NYC is back on top in traffic congestion

NY Post

New York City had the worst traffic congestion in the US in 2020, a jump from the No. 4 rank the previous year, according to a new report.

Big Apple drivers lost 100 hours of time to traffic congestion last year, according to transportation analytics firm INRIX — which is actually a 28 percent drop from 2019.

But other cities saw much larger increases in speed amid the pandemic: In Boston, drivers lost 68 percent fewer hours in 2020 than 2019. In San Francisco congestion dropped 51 percent.

Philadelphia and Chicago came in second and third place in terms of hours lost to congestion, at 94 and 86 respectively. Each saw traffic drop between six and 12 percent more than New York.

INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said New York’s rise to the top of the list surprised him — and was tough to explain.

“Downtown speeds [in New York] only went from 11 mph to 12 mph — not that big a jump, 9 percent or so. We saw in other cities jumps of 40 percent or more,” Pishue said.

“New York is its own thing. Everything in New York is unique. Trying to pin this on one factor is really difficult.”

New York City roads also accounted for the second, third and fourth most congested in the country, according to INRIX’s analysis — with the Brooklyn Queens Expressway from I-145 to Tillary Street, the Cross Bronx Expressway west of the Bronx River Parkway, and the BQE between 38th Street and Downtown Brooklyn taking the dubious honors.

Looks like the city's bike lobby-influenced studies about the decline of driving has been highly exaggerated.

BQE reconstruction is going to really suck

From Brooklyn Daily:

Work to rehabilitate the three-tiered 1.5-mile stretch of expressway from Atlantic Avenue to Sands Street can now start as early as 2021 — months after full L-train service is supposed to resume — and wrap by 2026, after state lawmakers in April passed a budget authorizing use of the streamlined design-build process for the city-led job, which will allow the Department of Transportation to solicit one bid for both the design and construction phases of the project, instead of contracting separate firms for each.

Green-lighting design-build, which proponents say will also shave about $100 million from the repair’s total $1.9-billion price tag, means the repairs will likely finish before 2028 — the year local transit leaders warned they might have to force the roughly 16,000 trucks that travel the expressway daily down local streets instead so the triple cantilever doesn’t collapse beneath their weight.

And residents shouldn’t worry about the decrepit, nearly 70-year-old roadway crumbling before then — even if they’ve read reports of other bridges around the world spontaneously collapsing — because the city’s top priority is making sure its infrastructure is safe, the mayor said.

But unlike said L-pocalypse — for which, city and state transportation officials are rolling out a plain to aid the roughly 225,000 L-train riders who cross the East River daily that includes more service on other trains, more ferries, new bike paths, and other options — there’s no backup highway for drivers to use when sections of the expressway are closed for its repair, DeBlasio said.

Van Wyck revamp in the works

From the Queens Chronicle:

Plans call for widening the Van Wyck one lane in each direction. Fink said there is enough space available so that the state can avoid any private property. He did say that in some cases, where there is not enough room on a shoulder, the new lanes might have to run up against retaining walls for the service roads.

Fink said one of the challenges is that there are 20 bridges crossing the Van Wyck in that corridor, including four belonging to the Long Island Rail Road.

“We would have to reach out to them,” he said, as any widening of the roadway almost certainly would require work on railroad trestles. Fink said a federal environmental impact study should be completed by next September, with construction slated to run from August 2019 to the end of 2023.

Nassau Expressway is in sad shape

Photo from Newsday

From the Forum:

The Nassau Expressway (Route 878) is a heavily commuted roadway that connects Southwest Nassau to Queens. Every day, approximately 40,000 vehicles travel along the expressway, which results in heavy traffic conditions, especially during rush hour. The roadway also serves as a storm evacuation route for some 400,000 people, designated as the route for the ambulance, fire vehicles, and police cars during emergencies, as well as residents that must evacuate during flooding or other natural disasters.

The expressway is currently in need of major repairs, given its significant number of potholes, exposed gravel, and poor drainage. Large puddles and flooding of the roadway occur with even minor rainfall. Although it was used as an evacuation road during Sandy, it flooded severely during the storm.

Repair projects along the expressway have been delayed for decades; most recently, in 2012, New York State delayed the project because engineers had concerns over soil and nearby tidal wetlands. As of now, design work is not expected to begin until at least 2023 and completed in 2025.

Senator Charles Schumer and State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder this week called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to jumpstart a storm-surge protection and repair plan for expressway...

Legislation proposed to improve truck safety

From CBS 2:

There is a growing danger on the road in the New York area. Trucks have been hitting overpasses at an alarming rate, causing delays on your ride to work.

