...an estimated 300 people turned out at the Sheraton LaGuardia East, many of them residents of Broad Channel and the Rockaways, who were there to protest a plan to charge them for driving the Cross Bay Bridge. Currently, local residents pay a toll -- but get a refund under a program the MTA wants to eliminate.
"The bridge is vital to our existence," said a local resident. "It is the only place in New York City where a neighbor is charged a toll to visit, go to school, or shop within the same borough."
"Any toll on this bridge violates the New York City Charter and will be a hardship for the residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel," said another.
In addition to toll increases, the MTA also plans to raise the base subway and bus fare as high as $3 in June and implement service cuts in the spring. Among the cuts proposed by the agency is the elimination of the Q26, Q56, Q74, Q75, Q84, QM22, QM23 and X32 bus routes.
19 comments:
Good luck. We need to provide shuttle buses, bike lanes, and landscaping for the Tower People in Hunters Point.
I'm watching a report about this on NY1. As one of the people who turned up at the hearing noted, scheduling it on Inauguration Day is pretty suspect! They HAD to know people would be otherwise occupied. Turnout at these things is never huge but they guaranteed low turnout by choosing that date.
Anonymous said...
I'm watching a report about this on NY1. As one of the people who turned up at the hearing noted, scheduling it on Inauguration Day is pretty suspect! They HAD to know people would be otherwise occupied. Turnout at these things is never huge but they guaranteed low turnout by choosing that date.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
If you were there, you would have seen how large the turnout actually was, and this wasn't the only public hearing to take place, either.
I don't understand why these people want a free ride. Do they get a free ride on the bus or subway?
Do you have to pay to drive from one part of Brooklyn to another? Or from one part of the Bronx to another? No. So why should they have to pay to drive to another part of Queens? Get it?
No. I pay to travel by bus and subway to get from one end of Queens to another, and those modes of transportation are far less damaging than travel by private motor vehicle.
Get it?
Too bad we are not talking about what's more damaging. Rockaway has some of the most piss poor public transportation in NYC, but this isn't a bus vs. car argument. It has to do with what's fair for people from one borough as compared with those from every other borough.
"I pay to travel by bus and subway to get from one end of Queens to another"
Who cares what you do? Take your car hate and shove it. We're talking about going to the grocery store, the post office, taking the kids to school. Do you get on the bus every time you want to do that? It would cost you a fortune.
By tradition commuters are allowed one toll-free way out of their communties. This keeps the poor and unemployed from being held for ransom. Broad Channel is an island with only the bridge connecting it to anything else. Literally, every step these people made would be tolled and the community would not be viable. Try selling or renting to others under these conditions.
"Who cares what you do? Take your car hate and shove it. We're talking about going to the grocery store, the post office, taking the kids to school."
So I take it that you support free transit too, right? I mean, if you claim that you need to cross the bridge to get to the grocery store, the post office, etc, then certainly there are middle-class and poor folks who can't afford a car that need to do so too. They take the bus and subway, and they pay. So I don't understand why those who can afford cars get a free ride before those who are poorer. Sounds pretty elitist to me.
I don't hate cars. I hate the fact that some citizens and politicians are trying to make us even more dependent on them, to our detriment.
Tolling a bridge is not going to make people use mass transit more, it's just going to make them pay more. Kind of like the congestion pricing idea - they don't actually want or expect you to take mass transit instead. They just want to get more $ from you. The bus and subway service is not going to get better in these areas, the MTA honchos are just going to be able to pay down more of their debt because they mismanaged the agency so poorly.
"Tolling a bridge is not going to make people use mass transit more, it's just going to make them pay more. Kind of like the congestion pricing idea - they don't actually want or expect you to take mass transit instead."
Actually, it will. And congestion pricing DOES lead to increased mass transit use. Check out the studies done on it elsewhere. And really, do you think that bridges don't cost anything to maintain once they're built?
If congestion pricing led to more mass transit use, then the cost of implementing and running the program would be more than what is recouped in revenue and it would fail - or they would be forced to raise the price of the toll. This adversely impacts business and worsens our economy.
The Cross Bay Bridge is already tolled and paid for by those from elsewhere who use it. It's just that the people who live in Rockaway and Broad Channel get a rebate on it.
"If congestion pricing led to more mass transit use, then the cost of implementing and running the program would be more than what is recouped in revenue and it would fail - or they would be forced to raise the price of the toll. This adversely impacts business and worsens our economy.
Were you paying any attention at all during the debate over congestion pricing?
"The Cross Bay Bridge is already tolled and paid for by those from elsewhere who use it."
Again, false.
Yep, I was paying attention; this is exactly what happened in London.
Are you saying the Cross Bay is not tolled?
Obviously not paying enough attention!
In London not only did the toll go up but they expanded the congestion zone.
Yes, I know this. And this is a bad thing?
Yes.
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