NYC Mayor policies blamed for Terrible Traffic. VOL bike lane hell

ninjahood

ninjahood

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The real reason for New York City's traffic nightmare
By Shawn Cohen, Yoav Gonen and Laura Italiano December 2, 2016 | 11:34pm | Updated
The real reason for New York City's traffic nightmare
Bumper to bumper traffic along Canal Street. Photo: Matt McDermott
Time for some traffic problems in Manhattan!

City officials have intentionally ground Midtown to a halt with the hidden purpose of making drivers so miserable that they leave their cars at home and turn to mass transit or bicycles, high-level sources told The Post.

Today’s gridlock is the result of an effort by the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations over more than a decade of redesigning streets and ramping up police efforts, the sources said.


“The traffic is being engineered,” a former top NYPD official told The Post, explaining a long-term plan that began under Mayor Mike Bloomberg and hasn’t slowed with Mayor de Blasio.

“The city streets are being engineered to create traffic congestion, to slow traffic down, to favor bikers and pedestrians,” the former official said.

“There’s a reduction in capacity through the introduction of bike lanes and streets and lanes being closed down.”

The concerted effort includes:

Pedestrian plazas that have cut off entire lanes of traffic and created bottlenecks.
Protected bike lanes on major avenues that eat up a traffic lane and force trucks to double park.
Cross streets where turns are forbidden on nearly all avenues.
Intersections where drivers must wait for green arrows to turn onto avenues.
Ordering traffic agents to focus more on writing tickets and less on directing traffic.
The goal of the jammed traffic is to shift as many drivers as possible to public transit or bicycles.

An added benefit was supposed to be safer streets, but city officials have said that while 45,000 fewer cars and trucks now come into Midtown daily than in 2010, pedestrian deaths are on the uptick this year.

The driver headaches began under Bloomberg in 2003, with his THRU Streets program that prohibits drivers from turning onto most avenues from nine Midtown cross streets during weekday hours.

Bloomberg then tried to drastically cut vehicle traffic with a congestion-pricing program that would have charged drivers to enter Midtown.

Albany nixed that plan in 2007, and the next year, Bloomberg changed tactics.

He again targeted drivers with his ambitious Green Light for Midtown Project, which, starting in 2009, installed roadway-narrowing redesigns of Columbus Circle, Broadway, Times Square and Herald Square.

Green Light includes pedestrian plazas and protected bike lanes that are still being completed under de Blasio, who has further snarled traffic with reduced speed limits, redesigned intersections and aggressive summons-writing as part of his Vision Zero initiative.


An NYPD officer directs traffic along Canal Street.Photo: Matt McDermott
“This all goes back to when Bloomberg wasn’t getting his congestion pricing, so they started doing others things,” a second source said.

“They’re not coming out and saying it, but they’re doing other things to cut down on traffic coming into city, things such as taking streets that had four lanes and making them three by creating bike lanes, or putting a plaza in, creating pedestrian islands,” the source said.

“They’re purposefully cutting down on the number of vehicles coming into the city by cutting down the space for vehicles.”

The source said de Blasio “doesn’t care about traffic” and noted that the mayor could now blame congestion on President-elect Donald Trump, whose Trump Tower in Midtown is now ringed with security.

“He really doesn’t care,” the source said. “Instead of working around it and helping it out, he’ll just blame everything on Trump.”

Adding to the gridlock, traffic agents are being ordered to focus more on writing tickets and less on keeping vehicles moving, a former NYPD traffic-safety officer said.

“Almost nobody’s doing traffic direction anymore. Everybody’s focused on enforcement of parking violations,” said the former officer, who was a liaison with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The NYPD declined to comment.

‘The city streets are being engineered to create traffic congestion, to slow traffic down, to favor bikers and pedestrians.’
De Blasio spokesman Austin ­Finan on Friday denied any effort by City Hall to slow down cars.

“The notion that we want or are somehow ‘engineering’ traffic congestion is absurd,” he said.

“Economic growth, record tourism, construction activity and a growing population means our streets are overburdened like never before.

“DOT and NYPD work extremely hard to keep New Yorkers moving on our streets safely and efficiently by foot, bus, car and bike.”

Still, Manhattan has become a vehicular hell where drivers suffer an average speed of 8.2 mph.

Among them was Braulio Cefea, who was stuck in a traffic jam on the Manhattan side of the Queens Midtown Tunnel Friday.

“This is a bad idea,” he said of Midtown’s intentional traffic snarls. “Bad, bad idea!”

Troy Johnson, 29, sitting in the same traffic jam, was furious at the insiders’ allegations of an effort by City Hall to clog traffic.

“If it’s true,” he said, “you are going to see some serious road rage!”
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http://nypost.com/2016/12/02/new-york-citys-traffic-is-intentionally-horrible/
 
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Never understood why anyone would drive a car below like 86th street.

It's faster to take the train. Even walking is good, Manhattan is small.
 