Tractor trailers have had their roofs torn off and hurled debris everywhere. On the Northern State Parkway traffic was backed up for miles after one such incident, part of the New Jersey Turnpike was shut down for hours after a truck had its cargo hold torn off.

Experts said that not all commercial drivers are prepared, and that many don’t use specialized GPS for trucks.

“Eighty-percent of low bridge strikes are caused by truckers who are looking at GPS systems that don’t warn them off the highway, that don’t warn them the bridge is too low,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

Sen. Schumer is pushing for nationwide standards for GPS devices that will do a better job directing commercial drivers.

Queens roads in bad shape

From the Times Ledger:

Queens is the location of five of the nine worst maintained roads in New York City, according to the Center for an Urban Future, a city planning agency.

The report also said it found that 9 percent of the borough’s bridges are what it called structurally deficient and that Queens public housing developments are in the worst condition of any place in the five boroughs.

The center said the Jackie Robinson Parkway, the Shore Front Parkway, the Cross Bay Parkway, Hempstead Turnpike and Queens Boulevard were poorly maintained.

The report documents other “infrastructure challenges” in Queens, such as 29.7 percent of the borough’s streets were in fair or poor condition. This is worse than Brooklyn, where 27.2 percent of streets were in fair or poor condition, but better than Manhattan (42.7 percent), Staten Island (40.1 percent) and the Bronx (34 percent).

Governor unveils highway texting locations

From Metro:

New York State drivers will now have designated areas to pull over and send a text message.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled on Monday 91 texting zone locations along the state thruway and state highways in the latest effort to cut down on distracted driving.

“In addition to tougher penalties, new detection methods for state police and ongoing public outreach efforts, we are now launching special Texting Zones to allow motorists to pull over and use their phones,” Cuomo said. “We are sending a clear message to drivers that there is no excuse to take your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road because your text can wait until the next Texting Zone.”

The governor also announced a 365 percent increase in tickets issued in summer 2013 compared to summer 2012 for distracted driving. This summer, state police issued 21,580 tickets, surpassing last summer’s total of 5,208 tickets.

The texting zones are located in areas throughout upstate New York and in Suffolk County in Long Island.

How do they get up there?

I just have to ask...are they riding around with a huge ladder? How do they post their illegal signs up there?

BQE's perpetual construction

From the NY Times:

New York City has plenty of aging, rage-inducing roadways, as drivers who have spent time on the Cross Bronx Expressway can attest. With its multitude of trucks and dangerous on-ramps, the B.Q.E. is a den of congestion at virtually all hours of the day.

But one factor has condemned this antiquated 16.8-mile stretch of highway to a place of longstanding infamy in the New York metropolitan area, if not all of urban America: construction that never seems to end.

As Gerry Michalowski, a truck driver who has traveled the B.Q.E. since 1978, put it, “It was under construction then, and it’s still under construction now.”

The first section of the road, which included the Kosciuszko Bridge, opened in 1939. After the 1950s, as most sections of the roadway were completed, Robert Moses, New York’s master builder, hailed the highway as part of a grand plan to solve the “problem of express travel.”

Repairs began in 1960, well before the road was officially finished in 1970. Today, the infernal color orange — seen on barrels, cones, “Work Ahead” warnings — is a permanent feature of the deteriorating landscape.

Fuzzy math at Willets Point

From Willets Point United:

...EDC is stymieing our attempt to get information about its purchase of properties belonging to House of Spice and Fodera Foods...

...there's the matter of the $400 million that the city has allocated for the land purchases.What we know is that NYCEDC's written responses to questions posed by prospective Phase 1 developers includes the statement that no City capital funds are available to acquire Willets Point property beyond Phase 1 (other than the properties already acquired).

We don't know whether that means that the full $410 million will be consumed by Phase 1 acquisitions, or whether a decision was made to scale back the $410 million to a lower number sufficient only for Phase 1 (and if a decision was made, by whom). Inquiring minds want to know.

So we understand why EDC will not reveal this information but why should the tax payer be allowed to foot the bill for behind closed doors sweetheart deals that give privileged property owners great financial leverage to hold up future development? When all is said and done on Willets Point it will go down in the city's history as a scandalous shame and perversion of basic democratic principles.

And with all that said, the ramps still don't work!

Unintended consequence of billboard law

QUEENS, NY (PIX11) — If you have driven on the Long Island Expressway lately, you may have noticed a lot of empty billboards.

It's not a reflection of a bad economy, says Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., it's a reflection of a bad choice by the City.

"The City passed a law banning them from the highways to beautify our City. But they couldn't actually ban the sign. So now they are still up and covered with graffiti," complained Vallone.

