Charles Komanoff
Recent Posts
Shutting the Midtown Stables Won’t Do Zilch for Manhattan Traffic
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Mayor de Blasio’s newest rationale for his deal to shutter the horse-carriage stables in the West 50s is that it will alleviate traffic congestion in Midtown. At an MLK Day event yesterday in Brooklyn, the mayor told reporters: The value we’re getting here for the people is to address the congestion issue, again when the […]
Inside the City Hall Uber Traffic Study: Where’s the Beef?
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What Gertrude Stein said about Oakland is what must be said about City Hall’s new traffic study: There’s no there there. A research effort that was going to explain how congestion in Manhattan has increased even as vehicle trips to the core have dropped has shrunk to a 12-page report bereft of conclusions supported by evidence. It may be […]
Here’s the Risk to Straphangers of Kicking the Can on the MTA Capital Plan
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Rumors are swirling that the long-awaited answer to the key question vexing the MTA — how the state’s $8.3 billion share of the unfunded portion of the MTA capital plan will be paid for — is that dreaded four-letter word: D-E-B-T. According to the terms of a deal reached by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio in October, […]
The New Climate Villain Is Cheap Oil
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Long-term climate prospects brightened somewhat in 2015. Pope Francis put climate care on the moral and political agenda. President Obama rejected the Keystone XL dirty-oil pipeline. Denialist heads of state were routed in Canada and Australia, and their brethren in the U.S. faced growing ridicule. To cap it off, nearly 200 nations signed the UN Paris […]
Newsday Endorses Move NY for 2016, While the Times Misses Its Chance
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Two of the region’s papers laid out their Albany 2016 agendas in New Year’s weekend editorials. Both led with ethics reform, but the similarities ended there. One paper boldly called on the legislature to “adopt some version of the innovative Move NY tolling-and-congestion pricing plan.” The other was silent on transit and traffic, even as it […]
The Man Who Saved NYC Cycling
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“Our streetwise Dionysian godhead,” is how one veteran of the 1987 Midtown bike ban protests described Stephen Athineos, who died yesterday of a heart attack in Inwood, where he lived. Amen. You could also call Steve “the man who saved NYC cycling.” Without his charismatic field generalship, the rolling demonstrations that mesmerized the city in […]
MTA Service Bump Next June Won’t Keep Up With Growth in Subway Trips
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Talk about running in place: At current growth rates in subway ridership, the service increases that NYC Transit is promising to roll out next June will probably be used up by April. That doesn’t mean the increases are a bad idea, of course. Rather, it underscores the need for transformational increases in subway capacity, rather […]
For Some, Uber’s Role in Congesting Manhattan Still Hidden in Plain Sight
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Maybe it’s the sleekness. Or the digital disruptiveness. Or something slipped in the water bottle on your seat. Whatever it is, some data mavens are contorting into pretzels to deny the obvious — that Uber is contributing to the slowdown in Manhattan traffic. The latest Don’t Blame Uber entry was a New Yorker post over […]
Gas Tax Hike Will Help New Jersey Pay for New Rail Tunnel
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To history’s list of epic negotiations, we may someday add the prospective deal to finance the Gateway Project between Newark’s and New York City’s Penn Stations. With two belligerent states, a disgraced Port Authority, and Amtrak and the federal government on the hook for Gateway’s $15 billion (and counting) expense, divvying up the cost will […]
The Link Between Bridge Toll Dysfunction and Unsafe Streets
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Did “toll shopping” figure in the death last week of cyclist Kevin Lopez in Long Island City? We don’t know for sure. But there’s a good chance it did, judging from a remark made by a passenger in the Mercedes that struck Lopez’s bicycle on Queens Plaza North near 29th Street around 2:15 p.m. on […]
Why Traffic Congestion Has Rebounded in the CBD
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Traffic congestion in the Manhattan core is rebounding. Travel-speed data culled from taxicab GPS and released last month by City transportation and taxi officials suggest that average motor vehicle travel speeds in the Central Business District fell by 8.5 percent from 2012 to 2014. The slowdown follows years of flat or even rising speeds — a phenomenon that […]
Uber and Manhattan Gridlock Are Rising Together
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How responsible is Uber for the 9 percent drop in Manhattan travel speeds that New York City transportation officials reported last month? The answer appears to be: quite a lot. If — and it’s a big if — the surge in use of Uber and other app-based car services is not offset by a decline in use of […]