Based Jesus said:
Never understood why anyone would drive a car below like 86th street.
It's faster to take the train. Even walking is good, Manhattan is small.
Click to expand...

not really, i drive everyday, its waaay faster to get to places by car... problem is da parking restrictions that make taking your car anywhere in midtown punitive.

what Deblasio is doing Basically destroying street flow by blocking off entire lanes for protected bike lane NO ONE USES in large numbers vs streets..creates bottle necks & major gridlock

its a liberal wet dream for people to get rid of their cars, i went to 5th ave downtown driving, and this rooster sucking Mayor got people designing streets that have buffer zones that eliminate entire lanes for no other reason than to "calm traffic" which is code word for bringing things to a snarl.
 
car drivers looking for sympathy in nyc??? 

you happy the cross bronx and BQE destroyed neighborhoods?

Moses made the city more car dependent at the expense of developing our public transit, mad at cyclist but you think if they drove cars instead it would make it better?
 
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ninjahood said:
Robert Moses's cross bronx & BQE were on balance more beneficial to NYC then not.
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so the rich could easy enter manhattan without facing the poverty in outer areas? theres a reason the rich people in downtown manhttan didnt let the cross manhttan express way get built
 
dont even get started on the problems 57th and 59th street are going through right now cause of trump tower.

they want us to go use public transportation, but in all my years of using MTA, it's never been this bad. literally every station is getting "worked" on. delays and re re re routes all over the place. I was stuck on the L last month for about 40 mins at bedford. multiple times the conductor said we was being held there. then after some more time, he said "this train is out of service". swear to god we almost flipped that mother over.

this city is becoming too populated. and populated with people bringing their midwestern, square state style of maneuvering through the city . its slowed down to a snails pace. like you ninja, im nostalgic about what NYC used to be and mean. as of right now, it's a metropolis teetering on the edge of turning to Hong Kong.
 
MasterPlanMan said:
so the rich could easy enter manhattan without facing the poverty in outer areas? theres a reason the rich people in downtown manhttan didnt let the cross manhttan express way get built
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that was da only one considered superfluous.

even da LES expressway that also didn't end up being built would've been beneficial to downtown traffic.

da cross bronx & BQE are some of da most heaviest used highways in NYC...you can't even imagine da city without those lines for delivery & transport. u buggin.
 
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GRideBounca11 said:
dont even get started on the problems 57th and 59th street are going through right now cause of trump tower.

they want us to go use public transportation, but in all my years of using MTA, it's never been this bad. literally every station is getting "worked" on. delays and re re re routes all over the place. I was stuck on the L last month for about 40 mins at bedford. multiple times the conductor said we was being held there. then after some more time, he said "this train is out of service". swear to god we almost flipped that mother over.

this city is becoming too populated. and populated with people bringing their midwestern, square state style of maneuvering through the city . its slowed down to a snails pace. like you ninja, im nostalgic about what NYC used to be and mean. as of right now, it's a metropolis teetering on the edge of turning to Hong Kong.
Click to expand...

more people gotta have opportunities outside in da rest of US so they don't come piling in NYC.

these lane closing pedestrian plazas are choking traffic.

i leave my house almost 2 hours ahead to avoid traffic now, with whats supposed to be a 40 min commute.
 
ninjahood said:
that was da only one considered superfluous.

even da LES expressway that also didn't end up being built would've been beneficial to downtown traffic.

da cross bronx & BQE are some of da most heaviest used highways in NYC...you can't even imagine da city without those lines for delivery & transport. u buggin.
Click to expand...
you cant imagine the city without those lines? you dont have much imagination, cant believe dudes really complaining they cant drive through mid town likes its the suburbs, surprised you didnt move to jersey yet
 
ninjahood said:
more people gotta have opportunities outside in da rest of US so they don't come piling in NYC.

these lane closing pedestrian plazas are choking traffic.

i leave my house almost 2 hours ahead to avoid traffic now, with whats supposed to be a 40 min commute.
Click to expand...

No traffic issues where I live :pimp:

And I can be in the city in 25 mins...ya doing it wrong.
 
MasterPlanMan said:



you cant imagine the city without those lines? you dont have much imagination, cant believe dudes really complaining they cant drive through mid town likes its the suburbs, surprised you didnt move to jersey yet
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da i95 corridor is probably one of da most travel routes in all of America.. da Cross Bronx was gonna happen one way or another.

and creating pedestrian plazas to intentionally aggravate drivers by slowing traffic and using road Planning as ideological weapons is wrong.
 
As a driver who only drives during the weekend, I can't fathom anyone who drives daily in NYC. Especially midtown. Btw the yellow cabs fools, the pigs, and oblivious pedestrians and cyclist I would off myself.

You can't park anywhere becuase it's only for commercial vehicles, you can't stand anywhere becuase cops roll up and ticket you, bike lanes are dumb wide plus another lane for buses. It obviously intentional to get people out of the city with cars.

You couldn't pay me to drive to in city from 1st street to 70th street.

And it still feels like there are more cars than before.
 
ksteezy said:
ninjahood said:
more people gotta have opportunities outside in da rest of US so they don't come piling in NYC.

these lane closing pedestrian plazas are choking traffic.

i leave my house almost 2 hours ahead to avoid traffic now, with whats supposed to be a 40 min commute.
Click to expand...

