Andrea Bernstein

(New York - Matthew Schuerman, WNYC) -- In the wake of a well-publicized double-stabbing in a Greenwich Village subway station last month, many hands were wrung about the woeful lack of security cameras in subways.

Turns out that New York's attempts to install security devices in subways have been fraught with questions from the beginning.

In the weeks after the London Underground bombing five years ago, New York City officials repeatedly hammered the region’s transit agency for being unprepared for a similar terrorist attack. Six weeks alter, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority responded with a massive $215 million dollar contract to Lockheed Martin.

But almost immediately, watchdogs and oversight officials began to wonder aloud whether Lockheed could deliver on a high-profile promise: installing cameras that could detect unattended bags on subway platforms.

Fast forward to 2010: Large portions of the contract have failed to deliver what was promised. MTA and Lockheed are fighting in court. And the zooming technology? Didn’t work, because it didn’t take into account the hundreds of people who would be passing in front of, behind, and next to that briefcase.

WNYC's Matthew Schuerman traces the history of the contract, from its original promise until today.

Bike share users register online, and pick up and return bikes at any of 40 stations around Denver (photo: Andrea Bernstein)

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) Boston, Minneapolis, and Denver all have been planning roll-outs for major bike share programs this spring, but Denver is first out of the gate. A rainy earth day marked the launch of 400 bikes in the bike-share program, which is designed to significantly augment Denver's public transit system. (Washington DC has been up and running for a while, but with only 100 bucks, it's widely seen as too small to serve that mass transit function). Denver's program is run by B-cycle, which has built-in GPS devices to deter theft -- at any one time the operators will know who has checked out a bike and where it is. Boston and Minneapolis start later this spring. Several dozen European cities have bike-share programs, and New York, San Francisco, and Portland are all in the early stages of development.  Hear from a rider, and a reporter in Denver on the day of the launch: The Takeaway.

In 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg created not a few waves by unveiling PlanNYC, a 127-point plan to cut New York's carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030. The signature initiative -- which drew almost all the heat -- was a congestion pricing plan to charge drivers entering certain parts of Manhattan. That plan died under fierce opposition from the state Assembly. Also struggling is a proposal to make the city's taxi fleet hybrid, overturned by Federal Judge Paul Crotty. Even so, at the three-year mark the city is calling its efforts "a great start." New York City Sustainability Director Rohit Aggarwala sits down with Transportation Nation's Andrea Bernstein to discuss PlaNYC at 3.

New York, NY —

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says 51 of 127 goals of his ambitious PlaNYC to reduce carbon emissions have been achieved, and 21 "nearly achieved." But several aren’t what he’d hoped, including his plan to charge drivers to enter parts of Manhattan during the day ...

Just in time for Earth Week, New York City is releasing a slew of reports showing how well-off it is because of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's green initiatives. Today's report comes by way of CEOs for Cities, in town holding its annual "Strategies for Cities" conference. Economist Joe Cortright ran the ...

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has some nice photos of the protest today -- sanctioned by Atlanta's transit system, MARTA -- putting big red "X"s on buses and train cars to visually represent cuts the system faces later this year.

(photo:Flickr.com)

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) Just in time for Earth Week, New York City is releasing a slew of reports showing how well-off it is because of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's green initiatives. Today's report comes by way of CEOs for Cities, in town holding its annual "Strategies for Cities" conference. Economist Joe Cortright ran the numbers: because New Yorkers drive less, about 16 miles a day less than their counterparts in other urban areas, then spend $19 billion less a year than the "average" city dweller in the U.S. Sitting right on that average are Denver, Minneapolis, and Hartford, CN.

It's not exactly news that New Yorkers drive less, and save on transportation -- City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (introduced at the conference as a "goddess,") likes to say that everyone could immediate cut their carbon footprint by 2/3 simply by moving to New York.

But it's the first time the number has been aggregated this way.

By the way, Houston residents drive the most, an average of 38 miles a day. But in Houston, which has an oil economy, at least some of that money can be calculated to go back into the local area.

He was once Bronx Borough President. In the battle over whether charging drivers to enter Manhattan's business district was good social policy that would discourage driving, lower the city's carbon footprint, and push funds towards transit -- or unfairly penalize residents of the "outer boroughs" -- Aldofo Carrion chose the ...