Up and down major roadways in the City, drivers have noticed the empty space, now covered in ugly graffiti. "Interesting. Why don't they just put up inspiration thoughts or messages like Welcome to Queens," asked Shiela Madison, from Long Island City.

Vallone says a law passed years ago was designed to prevent clutter on highways, and is now creating a new concern. "It's just blank canvasses for graffiti. They are eyesores," said Vallone, hoping to ignite a conversation among City leaders and the community for a change.

Collecting on sign fines

From the NY Post:

A slew of zoning violations worth $32.7 million in fines has been doled out to owners since the city started cracking down on illegal signs and billboards by highways five years ago.

But of that total, just $4.7 million worth of summonses have been settled.

That leaves a big chunk of change -- $28 million -- still either in judgement or awaiting adjudication.

And now, officials are tired of waiting for the cash to come in.

"We have reached out to the businesses, used outside collection agencies and searched for seizable assets in an effort to resolve these debts," said Finance Department spokesman Owen Stone.

A single violation can reach $25,000 -- and some signs are slapped with multiple violations.

The city and the billboard industry have been battling for a decade over enforcement of regulations that prohibit billboards within 200 feet of a park or highway.

It's still in litigation.

Bridge repair fund looted

From the Times-Union:

Here in New York, the state "lockbox" created to pay for rebuilding aging bridges and roads -- a fund that's augmented every time you buy gas, renew a driver's license or rent a car -- has been raided for cash by state leaders during the last decade to such an extent that it will need $3 billion in taxpayer bailouts over the next five years.

And those added billions won't fuel a massive rebuilding, but will rather simply let a state with more than 2,000 structurally deficient bridges -- more than one span in every 10 -- keep chipping away at the problem.

Some highway advocates are questioning whether the Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund, created in 1991 as a reliable source of cash, may be too depleted to handle the job.

For every dollar that the fund will spend on roads and bridges over the next five years, it will spend almost $3 to cover rising debts and help run the state Transportation and Motor Vehicle departments, according to figures in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's capital plan in the just-completed state budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

EDC, FHWA & NYSDOT acting in collusion to hide info

From Neighborhood Retail Alliance:

Crain's Insider is reporting that EDC has completed the revised ramp report-contradicting the post we did yesterday: "Lobbyist Richard Lipsky, battling the Willets Point redevelopment, blogs that it has been nearly a year since the city promised to submit within “weeks” a revised analysis of the impact of two highway ramps on Queens traffic—the centerpiece of opponents' legal case. In fact, the revision was completed long ago and is being reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration and the understaffed state Department of Transportation. A public comment period and hearing will follow, perhaps by the end of the year."

So, EDC is claiming that they have a completed ramp report-and it's in the hands of NYSDOT-yet both agencies have illegally been denying WPU's FOIL requests; while simultaneously claiming that these report materials are not available. It now appears, then, that the city and state are in collusion to avoid legally required disclosure in order to foist a poorly vetted report on the communities of Queens-particularly Corona and Flushing.

And there are consequences for this kind of behavior: "If NYCEDC has had the revised AMR, and has known that it must be disclosed in whole or in part, but has withheld it from WPU anyway, that would appear to be a violation that can subject the perpetrator to penalties:

"Any person who, with intent to prevent public inspection of a record pursuant to FOIL, willfully conceals or destroys any such record shall be guilty of a violation of §240.65 of the New York State Penal Law, and may serve up to fifteen days in jail and/or be fined up to $250.00 per such violation."

Let the investigations begin!

Indeed.

Astoria traffic headache roundup

From the Queens Gazette:

Motorists who travel through the maze of traffic at 31st Street and Hoyt Avenue in Astoria to reach the Grand Central Parkway, Astoria Boulevard or the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (Triborough Bridge) should pay special attention to new signage at the bustling intersection – where the city recently installed a series of new traffic patterns, signs and signals.

Drivers are advised to take notice of the changes, since failure to follow messages on new signage puts them in risk of a $130 summons and two points on their driver’s license, law enforcement sources said.

The changes were made following months of hearings and an exhaustive traffic study that showed a need for safe crossings on Astoria Boulevard from 29th to 33rd Streets, reduced congestion and new vehicle-to-vehicle safety measures in the designated area, a city Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson said.

From the Queens Courier:

Two local Queens elected officials want the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to green light a plan that would allow large trucks to access the Grand Central Parkway (GCP) from the RFK Bridge, instead of having the large vehicles come in and cause congestion on the local streets of Astoria.

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. and Assemblymember Michael Gianaris sent a letter to acting DOT Commissioner Stanley Gee and Regional Director Phillip Eng asking the agency to support an MTA construction project that, when completed, would eliminate the need for trucks to use local streets to access the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE).