No traffic issues where I live :pimp:

And I can be in the city in 25 mins...ya doing it wrong.
Click to expand...

Deblasio has no jurisdiction in Westchester.. luck for u.
 
ksteezy said:
ninjahood said:
more people gotta have opportunities outside in da rest of US so they don't come piling in NYC.

these lane closing pedestrian plazas are choking traffic.

i leave my house almost 2 hours ahead to avoid traffic now, with whats supposed to be a 40 min commute.
Click to expand...

No traffic issues where I live :pimp:

And I can be in the city in 25 mins...ya doing it wrong.
Click to expand...

On a Sunday, sure it can take you 25 mins.
Other than that I don't see how you can beat anyone else's drive to the city just for being in lame *** westchester.


Deblasio ******* sucks. He's been ******* drivers over since he got in office.
Where's the coalition that can fight for motorists' interests?
 
GRideBounca11 said:
dont even get started on the problems 57th and 59th street are going through right now cause of trump tower.

they want us to go use public transportation, but in all my years of using MTA, it's never been this bad. literally every station is getting "worked" on. delays and re re re routes all over the place. I was stuck on the L last month for about 40 mins at bedford. multiple times the conductor said we was being held there. then after some more time, he said "this train is out of service". swear to god we almost flipped that mother over.

this city is becoming too populated. and populated with people bringing their midwestern, square state style of maneuvering through the city . its slowed down to a snails pace. like you ninja, im nostalgic about what NYC used to be and mean. as of right now, it's a metropolis teetering on the edge of turning to Hong Kong.
Click to expand...


**** is flat out disgusting at this point.

and they want $3 a ride next year?

and tha first phase (smfh first god damn phase :smh: ) of tha second ave line might not even be open on time at tha end of tha year...........again :smh:


AZwildcats said:
NYC sucks
Click to expand...

this year has a papi actually agreeing with this. :smh:
 
2nd ave construction blocks a portion of traffic...soon as they finish? add a ridiculous protected bike lane :smh:

those jackwagons better not ever dip into public funds supporting Citibike.... i hope its a tundra this year so whoever thinks of using a bike in da winter will suffer frostbite on their ***.
 
the traffic from that second ave line is the worst thing on the face of this earth. like it goes from narrow to wide then back to narrow. the city been **** but this project has been a disaster since the early 2000's. 

nyc aint for the poor or middle class. all these policies and "upgrades' are a ploy to rid the city of the working class. stay strapped gentlemen. 
 
GRideBounca11 said:
dont even get started on the problems 57th and 59th street are going through right now cause of trump tower.

they want us to go use public transportation, but in all my years of using MTA, it's never been this bad. literally every station is getting "worked" on. delays and re re re routes all over the place. I was stuck on the L last month for about 40 mins at bedford. multiple times the conductor said we was being held there. then after some more time, he said "this train is out of service". swear to god we almost flipped that mother over.

this city is becoming too populated. and populated with people bringing their midwestern, square state style of maneuvering through the city . its slowed down to a snails pace. like you ninja, im nostalgic about what NYC used to be and mean. as of right now, it's a metropolis teetering on the edge of turning to Hong Kong.
Click to expand...

the city is overcrowded def, and there is no amount of engineering they can do to really manage that. simply put, the city was never designed for the population it is seeing now, and new york isn't the only city dealing with that. the subway suffers the most, as the sheer number of people will mathematically translate to delays.


but NYC was broke at some point for a while no? old NYC heads check in, but in the 60s-80s, NYC was run down, bombed out, and broke. essentially the dark zone from The Division. hence, infrastructure wasn't being invested in then (like many places around the country) so ffw to now, the MTA is pouring billions into capital construction projects, with the end goal to provide a cleaner, safer, and more robust transit system (relatively speaking).

problem is they are making this massive long term investment during a population boom. some number of people are leaving nyc to find a cheaper city to live in, but i think the number of incoming people is huge, hence the housing market boom with real estate developers building non stop and charging savagely.

plus add on the fact, from an engineering perspective, they are trying to rehab a transit network that is what...the oldest in the united states? we can all agree it is by far the most run down.

plus you got the water level rising so another sandy could happen again and reak havoc on the tunnels (mainly lower manhattan to brooklyn). RIP to L train riders, that tunnel is too far gone, they have to rebuild it.




i think what im trying to say is that i sometimes think the MTA gets more blame than is deserved. corruption aside, the MTA can't fix the overcrowding issue of NYC, and congress hasn't really invested in infrastructure in some time. the largest system in the country is also the oldest and in the worst condition, and sometimes i think the MTA barely has enough resources to keep the system running at 24/7 capacity.

as new yorkers we have good reason to be against any fair hike. the burden of financing the level of construction needed to really address the needs of the subway should not fall mainly on the shoulders of everyday riders. there are a lot of poor people in nyc, and incomes are stagnant mostly ranging from low 40s to high 70s depending on the boro.

but i can't objectively say the MTA ain't pulling their weight, the state needs to really step up big with billions.




feel free to check me in any aspect of this post, i hope i made some sense :lol: just the way i see things from a sort of logical perspective.
 
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