Jon Orcutt
@jonorcutt
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NYC transportation - working now w @bikenewyork , @reinventalbany Alum @TransitCenter @NYC_DOT @Tri_State @TransAlt
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Joined July 2009
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- Senior Dutch bike planner at a seminar in Portland:
“Why is everyone talking so much about asking people what they want? They don’t know.”
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Great personal moments in the history of “outreach”
- Me to Montreal deputy mayor: how did the store owner react when you placed that giant bike share station out front?
“He complained for a few weeks and then he stopped”
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When your legacy reverts from world-leading policymaker for cities & climate to biggest-ever subsidizer of the Buffalo Bills in 1 day
We’re addressing affordability and the cost of living in New York.
Watch:
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The drive-to-Manhattan suburban swing voter imagined by Jeffries will be fooled by a postponement??
“A fourth person familiar with the matter said Hochul is responding to worries raised by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader who is fiercely trying to win back a Democratic majority this year”
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Her adoption of every misinformation talking point against congestion pricing suggests otherwise
“We’re talking about a limited time, which means it���s not permanent, which means I continue to support the concept behind it because the other alternative was to say, ‘It’s done.’ That never happened. I’ve said from this the beginning, ‘temporary pause’ means ‘temporary pause.’”
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When bus lanes work
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Here’s how close NYC was to congestion pricing before
#GridlockKathy
@GovKathyHochul
yanked it away from New Yorkers & our transit system:
- Signs are up at the zone boundary, just need the covers removed
- Readers were collecting data for the great before/after counts
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Here’s the thing about Eric Adams & New Yorkers who ride bikes:
For years, he courted us and helped amplify our demands
He stood with us…until it really mattered.
Until he became mayor & assumed full control over city streets
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City-friendly electric vehicle installation in my neighborhood!
(Happened in 1937)
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.
@GovKathyHochul
has apparently never perused a single briefing on congestion pricing, MTA ridership or NYC transportation
One reporter asked why $15 a day to drive is too expensive much but $30 round-trip train tickets aren't. Her answer is just so bad.
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This is embarrassing.
Fares pay for day-to-day operations.
Congestion pricing is intended for capital work - infrastructure upgrades, new subways/buses/trains, 2nd Ave extension etc.
It's also the second day in a row that Hochul has brought up the idea of cracking down on fare beaters to help fill the congestion pricing-sized hole in the MTA's capital budget.
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Say what you want about Hudson Yards: car-free space in NYC invariably packs people in. Older districts could do this too if political & business leaders had any sense
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Even if you think it’s good to fix part of the BQE in place, it’s nuts not to reconsider the 4 exits crammed into a mile of DT BK. You’d get valuable land recovery, better function of the highway & probably somewhat less demand for driving by eliminating even one of them
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“
@GovKathyHochul
has not acknowledged that her decision to walk away from congestion pricing disproportionately benefits the wealthy”
The Big Story:
@GovKathyHochul
talked about "the little guys" when she paused congestion pricing: But the vast majority of those "little guys" are rich suburbanites, the data shows:
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My first run on the West 13th St protected
#BikeNYC
lane. All in all a pretty classic NYC bike lane experience
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Creating CitiBike mega-🧵! It began 16 yrs ago. NYC had released a new 🌎 plan & Mayor Bloomberg had recruited
@JSadikKhan
to set a new transportation direction. Janette noted our early interest in what Paris was doing in the recent
@Curbed
10-yr piece:
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The Governor & her staff would have to be complete idiots not to know this this far in
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.
@GovKathyHochul
has generated more bad press for congestion pricing than the plan itself
And CP’s benefits manifest right away. She could have been doing victory laps all summer as the leader who finally sliced open the knot of Manhattan gridlock. But she is not that leader
Hochul on congestion pricing on WNYC: "There are other sources of funding."
She says she wants to "modify congestion pricing" in the next legislative session, and wants a plan that fully funds the MTA.
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👏 👏 👏 Comptroller Brad Lander called out the state DOT on Friday for spending hundreds of millions of federal dollars on expansion of New York City highways rather than greenways, bike paths and other measures that help fight climate change
@Gothamist
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Stadium subsidies, casinos, gas tax suspension - really taking things forward in New York lol
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.
@NYCMayor
tapes a giant KICK ME sign to DOT’s ass
Chilling effect on street designers now in place
City Hall’s doors wide open for anyone (esp $ donors) with a gripe
@StreetsblogNYC
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OK!
“I’ll just have to take the train some days,” said Nick Zaffuto…who was sitting in his parked car Tuesday along 59th Street. “I personally like to drive, but some days it just might be more feasible for me to take the train.”
@THECITYNY
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More leadership from Paris: “The plans include reducing space for vehicles by half, turning roads into pedestrian and green areas, and creating tunnels of trees to improve air quality”
@guardian
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.
@GovKathyHochul
’s move is not delay, it’s a plain & simple killing of congestion pricing
-
@LincolnRestler
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Most who follow urban transportation get that Chicago’s 2008 parking meter privatization was terrible for the city, and not just fiscally
Why? Because it locked in 🚘 use of a huge amount of curb space for decades
Is New York is about to commit that same grave error?
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.
@NYDailyNews
editorial:
“The political panicker,
@GovKathyHochul
, says all will be fine as the money fails to come in and the 17% reduction in exhaust-spewing, noise-making, crash-causing and gridlock-snarling traffic does not happen. She is wrong”
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MTA planners are at work today crossing off ❌ transit improvement projects, thanks to
@GovKathyHochul
’s abrupt & massive defunding
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*Congestion pricing or bust*👇is the right position!
The congestion pricing system is fully installed, authorized by law & ready to go
Don’t bail out an executive who won’t execute
You know what’s the best cost-saving way to deal with this? Proceed as planned. Congestion pricing or bust.
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You heard it from Janno ☎️ 1-518-474-8390
"Address any questions on where do we go from here on congestion pricing to the Governor's office"
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Uber back to lying about congestion pricing (current ad)
Trucks will certainly pay & electric vehicles clog streets as much as any other
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No statement from our commissioner who still likes to talk about “vision zero”?
Pedestrian, 86, horrifically decapitated after being hit by city truck in Brooklyn
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Loading zones on every block is a no brainer in NYC in 2022, but the city’s not even close. We should be talking about phasing in night deliveries, but we’re no-policy New York
Classic Manhattan Ave: a bus that appears about 3/4ths full of commuters is stuck behind an unloading, double parked truck (there are no loading zones). Everyone is angry and honking. We need better planning!
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“Almost all low-income New Yorkers rely on transit, not cars to travel into Manhattan”
The true benefit of congestion pricing is transportation equity, says David Jones of the Community Service Society (
@cssnyorg
) in this powerful op-ed:
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Breaking: Adams Admin incoherent on transportation issue
several officials within Mayor Adams' administration have now lambasted NY Gov. Hochul's blocking of congestion pricing in NYC, whereas Adams said he was open to changing the tolling plan, which had been approved by the state Legislature and MTA board
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👀 Keep debating congestion pricing first principles if you want but … 👇
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Definitely not a fan of muddying the congestion pricing waters with discounts for electric cars. There's already plenty of public policy bending over backward to speed adoption of⚡️🚘 despite the tech. Let's stay focused on reducing car trips, rebuilding transit ridership
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From yes/no lightning round between
@HellGateNY
&
@bradlander
:
Q. Should Manhattan below Canal Street be pedestrianized?
A. Good chunks of it.
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Redesigning Madison Square with paint & planters was a fantastic project - in 2008!
16 years (and more?) of “temporary materials”
Why can’t NYC build? Until someone smart and persistent at the top decides to fix it, we will continue not to
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From Day 1 it’s been painfully obvious it should stay this way
The northernmost block of of Bedford Avenue in Greenpoint will be an around-the-clock pedestrian plaza through at least Aug. 12.
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All anyone needs to know on this topic is that NYC achieved historically low traffic deaths with an historically high population 10 years after introduction of the iPhone. It’s about street design & public policy
This is the best study I've seen on "distracted walking." Over 3,000 walkers were observed using intersections, and a large majority—84.5%—did not use their phones while crossing the street.
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Right now, CitiBike is the world’s largest bike share system outside China by # of bikes. A lot of the systems we compared it when it launched in 2013 have expanded very little
The expansion of
@CitiBikeNYC
in the last seven years has been nothing short of staggering.
Who says New York City can't try new things and massively scale up?
Sometimes, it seems we're so invested in the City's stagnance & bureaucratic malaise that we overlook its dynamism.
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The process for congestion pricing was under way when the Adams Admin took office.
And it’s taken them 2 years, to literally the eve of final approval, to come up with & say this?
It’s amateur hour all day long with this crew
Adams admin is asking for a full exemption for yellow cabs from congestion pricing, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi says at today's off topic presser
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This is incredibly stupid, but it’s the Legislature not the MTA who did it
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“You’re looking at a handful of people who drive into the Central Business District versus $15 billion for transit.”
When congestion pricing passed the state legislature in 2019, it was buoyed by the union that represents more than 41,000 New York City transit workers.
But five years after it passed, congestion pricing’s biggest labor supporter turned against it. Why?
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Why not fired??
ENFORCEMENT: A New York City resident filed multiple complaints through the City’s 311 system about the parking practices of New York City Police Department employees at the 84th Precinct.