Since November 2003, small commercial vehicles have been allowed to use the GCP to access the BQE from the RFK Bridge in the eastbound direction.

Local elected officials said that this program, which started out as a pilot, has been very successful, but larger commercial vehicles – trucks higher than 12 feet, 6 inches with more than three axles – are still required to exit at 31st Street. The vehicles are required to make a sharp right turn onto 29th Street and then a sharp left onto Astoria Boulevard to avoid the low clearance on Hoyt Avenue South under the elevated train.

Recently, the city’s Department of Transportation installed a traffic signal at 29th Street and Hoyt Ave South. The MTA Bridges and Tunnels wants to perform construction that will allow the large trucks to stay on the GCP to gain access to the BQE.

By grinding the highway lower, these large vehicles will meet clearance requirements. Legislators believe this will improve the operation of the newly installed traffic signal, and reduce traffic delays and safety concerns at this intersection.

Crappy highways plague New York State

From the NY Post:

This won’t be a holiday for your car.

As millions of New Yorkers take to their cars this Labor Day weekend, they’ll be driving along some of the most decrepit, crumbling roads in the nation, a new study shows.

The Empire State ranked 46th out of the 50 states for highway quality, according to the Reason Foundation report.

Ozone concentrations in the city

From the Times Ledger:

It has long been established that thousands of cars and trucks create major pollution along New York City’s boulevards and highways, but it turns out that even quieter places like parts of Queens endure a dangerous, smog-like ozone.

The city Department of Health completed a study of summer air conditions throughout the city and the agency found that ozone concentrations were highest in downwind outerborough locations, such as the Rockaways and lower Staten Island.

Ozone results from chemical reactions among other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide in the presence of sunlight.

But in a curious finding, the report said the same pollutants that cause ozone can also remove it from the air, which means high traffic centers such as midtown Manhattan with heavy emissions often have less ozone than downwind areas.

Ozone pollution, which the department said can aggravate asthma, was also detected in Howard Beach, Broad Channel, parts of Jamaica and St. Albans, College Point and Douglaston.

The report, conducted last summer, said any city neighborhood adjacent to busy highways was a major air pollution area.

The report said another solution to reducing harmful emissions is to expand mass transit options to help achieve the clean air goals set out in PlaNYC in 2007 to improve the city’s air quality. The results of the city Community Air Survey are part of PlaNYC and involve sampling the air at 150 street-level locations in every season.

Paterson puts 2,000 construction workers out of work

From Crain's:

About 2,000 construction workers on a dozen current or anticipated job sites in the city will join the unemployment line because Gov. David Paterson decided last month to halt state-funded construction projects, union officials said.

The largest project facing possible shutdown is the $407 million rehabilitation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Manhattan, as well as the rehab of related ramps and roads. Other projects include the $146 million pavement-deck replacement on the Gowanus Expressway and $59 million in bridge and pavement repairs on the Nassau Expressway in Queens.

The job losses from those and other projects could come in the next few weeks. They would come on top of the 40,000 construction workers—roughly 40% of the workforce—who are already out of work because of the recession, which has hit the industry especially hard.

New sign shade is rather costly

From CBS 2:

Here's a new reason for critics of wasteful spending in New York to see red: the color orange. It's a decision by a state bureaucrat that's costing taxpayers a lot of green.

You may have noticed it on roadwork signs – a switch from one shade of orange to another that's costing taxpayers an estimated $27 million.

For years, New York required contractors to use constructions signs with a shade of orange known as "Type 7."

That is, until the Department of Transportation decided that "Type 7" just didn't cut it anymore.

The DOT ordered road builders to buy millions of new signs in a slightly different shade of orange – "Type 9" – a change that cost the industry $27 million.

A new report from a government efficiency task force points out that contractors simply "are now passing [that cost] back onto the state in the form of higher contract prices."

There's no sign that the DOT is letting up on the questionable spending, either. It recently ordered slight changes to concrete barriers that will eventually cost taxpayers $33 million.

A state task force has ordered the DOT to appear at a hearing next week to explain these and other examples of apparently wasteful spending.

Interchange work on hold

From the Times Ledger:

A project designed to mitigate traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens, for which residents have been waiting for years, is one of hundreds of projects to have its funding halted because no state budget has been passed, the state Department of Transportation announced last week.

Gov. David Paterson said payouts on construction projects stopped March 31 and would not begin again until the state Legislature approves a budget. Legislators were in recess until April 7, after which they were expected to continue to wrangle over ways to address the $9 billion deficit facing New York.

The Kosciuszko Bridge project has also been delayed because of the budget.