Charles Komanoff
Recent Posts
Paradox, Schmaradox. Congestion Pricing Works.
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We’re used to seeing bizarre patterns of thinking on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages, but an op-ed in Friday’s Journal took it to a new level: “How Traffic Jams Help the Environment.” Photo: The Wall Street Journal Still more bizarrely, the author was New Yorker writer David Owen, promoter of the commonsensical idea that […]
More Than Just Same-Old at Upper East Side Bicycle Forum
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From the first (and only) town-hall meeting of the Manhattan Borough President’s Planning for Pedestrians Council in 1987, to Manhattan Community Board 8’s “Bicycle Forum” this week, I’ve sat through innumerable gatherings on cyclist-pedestrian conflicts. Cycling and pedestrian advocates, with Charles Komanoff at left, gather on the UES in 2007. Photo: Jonathan Barkey Each session […]
Packed House Applauds Bicycle Diarist Byrne and Friends
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What was billed as a book reading by famed Talking Heads frontman David Byrne on Tuesday evening took on the air of a teach-in on cities and bicycles, with Byrne and fellow cycling superstars Janette Sadik-Khan and Paul Steely White taking turns extolling New York City’s blooming bicycle infrastructure before a packed house at the […]
Time-Polluting Daily News Honcho Goes Public
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Car commuters waste more than emissions. Photo: Kevin Coles/Flickr. In Utah, they flip off forest rangers and wheel their ATV’s onto delicate wilderness trails. In the Virginia exurbs they lounge in air-conditioned trophy homes and write checks to stop carbon taxes. Here in NYC, they find their “Network” moment in a 25-cent bump in MTA […]
Bloomberg Tests Free-Transit Waters
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Mayor Bloomberg lifted a page straight from the Kheel Plan playbook yesterday in calling on the MTA to make crosstown buses free [PDF]. Bus riders and transit advocates should be beaming. Photo of M14 bus: Kriston Lewis/Flickr. Free buses will save bus riders time and money and will benefit everyone by luring some taxi and […]
Albany’s Choice… or Ours
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Thank Albany. By segmenting the 30-35 percent transit fare increase into three stages, the legislature has opened the door for a broad-based campaign to put an end to fare hikes and institute genuine transportation reform. Hike 1, the 10-12 percent rise in subway, bus and rail fares set to take effect within a month, is […]
Needed: A Better Way to Sweeten the Ravitch Plan
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Wondering how the revised version of the Ravitch plan compares to what’s come before? Here’s a look at the tweaks proposed yesterday by the Ravitch Commission: East and Harlem River bridge tolls of $2.16 each way with EZ Pass, $2.50 without. 50-cent taxi fare surcharge. A higher tax rate on parking in Manhattan. Revenue from […]
Whither the MTA: Beyond the Failed Stopgap
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This week’s MTA vote won’t just cost New Yorkers 25 percent more per ride, it will also be costly in lost time. Using the Balanced Transportation Analyzer (BTA), I estimate that the fare hikes and service cuts which begin June 1 will: Add an average of 6 percent more waiting and travel time to bus […]
Beyond Ravitch: Still Time for a Bolder Plan
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As Albany lawmakers ponder which of a half-dozen Ravitch plan variations they might support, the possibility looms that no solution may come in time. New Yorkers could see their fares rise 25 percent while service is cut back — a twin catastrophe in this tough economic time. Yet no big new ideas are being advanced […]
Congestion Pricing vs. Ravitch Plan: Which is Better for the Boroughs?
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Under the Ravitch Plan, driving into Manhattan over the Third Avenue Bridge will be a relative bargain for Richard Brodsky’s Westchester constituents. It’s easy to dismiss City Councilmembers Lew Fidler and Peter Vallone, Jr. as transportation troglodytes. They’ve led the pushback against bridge tolls — most recently at the City Council hearing this week on […]
Post Reader Defends “Dangerous” Bike Lane
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Dear Steve Cuozzo — Author and son in 2005 I was ready to ignore your rant yesterday, IDIOTIC DOT TAKES A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, as another in The Post’s reflexive (if well-written) screeds against any incursion into NYC car-dominance, when I came across this line: "The madness just came to Grand Street as […]
High Gas Prices Won’t Cure Gridlock
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It’s the New Math: a dollar-a-trip rise in the cost of fuel for a car trip to Manhattan is cutting traffic almost as much as Mayor Bloomberg’s eight-dollar toll plan would have done. Too good to be true, right? But that’s the slant of the front-page headline in today’s Times, "Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices […]