"Plan for cars, you get traffic": Why de Blasio would be wrong to depedestrianise Times Square

CityMetric: "Times Square will continue to be a tourist destination, and forcing pedestrians back onto narrow sidewalks is a recipe for certain danger and disaster."

Commuters Give Up Cars and Warm Up to Public Transportation

WXXI News: "Hodges says her co-workers pay more than $100 a month to park downtown.  She also likes the social aspect of public transportation. She has met people on the bus from her firm and other companies.

“It’s kind of neat how we look out for each other. If somebody hasn’t been on the bus for a few days people start asking around. Or if someone hasn’t been on the bus and they come back people ask, ‘Were you on vacation? Were you sick?’ "

There won't be an official tally on the number of people taking the ROC Transit Day challenge. Organizers say they handed out a thousand free bus fare cards. People who take them don't always use them."

Why New York City should ban cars

Business Insider: "New York City should ban all personal cars from not just the park, but from most of the city itself."

Auto-Free New York/vision42 Working Group Meeting: Melbourne’s Tramway Network

Streetsblog : "New York City can benefit from learning how other, more progressive cities have cut car use and enhanced their public transport systems.  An outstanding example is Melbourne, Australia which has a tramway system that’s a model for NYC and other U.S. cities. New York City dismantled its tram system, the largest in the world, in the 1930s and 1940s because Mayor La Guardia thought that streetcars got in the way of autos in the city.  Melbourne chose a different path."



'via Blog this'

Albany buses are crowded, people want #publictransit

CDTA, public officials push for transportation bill - The Buzz: Business news: "“Most of our routes are overcrowded,” Basile added. But CDTA doesn’t have enough buses and other resources to address that."

Why It Is Easy to Hate the Poor

The Stranger: "But this is to be expected, because in our society it is easy for the middle class to hate the poor—to hate their lack of money (stalling a line in a store as they count pennies for a pack of cigarettes or bottle of beer or bag of diapers or can of food), their seemingly endless run-ins with the law, their bad habits, their constant neediness. Indeed, the hatred of public transportation is intimately tied with the hatred of the poor. Middle-class types who are unfortunate enough to use the bus expose themselves to the talk, the begging, the bad health of the poor. But instead of blaming the society, they blame the form of transportation. The unpleasant practices connected with poverty thus reinforce a generalized sign system that identifies these practices not with social conditions but with individuals. Poverty is identified as a "life choice." The use of food stamps, a character flaw. You notice chicken bones under a bus seat. The hatred grows."

Public transportation is right choice for Queens

Queens Chronicle: "If New York is serious about creating jobs and improving access to employment for hundreds of thousands of residents, it should invest in the Rockaway Beach right-of-way as a public transit option. Alleviating travel times for residents will better connect the outer borough to economic opportunity. Public transportation is the best choice for Queens."

Brooklyn Dollar Vans Offer Free Rides This Saturday

DNAinfo.com: "Riders, who can catch the vans by hailing them or by waiting at bus stops along the routes, will be able to win tickets to a Brooklyn Nets games if they post about the free ride with the hashtag #MetroFreeRide and everyone will get MetroPCS gift bags, organizers said. But beyond the marketing push, nothing is required of customers.

“We are just a couple of commuter vans who want to give back to the community,” Williams said."

Albany among cities setting records in public transit ridership

timesunion : "The Capital Region is among a number of mid-size American cities seeing record levels of ridership on its public transit, the American Public Transportation Association reported Wednesday. It said that nationwide, 2.7 billion trips were taken on public transit in the third quarter, the highest level since 1974, the oldest third quarter APTA said it has available for comparison."

Staten Island #publictransit is poor. What is the solution?

SILive.com: ""Yes, I know, it's all but impossible. The truth is though, for a city (yes, I'll use that word here) of half a million people, it really isn't that big a deal," oxfdblue continued in his comment. "It just doesn't exist because of the poor planning and ineptitude of planners like Robert Moses who hated trains and loved cars (even though he never learned to drive).""

Capital intensive rail projects are not the answer. Make the buses fare-free and people will show you what they want.