Bloomberg Takes It to the Streets!

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

The New York Times is reporting on a new experiment in New York City to have a "car-free zone" for three Saturdays in August. The article reports that

“If it works, we’ll certainly consider doing it again,” Mr. Bloomberg said, at a news conference in the East Village on Lafayette Street, which will be included in the route. “If not, we won’t. But we have never been afraid to try new ideas, especially the ones that have the potential to improve the quality of life

The area affected will be contained to Manhattan, from the hours of 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Some detractors worry about the impact on business, while others speculate that increased foot traffic will compensate. Cyclists were, however, uniformly positive in their reactions.

US DOT announces who gets the Urban Partnership money

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced today the five metropolitan areas to whom they awarded the Urban Partnership Agreements (UPAs). The winners are:

• New York
  
• Seattle
  
• The Miami and Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area
  
• The Minneapolis and St. Paul area
  
• San Francisco

Each of the winners will still need to submit traffic studies for their respective projects before receiving the money. Twenty six cities applied for the the program's funding. New York's $354 million will go towards congestion pricing in Manhattan. Seattle will use its $139 million to charge tolls on the Highway 520 floating bridge. Miami's $63 million will go towards installing variably priced toll lanes on I-95 between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Minneapolis will spend use it's $133 million to add High Occupancy Toll lanes to I-35. San Francisco's $159 million will help establish a congestion pricing plan for the downtown area.

NY Subway Flood!

An article yesterday from Reuters describes flooding on Wednesday in the NY subway system.

For those interested in a more technical discussion of NYC subway waterproofing, or waterproofing tunnels in general, Tunnels and Tunnelling International has recently had a few good articles that just *might* tickle your fancy!! The May 2007 issue discussed in brief a few complications with the water table for the construction of the 2nd Avenue cavern in NYC (see pp 21-22). Here they explain that they will not block inflowing groundwater completely for the project but rather slow it and pump the rest. We will see whether or not, given these recent floods, this strategy remains the same.

If you just have to know more about waterproofing tunnels than this small quip provides, then the April 2007 issue may sate your edgy tastes (pp 50-52). This article covers the topic in question from grouting and temporary control to high quality concrete and sprayed membranes. I won't even go into the microbial method (but you sure can!).

I'll post up some links to these articles if I can find them, otherwise the items can just be found in the library.

July 25, 2007
New York Cabbies May Strike Over GPS Tracking

informationweek.com

Hybrid Taxis in NY to Reduce Emissions from Cabs by 50%

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is implementing a plan to reduce carbon emissions from the taxi fleet by 50% by 2012. By October 2008, all new vehicles entering the fleet must achieve at least 25 miles per gallon.

As part of this effort, Yahoo has donated a fleet of 10 hybrid taxis to New York. It's also sponsoring a competition to identify the greenest city in America.

Reverse Commuting on Upswing in New York

The commuter trains headed to Grand Central Terminal from the suburbs to the north are still packed each work day morning, but a now cars headed in the other direction -- out of Manhattan -- are also full. A story this week in the New York Times describes changes in job locations and marketing efforts by the railroads.

The result? Less than half of the riders on Metro-North are now traditional suburb-to-Manhattan commuters. And this hasn't come at the expense of traditional commuters as their numbers are higher than at any time since Metro-North began operation 23 years ago. Instead, seats are filled with day-trippers, reverse commuters, and people traveling between suburbs.