Speed Cameras Are Saving Lives...And Annoying Drivers

Plus: 4 Things I Learned at Transportation Camp [View this email in your browser]( 4 Things I Learned From Attending Transportation Camp, A Daycamp for Adults Plus: A slew of new speed cameras are reducing crashes...and annoying Staten Island drivers. 14th Street busway haters are going forward with their lawsuit. And if you lost your chainsaw on the Long Island Rail Road, it has been found. By [James Ramsay](mailto:james@wnyc.org?subject=We%20the%20Commuters) Jingqin Gao When you think of who controls New York City's transportation system, you probably conjure up a boardroom full of old, white, wealthy men who live in the suburbs and drive to work. And [you're not wrong](. But in the ranks below those guys, there's a generation of more diverse, less male, city-dwelling, tech-savvy, multi-modal public transportation fanatics who have a lot of ideas — and idealism — about finding better ways to move people. And I know because I met about 300 of them at last weekend's Transportation Camp, an all-day, $28 (or free for students) event that was open to the public and held at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering in downtown Brooklyn. Here are four things these engineers, programmers, policy experts, and college kids taught me about transportation and urban design, and where it's all headed: 1. 14th Street Is a Certified Hit. Now, People Want More 14th Streets. The 14th Street busway, which bans most private vehicles and prioritizes speedy bus service, [has been a smashing success]( with little evidence of the negative side effects certain people warned of. "I live on 14th Street, and the busway seems to be the topic of the day in every session I’ve been in," said Diane Jones Randall, a local commuter and cycling enthusiast. "I’m learning to appreciate it — I was a little bit reluctant to get on an SBS bus, but I like it now." Out-of-towners talked about visiting 14th Street like they had Hamilton tickets. And a group of young government employees (who didn’t give me permission to quote them) said this was proof that banning cars works. Now is not the time to run more pilots and "experiment" with car-free areas, they said. Now is the time to go ahead and do this in other parts of the city. 2. If You Want a Transit Agency's Immediate Attention, Tweet at Them True story: I was sitting on a G train at Bergen St. about a week ago when I noticed someone on the opposite platform pick up a garbage can and throw it. There was a loud noise, followed by a bright flash (I think the can hit the third rail?). Some people ran. And then our train hauled out of the station. Wondering what exactly just happened, I typed "Bergen St. G train twitter" into my phone, and immediately saw this: A few years ago, I don’t know if I would’ve gotten an answer that quickly. But it’s 2019, and transit agencies seem to be tweeting nonstop. And while only 22 percent of adults in the U.S. use Twitter. But public transportation agencies, from New York City to [Boston]( to Toronto, are militant about using the platform both to proactively spread information, and to field and respond to passenger comments and questions. So if you’re averse to Twitter but want a quick way to get direct information from NYC Transit, consider making an account called @4trainrider or something and just using it to message the MTA. 3. Young People Want to Work in Government. But They're Not Easy Jobs to Get. Every regional transit agency I could think of had a cohort of young employees in attendance: The Port Authority, LaGuardia Airport, MTA Bridges and Tunnels, the PATH, you name it. "A lot of planners I know, it’s about wanting to make a change within an institution that you know," said Alexandra Aiello, a Transportation Camp organizer. "And if they’re stifled at work, we want this to be an event where they shake off the bureaucracy, think outside the box, and let loose." But at a session titled "Come Work For the Government!", co-hosted by two employees from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, I learned just how hard it apparently is to break through the bureaucracy and get one of those jobs (and not just because there’s been a recent [hiring freeze](. For city jobs, many positions below the level of Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner require [an exam](. Those exams are not offered all the time. And it can take many months for those exams to be graded, for candidates to get called in for interviews, and for background checks to go through. The spiel made my brain bleed. But, if you’re an engineer or data scientist with a passion for transit, government jobs are an option. 4. New York City: It's Not That Bad "Compared to every other city, it’s just unmatched," [David Jerrido]( a geography and urban planning student at UNC Charlotte, told me. He said he's part of the two percent of Charlotte residents who commute via public transportation. "Because Charlotte is so sprawling, the transit network has to catch up with the city’s growth, and it’s lagging," he said, before launching into this succinct history lesson: "After World War II, the automobile was the prime mode of transportation. And the mindset ingrained into people’s heads was, you can live anywhere you want, because you can drive anywhere you want. "What needs to be done is, we have to change the mindset of living far away from where you do everything. What we need to get in the heads of citizens of the United States is, don’t be afraid to densify. Don’t be afraid to share utilities, share housing, and bump shoulders with other people." Best of the Week From Gothamist and WNYC Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro Here's a complete New York City subway map, with every stop renamed for a local woman. The 'City of Women' subway map, which was originally created in 2016, has been [updated with new names]( like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cardi B, and Jacqueline Woodson. "Because we make our way through this patriarchy knowing exactly what it is and exactly the toll that it exacts upon us," said the writer Mona Eltawahy, whose name is on a stop