NYC’s recent population boom saw only an increase in public transit, not vehicle traffic
NYT reports that between 2003 and 2007, as New York City’s population and economy boomed, there was virtually no increase in street and highway traffic. Instead, all of the increased mobility went to the city’s public transit system.
While traffic held steady over this period of time, public transit ridership soared, increasing about 9%, according to a study to be released by the city on Monday.
Bruce Schaller, the city’s deputy transportation commissioner for planning an sustainability, who wrote the report said: READ MORE
Will Schumer be the Dingell of the farm industry?
Eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from livestock. Direct emissions from methane released from cow belching, farting, and manure, as well as indirect, from the cutting of forests and growing of feed to support livestock, are a massive problem for the environment. Recently, there have been rumors that the EPA might be considering a proposal to impose a fee on some of these emissions.
Although the EPA denies that it is proposing such a regulation, the farm lobby and its supporters in Congress are already gearing up for a fight. READ MORE
Judge blocks NYC’s efforts to switch to hybrid taxi fleet
A federal judge ruled today that NYC cannot require its fleet of 13,237 yellow cabs to use hybrid technology. This ruling will deal a major setback to other state and local governments that are trying to create an ad hoc patchwork of emissions and fuel standards in place of the void in leadership from Washington. READ MORE
California to sue EPA over ship, jet and farm equipment emissions
California announced yesterday that it intends to lead a number of states in filing a lawsuit against the EPA for its failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, planes and farm equipment. The announcement, made by Attorney General Jerry Brown, comes on the heels of a series of environmental disputes between California and the federal government. This is also not the first dispute between the parties dealing with the EPA’s stance towards greenhouse gas emissions.
An EPA spokesman responded to Jerry Brown’s announcement by stating, this “is certainly typical of the attorney general of California. If they don’t like how we make a decision on something, they sue and hope the courts will mandate toward their position. It works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t work.”
Apparently, greenhouse gas emissions from the sources in dispute here (ships, off-road engines and jets), are greater than those released by every registered vehicle in the United States. This is clearly an important issue for state governments, and could just be the beginning of these state vs. federal government disputes, depending on the results of the presidential election.
Has a tipping point been reached with gas prices?
Apparently gas prices have finally reached some sort of tipping point, as public transit ridership numbers are growing at the fastest rate in at least a decade. While public transit ridership has been slowly growing over the past several years (with a 2.1% growth last year), it is predicted that average growth will reach 5% or more this year, as high gas prices and a slower economy drive more commuters on to public buses and trains.
Denver, which recently began work on a major public railway expansion, has seen ridership numbers increase by 8% compared to last year. And for the first time since 1991, the federal Energy Department predicts that Americans will consume less gas this year than last.
Evidence is slightly mixed in Los Angeles, but appears to indicate that the roads are clearing a bit, while public transit use increases as well.
This is all good news for proponents of mass transit and confirmation that political opportunists who have advocated the lifting of federal gas taxes (while also espousing their pro-environment credentials) are completely off-base. Unfortunately for McCain and Clinton, even if all mainstream economists are uniformly wrong in their belief that any tax reduction will be met with an equivalent increase in prices by the gas companies, (and that their policies therefore would result in a lowering of gas prices), they would be releasing the recent pressure that has led to this increase in public transit ridership and decrease in road congestion.
If we have, in fact, reached some sort of tipping point with gas prices and transportation, then the policy proposals from our leaders should be “how can we take advantage of this shift in daily behavior,” instead of “how do we reverse it by trying to lower gas prices?” This is an opportunity and we, as a society, need to take it.
NYC congestion pricing one step closer.
Living in Los Angeles, we’ve kept a close eye on New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to enact congestion pricing in Manhattan. This proposal got another boost yesterday when the city council approved a measure urging the State Legislature to adopt the plan.
As we noted in a previous post, some of the highlights of the plan include: charging all drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street an $8 fee between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., requiring the revenue (estimated at nearly half a billion a year) to be reinvested into mass transit, and providing cost breaks for the poor.
The only hurdle left is State Legislature approval, which if given, will allow congestion pricing in Manhattan to begin as early as March 31, 2009.
It is our feeling that this system will substantially increase the quality of life in New York City. Of course, congestion pricing is somewhat controversial because it takes a public resource (roadways) and charges a fee for their use. Fortunately, New Yorkers are used to paying for roadway access. (Just work backwards from the West Coast term “freeway.”) Therefore, imposing another toll on New York drivers would not be an unnatural concept.
As for the argument that it unfairly discriminates against the poor, who have less money to spend on tolls, the answer to this criticism is contained within the proposal itself. By reinvesting the revenue generated into mass transit, poor people (who rely more heavily on mass transit than the rich) should reap much of the benefit.
In attempting to apply congestion pricing to a city like Los Angeles, these two points, unfortunately will not be quite as applicable. First, most California drivers have never paid a cent for roadway access (aside from a handful of bridges and private roads). Convincing them to pay for something that has been, up to that point, completely free, will be difficult.
Second, unlike New York, Los Angeles has a horrendous public transit system. The way to reinvest any revenues from congestion pricing is not nearly as clear as in New York, which has a fully developed and integrated public rail (and bus) system. Nonetheless, as we noted recently, mass transit in LA is possible (and once was amazing), so maybe the windfall revenue from congestion pricing would be the catalyst needed to finally get a real solution implemented.
Black cabs go green in NYC.
New York City Mayor Bloomberg continued to provide leadership in implementing policies intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions when he announced that all 10,000 of the city’s black town cars (also known by their politically incorrect nickname “Gypsy cabs,” due to the fact that they often cruise the city picking up passengers) would be required to increase their fuel efficiency standards to 30 miles per gallon by 2010. (They currently average around 13 miles per gallon.)
The result will be that these town cars are going to have to shift to hybrid technology in order to meet the strict requirements, which are intended to reduce their emissions by 50%. Mayor Bloomberg has a history of taking a strong leadership position on environmental issues, highlighted by his comprehensive plan to reduce the city’s aggregate carbon emissions by 30% by 2030, which also includes requiring all 13,000 of the city’s yellow cabs to be hybrids by 2012. READ MORE
Bloomberg compares global warming threat to that from terrorism.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech to a United Nations environmental conference recently. At this conference he asserted that fighting global warming “is just as important as stopping terrorism.” Making this point, he stated, “Weapons of mass destruction - if they get out of the hands of the countries that have them and get into the hands of terrorists, the potential is just mind-boggling . . . Global warming is a much longer-term thing. But it has all the same potential of destroying the planet we live on.”
Under Bloomberg’s leadership New York has been a model for green reforms. Specifically, his administration has laid out a real path for cutting the city’s CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and has been a leading voice at the local level for changes to our nation’s policies.
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