, following the lead of other Latin American countries that have hired traffic safety mimes.

Mimes in white gloves and face paint are being sent into the Caracas streets to wag their fingers at traffic violators and jaywalkers, the Associated Press reports.

According to the AP:



They found plenty to keep them busy in a city where motorcycle riders roar down sidewalks, buses drop passengers in the middle of busy streets and drivers treat red lights and speed limits as suggestions rather than orders.


While it may seem like an unusual approach to enforcing traffic laws, Venezuela is following in the footsteps of several other countries in central and South America that have trained mimes in a bid to control traffic.

The pioneer is considered to be Antanas Mockus, a former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who used traffic mimes to mock and shame drivers as part of a successful campaign to tame his city's lawless traffic.

Mimes have also been used in Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

It is not clear why mimes have become a popular way of fighting traffic chaos in Latin America.

In Venezuela, about 120 mimes took to streets in the Sucre district of Caracas this week to reprimand drivers and pedestrians — in some instances, drawing angry reactions and insults from annoyed motorists, the AP reports.

But most Caracas citizens have reportedly responded with good humor to the mimes.

"Many times, the mimes can achieve what traffic police cannot achieve using warning and sanctions in their efforts to maintain control," Alex Ojeda, president of a cultural organization that employed professional actors to train the mimes in Caracas, told the AP.

"Mimes, on the contrary, often achieve the same objective by employing artistic and peaceful actions."

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/venezuela-mimes-traffic-laws

[Ninjahedge]

No, it would not work here.

But then again, we generally observe things like sidewalks and red lights, so....