in Queens, "to see our name finally on the places where we take the subway, where we live, we can finally point to [men] and say, 'You see, this is what I’m talking about! We exist!'" Four LIRR foremen who brought in a combined $650,836 in overtime last year billed for time they spent driving to and from work. A new audit by the MTA Inspector General’s office found that while LIRR workers get paid for an allotted amount of travel time, these select employees abused that. Meanwhile, the US Attorney is investigating the LIRR for [potential federal crimes related to overtime abuse](. A 65-year-old cyclist was killed in Queens on Sunday after being struck by the driver of a SUV. Cyclist Bogdan Darmetko was making a left turn on Cross Bay Boulevard, which has bike lanes on both sides but no stoplight, when a 32-year-old driver hit him. This marked [the 25th death of a cyclist]( in New York City traffic this year. The Haunted Subway is back. [Tonight and tomorrow]( from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., transit officers and volunteers will be dressed up and ready to scare you and anyone else who wants to get spooked in the Union Square subway station. You have to be 7 or older because, judging by [last year's event]( it's actually really scary. What Else We're Reading Even though the 14th Street busway has been a success, the local residents who opposed it are going forward with their lawsuit. The city says bus service is now 30 percent faster, and an analytics firm found that traffic isn't seriously slowing down on side streets. But some residents who initially sued to block the busway are claiming congestion has gotten worse. So they're pressing on with their legal challenge. ([The Wall Street Journal]( Car crashes are way down after the city installed speed cameras that operate all day. Not only has the Department of Transportation installed 40 new cameras each months since June — the cameras now operate between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., rather than just during school hours. As a result, more speeding tickets have been issued, but between July 11th and October 11th, there were 10.4 percent fewer crashes than in the same time period last year. ([Streetsblog]( And...drivers on Staten Island are pissed about those speed cameras. "For every baby born on Staten Island with the name Joseph, we get a new speed camera," one person tweeted. ([SI Live]( Subway operators are nervous about the MTA's desire to speed up their rickety old trains. At the behest of NYC Transit chief Andy Byford, the MTA has [raised the speed limit]( in at least 90 locations across the subway system this year. But a new outside report found that conductors worry broken spedometers, decades-old signals, and untrustworthy brakes make speed increases too dangerous. ([New York Daily News]( A stretch of rail track that's currently freight-only could start carrying passengers between Bay Ridge and Queens again. The MTA is studying whether to put passenger cars back on the Long Island Rail Road-owned track between Ridgewood and Bay Ridge. If this goes through, it could become the first section of a planned train line that would run all the way from South Brooklyn up to Co-Op City in the Bronx. ([Brooklyn Daily Eagle]( Anyone Missing a Chainsaw? Jake Dobkin The Long Island Rail Road got a brand new Lost & Found this week, located inside Penn Station in the Exit Concourse between Tracks 16 and 17. Unclaimed items are stored from anywhere from three months to three years, depending on their value, and according to New York state law. The LIRR says it's able to reunite around 55 percent of found items with their owners, but at the end of the retention period, the MTA will dispose of the items or sell them to a third-party vendor. This chainsaw, which apparently doesn't work anyway, has been in storage since 2018, and the LIRR is getting ready to toss it. Check out [our slideshow]( of what else we found in there. Weekend Service Changes: Night of October 18th – Early Morning on October 21st This is a partial list of major service disruptions scheduled for the weekend. For a complete list of the MTA's Weekender updates, [check here](. Downtown trains will skip 86 St , 79 St, 66 St, 59 St and 50 St in Manhattan. train service between Franklin Av and Flatbush Av in Brooklyn will be replaced by free shuttle buses, and on Saturday and Sunday, downtown trains will skip 86 St , 79 St, 66 St, 59 St and 50 St in Manhattan. Saturday morning through Monday morning, train service between Parkchester and Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx will be replaced by free shuttle buses. train service between 205 St and Bedford Park Blvd in the Bronx will be replaced by free shuttle buses. On Saturday during the day, Coney Island-bound trains will skip 4 Av-9 St, 15 St-Prospect Park, Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Ditmas Av, Avenue I, Bay Pkwy, Avenue N, and Avenue P in Brooklyn. Starting Monday and continuing through Spring 2020, trains will not run between 86 St, Brooklyn and Coney Island-Stillwell Av while flood protection work is underway. [Check here]( for complete details about the Long Island Rail Road. For NJ Transit, [check here]( for the latest service advisories. Upcoming Meetings and Events Monday, October 21st Joint Metro-North & LIRR Committee Meeting — 8:30 a.m. NYC Transit / MTA Bus Committee Meeting — 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 22nd Bronx Bus Turnaround Campaign Meeting Bronx River Community center — 6:45 p.m. [RSVP and More Info]( Wednesday, October 23rd MTA Board Meeting — 10:00 a.m. Registration for two-minute public speaking slots opens 15 minutes before the start time for official MTA committee meetings. To speak before an MTA board meeting, you must register 30 minutes early. All meetings are held in the MTA's Board Room at 2 Broadway, on the 20th Floor. James Ramsay loves meeting transit folks in person. If you have an event he should attend, or just want to reach out to say hi, he's james@wnyc.org. (Photo by Amy Pearl) Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. 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