Additional to yesterday’s publish, 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 yr:
The upshot of that is that there’s no solution to journey a motorbike instantly 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 in case you’re susceptible to sea illness and/or impatience. I imply who the hell desires to cease driving and await a ship? Not ready for stuff is the whole level of driving a bicycle:
Apart from pink lights. All the time cease at these pink lights, youngsters:
Properly, the MTA understands how necessary the Verrazzano is to the journey, as a result of apparently they’re attempting to shake Bike New York down for extra money 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 concentrating on these wimpy bikers:
Hey, I’m not naive; I do know Bike New York isn’t some babe within the woods. They’ve acquired the most important journey going, plus a phalanx of free laborers like Esteemed Commenter Leroy, and I’m certain they’re making out fairly rattling good. In truth 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 through which the MTA tries to fleece Bike New York for slightly extra money, then Bike New York tells the New York Put up who’re all the time up for slightly controversy through which they will quote an indignant firefighter, after which the porta-potty vendor jacks up its charges as a result of world 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 infinite whining and kvetching that we New Yorkers name “negotiating:”
However, the MTA’s declare that they need 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 yr, however final yr 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 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 assume 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 visitors in Manhattan can be to shut increasingly streets to motor autos, which might not solely cut back 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 fingers and sing songs as we skip by means of 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 present them extra money as a result of they’re not amassing tolls on a single bridge for a couple of hours one a yr.
One thing doesn’t add up.
To be clear, I’ve no downside with congestion pricing, no less than in principle. 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 beneath sixtieth Road or no matter it’s and it wouldn’t imply shit to me. For an additional, in fact drivers ought to pay “their fair proportion” (no matter that’s), and there are too a lot of them, and we want higher transit, and safer streets, and all of that stuff. Principally, it’s simply that I don’t assume any of that is going to occur, and whereas I’m comfortable to be confirmed mistaken, I’m prepared to make a gents’s wager that, assuming it goes by means of, in a yr or two we’ll see headlines within the New York Instances like this:
Congestion Pricing Was Supposed To Scale back Visitors And Enhance Transit. It Hasn’t. What Occurred?
So why do I feel this? Properly for one factor, I dwell in New York, and I’m alive and sentient. For an additional, we’re all the time informed 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 so much 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 assume 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 completely different bridges and tunnels are tolled by completely different bloated businesses. Listed below are the tolls on the sunshine purple crossings:
And listed here are the tolls on the darkish purple crossings:
Take into accout this doesn’t embrace the tolled highways outdoors 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 wherever 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 “Gained’t somebody consider the poor motorists?,” however I’m saying the concept the drivers of the New York Metropolis metropolitan space are cruising round totally free whereas their dutiful counterparts abroad are paying their manner like good, penitent residents is much 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, increasingly each single yr. The town alone most likely has extra toll roads than most of the world’s international locations, and by some means this one is gonna repair all the pieces?
Certain it’s.
In any case, in case you specific skepticism over our model of congestion pricing, which in line with the advocates will resolve visitors, repair the subways and buses, remedy local weather change, and reverse male-pattern baldness, you may be branded a NIMBY and all types of different acronyms. Nevertheless, I feel that is odd, when it’s such a disingenuous manner of carrying out one thing you can do in a couple of weeks by pedestrianizing extra Manhattan streets. If anyone, you’d assume it will be the advocates who can be most important.
However what do I do know?
