Additional to yesterday’s put up, one of many large attracts of the TD 5 Boro Bike Tour is that it takes riders over the Verrazzano, the big-ass bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island that’s utterly closed to bikes each different day of the 12 months:
The upshot of that is that there’s no technique to experience a motorbike immediately between Staten Island and another a part of town. In fact you may take your bike on the free Staten Island Ferry, although that’s no good when you’re vulnerable to sea illness and/or impatience. I imply who the hell desires to cease driving and watch for a ship? Not ready for stuff is the whole level of driving a bicycle:
Aside from purple lights. All the time cease at these purple lights, children:
Effectively, the MTA understands how essential the Verrazzano is to the experience, as a result of apparently they’re making an attempt to shake Bike New York down for more cash to make use of it:
I assume first they tried to extort the New York Metropolis marathon, and that didn’t work, so now they’re focusing on these wimpy bikers:
Hey, I’m not naive; I do know Bike New York isn’t some babe within the woods. They’ve received the most important experience going, plus a phalanx of free laborers like Esteemed Commenter Leroy, and I’m certain they’re making out fairly rattling good. In actual fact just about everyone seems to be making hay: Bike New York, the Metropolis of New York, the MTA, the NYPD, the porta-potty rental operations, the murderous cartels who management the worldwide banana business…. So I’m certain it’s all a part of an elaborate dance by which the MTA tries to fleece Bike New York for a bit more cash, then Bike New York tells the New York Put up who’re all the time up for a bit controversy by which they will quote an indignant firefighter, after which the porta-potty vendor jacks up its charges as a result of international warming is leading to overripe and consequently much less binding bananas, which implies extra porta-potty cleanup, and it’s all a part of the countless whining and kvetching that we New Yorkers name “negotiating:”
However, the MTA’s declare that they have to compensate for misplaced income bears additional examination. Okay, I don’t know what Bike New York paid to make use of the bridge this 12 months, however final 12 months Bike New York paid $90,000:
Presumably that doesn’t account for the misplaced toll income whereas the bridge is closed to motorists, which appears to be what the MTA is complaining about. Now the bridge is closed for like half a day. On a Sunday. In the meantime, the MTA can also be on the cusp of introducing congestion pricing, the said objective of which is to cut back site visitors:
Sure, it’s not the one objective, it’s additionally speculated to fund transit enhancements, however that is the one folks cite most frequently and as you may see above it’s the very first thing the MTA mentions on the congestion pricing web page. I have to say I’ve all the time been extremely suspicious of this declare. The MTA wants cash, badly. Do we actually suppose they’re introducing one other toll as a result of they’re hoping folks received’t pay it? One of the simplest ways to cut back site visitors in Manhattan can be to shut an increasing number of streets to motor autos, which might not solely scale back site visitors however improve transit ridership, and permit buses to maneuver extra shortly, which might profit the MTA by way of each elevated fare assortment and extra environment friendly operation, after which flowers will bloom and birds will sing and we’ll all maintain arms and sing songs as we skip via the streets of Manhattan.
However as an alternative, the identical company that’s telling us they’re introducing a toll they hope folks received’t pay is telling us {that a} freaking bike tour wants to provide them more cash as a result of they’re not accumulating tolls on a single bridge for a number of hours one a 12 months.
One thing doesn’t add up.
To be clear, I’ve no downside with congestion pricing, a minimum of in idea. For one factor, it doesn’t have an effect on me within the slightest, as I drive The Automotive That I Personal into what is going to quickly be the congestion zone just about by no means. They might cost you $200 to drive into Manhattan under sixtieth Road or no matter it’s and it wouldn’t imply shit to me. For one more, in fact drivers ought to pay “their fair proportion” (no matter that’s), and there are too lots of them, and we’d like higher transit, and safer streets, and all of that stuff. Principally, it’s simply that I don’t suppose any of that is going to occur, and whereas I’m comfortable to be confirmed fallacious, I’m prepared to make a gents’s guess that, assuming it goes via, in a 12 months or two we’ll see headlines within the New York Occasions like this:
Congestion Pricing Was Supposed To Cut back Visitors And Enhance Transit. It Hasn’t. What Occurred?
So why do I believe this? Effectively for one factor, I reside in New York, and I’m alive and sentient. For one more, we’re all the time instructed that New York Metropolis drivers are profoundly entitled, and that congestion pricing has been a hit in locations like Stockholm, and London. So what does congestion pricing seem like in these locations? Right here’s the deal in Stockholm:
It’s a most of 135 SEK, which is like twelve American Enjoyable Tickets.
In the meantime, right here’s London:
Fifteen Kilos Sterling is like Eighteen American Enjoyable Tickets, which is quite a bit lower than it was final time I used to be over there, when that cash would have purchased you a home in Jersey.
In the meantime, what different tolls are the drivers of London and Stockholm subjected to? So far as I can inform, just about none. As I perceive it, there’s like one different toll someplace within the London space, and the entire UK has like 23 tolls. As for Sweden, I don’t suppose they’ve any tolled roads in any respect.
Right here’s what New York Metropolis appears to be like like:
These are simply the tolled crossings that go out and in of town itself. In fact, that is New York (and New Jersey), so naturally totally different bridges and tunnels are tolled by totally different bloated companies. Listed here are the tolls on the sunshine purple crossings:
And listed below are the tolls on the darkish purple crossings:
Bear in mind this doesn’t embody the tolled highways exterior of town such because the New England Thruway, the New York State Thruway, and the New Jersey Turnpike, or any of the opposite tolled crossings within the area. And sure, you may theoretically drive anyplace within the metropolis (besides Staten Island) and keep away from paying a toll, however usually it’s so circuitous that it’s not value it. (Or you may simply use a bullshit pretend or obscured license plate, which is an entire different downside.)
I’m not saying “Received’t somebody consider the poor motorists?,” however I’m saying the concept the drivers of the New York Metropolis metropolitan space are cruising round at no cost whereas their dutiful counterparts abroad are paying their manner like good, penitent residents is way from correct. Greater than that, I’m additionally saying that there’s an absolute fuckload of tolls round right here–and but folks drive anyway, an increasing number of each single 12 months. The town alone in all probability has extra toll roads than lots of the world’s international locations, and someway this one is gonna repair the whole lot?
Certain it’s.
In any case, when you specific skepticism over our model of congestion pricing, which in response to the advocates will resolve site visitors, repair the subways and buses, treatment local weather change, and reverse male-pattern baldness, you can be branded a NIMBY and all types of different acronyms. Nevertheless, I believe that is odd, when it’s such a disingenuous manner of undertaking one thing you may do in a number of weeks by pedestrianizing extra Manhattan streets. If anyone, you’d suppose it will be the advocates who can be most crucial.
However what do I do know?