An NYPD Police Officer assigned to the 84th Precinct called the resident... (cont'd)
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The city that struggles to pour a little concrete for its street safety projects is budgeting billions to lock in car dependence
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Killing congestion pricing & taking an axe to the MTA capital program jeopardizes twice as many New York jobs as semiconductor subsidies will create
@ReinventAlbany
New York’s semiconductor industry is booming – and it’s all thanks to the federal CHIPS and Science Act and our nation-leading Green CHIPS Act.
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As a referendum on the McGuinness Blvd *Road Diet,* 50th AD says time to lose the lane
@EmilyAssembly
@mcguinness_safe
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New Yorkers are impressed that Grand Central Terminal will get *6* secure 🚲 parking spaces
280 indoor bicycle parking spaces to open by
@DubCityCouncil
on Dublin city centre’s northside
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An economist would say the market could bear higher prices
MTA bridges, tunnels see record traffic in 2023 despite higher tolls in sign of NYC economic health
Some 335 million vehicles paid tolls in 2023 on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the Triborough Bridge.
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Car slowing stuff New York absolutely refuses to do
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If NYC had a decent vision for 🚲, we’d have seen something like this when the city spent $10s of millions rebuilding Grand Concourse, 9th Ave, Hudson Street
Biking in separated cycletracks alongside light rail with dedicated transit ROW. Feels good.😊
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So how’s all this going to get done
@GovKathyHochul
?
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Guy runs a state with density of toll plazas and tolled roadway mileage that is up there near most in the world
The
@MTA
and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority’s congestion pricing plan violates the U.S. Constitution.
We must continue to protect New Jersey commuters who have the right to travel and work in New York without having to pay discriminatory tolls.
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NYC’s unconditional surrender to illegal parking is a big part of our street safety problem
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Congestion pricing &
#bikenyc
supporter
@CMJulieWon
arrives to rebut - it’s her district!
Assembly Member Weprin picked an odd spot for his “support Hochul” anti-congestion pricing presser — Queens 🚲 🚲 grand junction at Queens Plaza & Crescent St
And was rapidly outnumbered
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One of the weirdly unexamined aspects of NYC street policy is “why does DOT keep putting easily destroyed plastic things in the path of heavy vehicle traffic.” If you want to keep vehicles out, the object should stop & damage the 🚘 🚛. Damaging the vehicle is the disincentive
Thinking more about barriers, this was certainly worth trying, even though the outcome seemed foreordained by years of observation of plastic life spans on city streets.
Any official verdict?
The people’s prediction & evaluation was “annihilated within weeks”
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Build all the bike & bus lanes and painted sidewalks you want.
It doesn’t matter in a city that lets drivers do whatever they want.
By abandoning traffic & parking enforcement, Mayors deBlasio & Adams have encouraged more cars use, and it shows
The DOT knows that motorists are racing down the Schermerhorn St bike lane, but they've refused to do anything to fix the problem.
When will
@NYC_DOT
install infrastructure to prevent this from happening?
@CMRestler
@BKBPReynoso
@vinbarone
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Congestion pricing’s been in the works since well before Adams was mayor, but he’s provided ZERO policy input over two years in office.
Now at the 11th hour he lines up with a stale set of grievances.
How does this guy wake up every day and call himself the Mayor of NYC?
Last night on News 12,
@nycmayor
put a lot of political distance between himself and NYC’s incoming congestion pricing scheme
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Alright, now they're just showing off: Western Ave, Cambridge MA
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Is anyone still laboring under the idea that this guy is anything but the enemy of safe, sustainable NYC streets?
As a candidate, Eric Adams promised to build 300 miles of protected bike lanes. The law requires him to build 30 miles of bus lanes a year. He's done neither. Today, he was asked why.
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*Pedestrian streets* are literally foreign to NYC, but they are really well suited to our density & transit orientation
Places that have been at it for a while or are ambitious feature networks of walk-only streets & extensive pedestrian zones
Paris, Madrid, Munich, Tokyo here
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But will we now get the 10th Ave station?
This is interesting: Hudson Yards is returning more to the city than projected. A lot more, like $200–300 million more.
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On my way to a save congestion pricing press conference & came across Janno,
@EmilyAssembly
& others at my stop talking about signal upgrades
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Not well appreciated is that congestion pricing is remedial funding for the 2020-2024 MTA capital program. MTA is due to release its proposed 2025-2029 capital program in September & that needs a funding source. Plan
@GovKathyHochul
?
@jonorcutt
@GovKathyHochul
It's only a fraction of what needs to get done. We need congestion pricing AND a business tax, AND to redirect the money we're spending on the Van Wyck and Route 17 widenings to transit.
