Saturday, January 16, 2016

Traffic not Uber's fault

From the Daily News:

New York’s traffic troubles aren’t Uber’s fault.

Instead, Mayor de Blasio's long-awaited $2 million congestion study puts the blame on deliveries, construction and New Yorkers themselves.

“Population and job growth, increased construction activity, growth in the number of deliveries, and record levels of tourism have all contributed to the reductions in vehicle speeds,” the report on Uber and the growing for-hire vehicle industry found.

The popularity of car service apps like Uber was only a “contributor to overall congestion,” not a driver of heavy traffic in the city’s central business district, the report said.

De Blasio’s long-awaited traffic congestion study put the blame on “population and job growth, increased construction activity, growth in the number of deliveries, and record levels of tourism.”
The study also found that the total number of miles traveled by all vehicles in the city stayed flat between 2014 and 2015 — so trips in Uber and Lyft appear to be making up the decline in yellow taxi pick ups.

The conclusions in the report fly in the face of Mayor de Blasio's suggestion last summer that Uber’s explosive growth was slowing down traffic in Manhattan.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Population growth causes more traffic congestion. No shit. We needed a traffic study for this?

Anonymous said...

Ever ride an express bus to Queens from Manhattan? It is always delivery trucks blocking the bus lanes, creating horrific delays. Didn't need a $2 million study to tell you that.

Anonymous said...

Here I'll give you a free traffic study. When you increase the population by a million people and do not build any new roads or highways you increase traffic. When you take away parking and travel lanes you make traffic even worse. This city needs a new Robert Moses to do some large transit infrastructure projects.

Anonymous said...

Tourism, TOURISM???? What color is the sky on plane deblasio? Tourism indeed.

Anonymous said...

And the double parked truck encompasses more real estate since the noveau bike lanes take up a great deal of what would have been another lane to get around it.

Grumpy White Man said...

Think of the money that the City could bring in just by enforcing existing traffic laws, without having to resort to red light cameras and speed cameras. The double- and triple-parking; the blocking of bus lanes; the blocking of bike lanes; the illegally tinted windows; the illegally tinted license plate covers...

Camel bladder said...

Anonymous #2 don't get the wrong idea here. We can't get rid of the delivery or service/contractor trucks, these things are absolutely needed for any city to survive. We need to get rid of the passenger cars in Manhattan and severely restrict the parking in the surrounding Boroughs during business hours. NOTHING ELSE WILL WORK, especially if we keep building more dense packed housing. Bridge tolls or congestion pricing won't work, it is simply a government money grab that will only force the delivery and service companies to charge their customers more.

Anonymous said...

"We need to get rid of the passenger cars in Manhattan and severely restrict the parking in the surrounding Boroughs"... Are you out of your mind? I guess you drank the kool-aid.

JQ LLC said...

With The entire L train going out of service, as the worst fucking transit system in the universe as promised, expect the rise in these shady app car services in addition to to inevitable rise in illegal livery cabs and dollar vans.

They may not be responsible now because Uber has only been here a short time and haven't really made their mark yet except in the you know where parts of goddamn brooklyn. But give it time and they will show up on the graphs at the end of the year.



Anonymous said...

We need to get rid of the passenger cars in Manhattan and severely restrict the parking in the surrounding Boroughs during business hours.


Why? How about not cramming 30K people/square mile. Try that.
Also deliveries in any normal city in the world is allowed at certain hours.
Not all day and not in the middle of the AM/PM rush hour.
More wasted money on this stupid study.

Anonymous said...

Using Uber's stats to do the study. I smell a rat.

Anonymous said...

Using Uber's stats to do the study. I smell a rat.

What you are smelling is the sewer in Flooshing.
Come, I'll drive you around town and show you the real reason for congestion.
And no, I'm no fan of Uber, Lift or AirBnbn for that matter, but lets lay the blame where it belongs.
Mindless constructions, lack of urban planning - now we are talking.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous #2 don't get the wrong idea here. We can't get rid of the delivery or service/contractor trucks, these things are absolutely needed for any city to survive."

You can restrict their hours--for example, not during rush hour. One delivery truck blocking a bus lane can add many minutes to the commutes of 100s of commuters just trying to get home for dinner.

Anonymous said...

If you attempt to drive in Manhattan, the obvious thing you notice is that traffic gets held up because pedestrians refuse to stop to allow a car or truck to make a turn because 'they're walking here.' Especially tourist pedestrians. Chapter two describes pedestrians who walk against 'don't walk' signs and red lights blatantly.

Anonymous said...

Vision Zero is what's snarling traffic. Of course, the Mayor will never admit that.