Should The MTA Mandate Vaccinations For Its Workers?

And more from Sarah Feinberg's "exit interview" [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] An 'Exit Interview' With Sarah Feinberg Plus: Revel's Tesla cabs are coming to lower Manhattan. The LaGuardia AirTrain isn't going to get you to the airport that quickly. And vehicle traffic has basically reached pre-pandemic levels again. By James Ramsay --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [NYC Transit interim leader Sarah Feinberg responds to a subway fire] Marc Hermann/AP Tomorrow, July 30th, will officially be Sarah Feinberg's final day as the interim president of New York City Transit. And while Gov. Andrew Cuomo has nominated Feinberg to be the next chair of the MTA, the appointment — which also involves splitting the current position of MTA CEO and chair into two roles — is currently held up in the State Senate. Nonetheless, today is her penultimate day overseeing day-to-day operations of the nation's largest municipal transit agency — a job that's markedly different from the one she'd be taking as the head of the entire MTA's board of directors. This morning, she spoke with Brian Lehrer about her experience in the job, how she sees the agency digging out of the pandemic, and why everyone — including cops — needs to wear a mask. Below are highlights [from their conversation](. On why she thinks the MTA's chair and CEO jobs should be two separate roles: The MTA is a multi-billion-dollar agency with 72,000 employees — on its best day, we need as many hands on the wheel as we can get. And the reality is, this is not its best day. Ridership has fallen off since the pandemic, we have a huge capital program ahead of us, congestion pricing — all of that stuff on the horizon, and the theory is, we need more strong leaders running the agency. On her experience working with Gov. Cuomo compared to what her predecessor, Andy Byford, [said he went through]( "I’ve never felt [marginalized]. I’ve made my own decisions, I’ve executed on my decisions, I felt like the governor has been a great partner to me. Others have felt differently. I would never try to speak for Andy, but I’ve never felt that way. I’ve enjoyed working with him, we share a vision for what New York City Transit can be." On getting back to full-strength after NYC Transit's hiring freeze: "What was different about the hiring freeze during the pandemic was it extended to operational titles — bus operators, train operators, positions that during a previous hiring freeze we would’ve continued to hire. So that’s had a huge impact. This financial crisis we went through was dire, nothing in the MTA’s past has compared to it. "But to be clear, we lifted the hiring freeze in February and we’ve been hiring into those operational titles ever since. With the lifting of some of the COVID restrictions, we’ve had more flexibility in training larger class sizes. But because we have so many operators who can work an overtime shift, the impact has been less than it could’ve been. We also have experienced people in our rail operations control center who can "flex the headways," so when we’re experiencing a crew shortage on a particular line, they can shift the trains around a little bit so people are less impacted. But there’s no question it’s had an impact." On continued mask enforcement: "The number of spouses and children I have talked to on the phone who lost a member of their family who worked at new York City Transit, I think if you can imagine some of those conversations, you would understand why I’m very much in favor of vaccination and would love to see every member of our workforce who’s able to get a vaccine. It’s up to the board, and I know there are discussions and I’ll leave it to the board to act on it, but personally, I would be in favor of it." --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Revel Got The Green Light To Bring Tesla Taxis To Manhattan [a blue Revel Tesla taxi on a city street] Revel After battling with the Taxi and Limousine Commission over whether new for-hire vehicles could be added to city streets, Revel has won approval to launch 50 e-hail Teslas in lower Manhattan in August. The cars — which, like Revel's better-known electric mopeds, are blue — won't be allowed to pick up or drop off passengers north of 42nd Street. "Our thinking here is similar to when we launched 68 mopeds in three North Brooklyn neighborhoods—with a limited fleet, we need to limit our service area to a smaller area where we know there’s going to be demand," said Revel CEO Frank Reig. "Once we’ve established what the utilization patterns and data look like, we can consider growing into other neighborhoods and boroughs." Unlike drivers for rivals Uber and Lyft, Revel’s drivers will be considered full time employees and receive minimum wages and benefits, such as paid time off and sick days. To begin, the company plans to hire 125 drivers and 25 support staff. Revel has also agreed to install electric vehicle charging stations around the city that will be open to the public. — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening Traffic in New York City is back to its pre-pandemic levels. More than 27.9 million vehicles were recorded at the nine tolled crossings controlled by the MTA last month, essentially matching the number hit in October of 2019. Port Authority bridges and tunnels also saw vehicle numbers nearly equal to what they were in the months prior to the pandemic. "We’re really alarmed by the trend, especially because transit ridership remains below 50% of pre-pandemic levels," said the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "It seems like we’re going right back to gridlock." ([THE CITY]( ) The MTA honored disability rights activist Edith Prentiss with a plaque on the elevator at her home subway station. Transit leaders, elected officials, and disability rights activists gathered at the 175th Street Station in upper Manhattan yesterday to honor Edith Prentiss, a longtime advocate who created the Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility, a volunteer group that worked with the MTA on accessibility issues. Prentiss, who died earlier this year, was also part of several active lawsuits against the MTA over its station renovations that failed to include accessibility upgrades. ([Gothamist]( The AirTrain to LaGuardia isn't really going to save anybody time getting to the airport. Vice's Aaron Gordon explains how Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $2.1 billion AirTrain project, which is set to go under construction later this year, is purported to get passengers from Manhattan to LaGuardia in 30 minutes. But that's contingent on catching an LIRR train from Penn Station that runs on the Port Washington Branch, which is known for its infrequent service. Gordon suggests some alternative improvements, such as creating bus-only lanes for the buses that already go to and from the airport. ([The Brian Lehrer Show]( ) Elected officials are calling for increased enforcement of illegal motorcycle use after a dirt biker critically injured a small child in a hit-and-run. A Queens man was charged last Thursday with felony assault and leaving the scene of an accident after allegedly hitting a four-year-old boy with an illegal dirt bike, sending the child to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams proposed creating a special unit to pursue and seize illegal bikes and ATVs, and also suggested creating a designated place — such as Floyd Bennett Field — to allow ATVs to ride around. ( [Gothamist]( In a farewell op-ed, outgoing MTA Chair and CEO Pat Foye urged New Yorkers to help the transit system recover by using it again. "It’s thanks to [the transit workforce] that we faced the greatest challenge in MTA history and came out rising to recovery on the other side," Foye wrote. "Now you can do your part by coming back to the system — a system that is safe, affordable, and open 24/7 to get you where you need to go." ([AM New York]( Now that NJ Transit has hired a bunch of new conductors, mechanical breakdowns are the main cause of canceled trains. For the first time in years, NJ Transit now has enough engineers to theoretically keep all of its trains running on schedule when conductors are on vacation or out sick. But underfunding for a 2014 plan to replace old trains has meant that aging cars are still in use — though they keep breaking down. ([NJ.com]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [the Classical Commute playlist logo, featuring an illustration of Beethoven in a conductor's car] Whether you're hitting the open road this weekend or just bopping around your neighborhood, give the experience a majestic boost with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra's rendition of William Grant Still's "The American Scene (The Southwest)," which is part of this week's Classical Commute playlist. [Stream it for free on Spotify](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- A final programming note: The We The Commuters newsletter will be off next week, and will return Thursday, August 12th. Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. [Terms of Use.]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your [preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from this list