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Here’s a chart of total motor vehicles directly owned by NYC government. Data is from Mayors Management reports. The new MMR should be out this month h/t
@jdavidgoodman
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Tour of NYC Transit’s aging Livonia subway maintenance shop. Built 1923, super cramped & inefficient work conditions, can’t fit newer cars, antiquated hvac & electric. Replacing it is a key to upgrading NYC subway ecosystem. Congestion pricing will provide the resources
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Then we got:
- Staff exodus from key parts of DOT
- unprecedented City Hall street design meddling
- no response to rapidly ⬆️ 🚲 fatalities
- abandoned 🚲 parking innovation
- failed opportunities like congestion pricing street plan
- propaganda instead of working the problem(s)
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.
@THECITYNY
takes you inside Adams City Hall “decisions based on the merits,” which are really just one person’s severe biases, backed by willful misinformation
It’s so gross. Why would anyone want to work for these 🤡🤡?
@GwynneFitz
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NYC should get rid of all publicly-owned SUVs for govt office workers
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If anything has been debunked in many years of debating this policy, it’s the “classist” 💩
Chief of MTA’s biggest union promises ‘massive confrontation’ over $15 NYC congestion toll: ‘Not going to take this’
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Sorry but obsession w Byford is obscuring Cuomo’s much worse record of tanking the transit system via neglect & disinvestment in his 7-8 years in office pre-Byford
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Congrats to
@CMChiOsse
for a hard-fought win vs an agency that successive mayors have allowed to make up their own street policies. Police ignoring/thwarting stated city policy is far & away NYC’s biggest impediment to safe & sustainable streets
@VICENews
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One left turn cycle, every car runs over the “turn calming” element. Even if these things have some of their claimed effect, consider how much safer it would be if something real forced right angle turns here
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In decades of involvement/observation, have never seen party officials at anything transportation-related in NYC
Now they’re in on the city’s throwback BQE plan & trying to stop McGuinness road diet
BK Dems leading the Adams-era car-lash
Brooklyn Dem boss Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn is here saying she understands the need for safety, but also the need to keep traffic flowing and the economy going
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The best revenge on all involved would be to put a bike corral in the space
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And amazing
@starledger
editorial tells NJ leaders to look in the mirror: “As for the lack of mass transit options, that’s not New York’s fault, it’s Trenton’s fault”
@GovMurphy
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Congestion pricing in NY still feels like a distant policy pipe-dream despite legislative 👍
That’s because
@GovKathyHochul
&
@NYCMayor
have made no effort to argue for it, or counter fear-mongering over its implementation
@NYDailyNews
@ReinventAlbany
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Suggesting & joking that street safety project was killed as payback?
Add to the list of electeds
@NYCMayor
very publicly dislikes:
@LincolnRestler
. Asked about the reversal on the McGuinness redesign, the mayor asks who the councilmember is — an answer he likely knew.
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Anyone else nervous that NYC’s successful bike share system is embedded in this highly unstable, conflict-ridden, cash-burning industry?
Uber & Lyft say they’ll have to shut down at 12am Friday because they can’t make drivers employees overnight. But they’ve had nearly a year to come up with an employment model. “The only people who put themselves against the wall have been Lyft and Uber.”
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Making the case for congestion pricing
@NYCComptroller
Brad Lander, attorney Mike Gerard &
@RidersAlliance
’s Danna Dennis discuss legal action to save congestion pricing in front of a huge press turn out
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Last 3 city admins respond:
“Hey City Hall, Latin America kicks NYC’s ass re innovations for moving buses”
Bloomberg: Not OK, let’s start Select Bus
de Blasio: 14th St busway (still, not too interested in lessons from elsewhere)
Adams: New York is the Bogota of America
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This is certainly nice. But it was carried thru from the de Blasio era
And the decisive point & use of political capital to make Broadway in Midtown a low traffic corridor was 15 years ago
Still waiting for Adams to show any innovation/forward progress on streets/transportation
We're reimagining public space on Broadway! Today we joined
@NYCMayor
for a ribbon cutting of the latest phase of the "Broadway Vision" plan. This phase delivered two new plazas, two new blocks of shared streets, & a two-way bike connection from W 25th St to W 32nd St.
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This is a pretty heavy take-back for motorists. Yes I get that a program beats no program, but it’s also important for advocates to know where we are in the cycle of progress/degradation, and to be real about where elected leadership stands
@HellGateNY
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CITY STREETS MUCH MORE DEADLY IN 2022
NYPD: 58 traffic deaths as of March 27 *45% higher* vs same period 2021. 2021 was a bad year.
NYC is losing the long trend of safer streets that had been underway since 1990
@NYCMayor
@CMBrooksPowers
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