New York City Subways

With atonement and repentance in the air today, the transit advocacy nonprofit Transportation Alternatives released a feature on the Web site rollingcarbon.org that calculates the carbon footprint of New York City commuters.

Visitors to the site can choose one of seven transportation options (bus, car, hybrid car, taxi, subway/train, bike, walk) and calculate the daily carbon emissions of their commute. According to the site, a 10-mile train ride emits 5 pounds of carbon dioxide, while a car commute of the same distance emits 24.4 pounds.

In addition to calculating daily emissions, the site also has a few transportation factoids (did you know that one out of four transit trips in the U.  read more »

A congressional push is on to up funding for public transportation nationwide. And not a moment too soon, given rising oil prices. From this morning's Wall Street Journal:

Data being released Tuesday by the American Public Transportation Association show the number of riders on mass-transit systems is growing at an accelerating clip. After rising 2.5% in 2007 from 2006, public-transportation use increased 3.4% in the first quarter of 2008 from the same period a year earlier, and 5.2% in the April-to-June period.

One of the central elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan for a sustainable New York City is to improve mass transit and get people out of their cars and into busses and subways. In addition to better and more frequent transit service, the city also needs to ensure that the price of mass transit is kept under control. In the aftermath of the defeat of congestion pricing, we see that mass transit in this region is under greater financial stress than at any time since the fiscal crisis of the mid 1970's.

State and local tax collections are in decline, and the MTA bears the burden of the Pataki philosophy of borrowing to fund transit infrastructure.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg and Eliot Spitzer just unveiled a new sign at the 42nd Street station pointing to the expanding 7 subway line, which, when completed, will extend to 10th Avenue by the Hudson Yards.

"Whereever the subways have blazed a trail, the people have followed,” Bloomberg said.

“The city’s growth has mirrored the subway’s growth,” Spitzer said. “That is a fact. It is a historic reality."

When asked about Chuck Schumer’s criticism of the funding mechanism of the extension (which the city is paying for by selling bonds, not in partnership with the MTA) and the elimination of one proposed subway stop on the extension, Bloomberg jokingly replied, “Senator Schumer is never critical about anything. You must have confused him with someone else.”

Then, he called on Dan Doctoroff to answer the question. “This really is an economic development of the subway system,” and “we have an option to build out” in that area, he said.

No photograph ran with the online version of New York Post reporter Jeremy Olshan's story about the New York City Transit using barricades to block some ubway exits near Yankee Stadium.

The visuals are kind of essential to a) show how really bad an idea this is, and b) prove that it really happened.

So, here you go, courtesy of a well-informed reader.

The barricades, according to Olshan's story, have been removed. But still, how did they get there?

Hearings, anyone?