Adolfo Carrion, White House Director of Urban Affairs

(New York, NY - Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) -- Adolfo Carrion was once Bronx Borough President -- and may someday run for Mayor of New York City. But now he's taking a swing through Washington, as Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. And he's not being shy about pushing a policy that went down to bitter defeat in New York a couple years back.

A little history: prompted by London's success, a number of business leaders in New York began pushing a plan to charge drivers to enter Manhattan's business district. In London, the program had been a brainchild of "Red Ken," the former socialist London Mayor who saw it as a way to transfer wealth from car owners to transit riders, while reducing congestion and pollution, three goals it largely attained. 

New Jersey Transit's board voted unanimously today to approve higher fares and service cuts [by a vote of 6 to 0.]

Most express bus and commuter rail fares into New York will go up 25 percent. Off-peak train fares will rise by almost 50 percent because off-peak discounts will be ...

(April 14, Matthew Schuerman, WNYC)

Do the math. If you pay $600 a month now for transit, you'll pay $750 beginning May 1, or $1800 more a year. That's the biggest hike (by percent) in almost three decades.

Succumbing to crushing fiscal realities faced by transit systems across the nation, the third large transit system in America voted unanimously today to approve higher fares and service cuts. The vote was 6-0.

Most express bus and commuter rail fares into New York will go up 25 percent. Off-peak train fares will rise by almost 50 percent because off-peak discounts will be eliminated.

(KUHF, Houston, April 14) The city of Houston has long held the assumption that driving drives business, and businesses must provide for drivers. But as that city begins to look at denser development, business owners wonder whether minimum parking requirements are good public policy. Wendy Siegle at KUHF has more.

(April 14, Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) From LaHood this morning: April is National Safe Digging Month. Turns out EVERYONE is supposed to call 811 before digging. Who knew?

When we asked the transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, whether she wanted to respond to Marty Markowitz's comment that she's a 'zealot,' before our story aired, her spokesman merely reiterated her commitment to safety on Prospect Park West. But today, she tells the Times City Room a little ...

Lots of ripples from our Marty Markowitz interview yesterday. Commenters to our original post alternately cheer the BP's stance and mock his recommendation to ride on the sidewalks. "Stephen" was typical, who referred to "the elephant in the room -- biking on the sidewalks is illegal."

Markowitz has a ...

(Andrea Bernstein, WNYC, April 13) Lot's of response to the interview which aired on WNYC with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, on his opposition to a bike lane along Prospect Park West, including one from Markowitz himself.

In the interview, Markowitz recommended cyclists could ride on little-used sidewalks. In an email, he clarifies that recommendation.

"Like our DOT Commissioner, whose professionalism I respect, I too support cycling in this city

New York City cabbies are iconic as the Statue of Liberty but you can hear their voices about as often as as you do the torch-bearing lady's. So it was enlightening when about 100 packed into WNYC's Greene Space performance hall to tell their stories, answer a few questions, and gripe to the new commissioner, David Yassky, who also attended.

We'll be posting the full audio and some pix of the WNYC News forum "Out from Behind the Wheel," soon, but here were a few highlights:

*Many many taxi drivers have been doing this for 15,20,30 years. Who knew?
*Many feel affronted by the question "where are you from"? Some say they've lost fares when passengers don't like the answer.
*They are REALLY upset by the 50 cent transit tax assessed on each trip as part of last year's transit bailout package. In the most emotional moment of a pretty charged forum, they said it directly cut into their tips.
One of my favorite moments, a Brooklyn-born woman hack said, when asked where she's form, she says "Where are YOU from?"

(Andrea Bernstein, WNYC, New York) Park Slope in Brooklyn is one of those urban neighborhoods where people compost, drive Priuses (when they drive), and hang their laundry to dry. It's home to the oldest food co-operative in the United States. So it's perhaps an unlikely place to find a skirmish in the bike lane wars, but there it is, reorganizing street space is rarely controversy-free, in any neighborhood.

On the one hand cyclists, the City DOT, and the local Community Board are in favor of eliminating a lane of traffic along Frederick Law Olmstead's crown jewel, Prospect Park, to install a two-way, protected bike lane. They say slowing traffic and creating more space for cyclists will improve everyone's safety.

But the borough president, Marty Markowitz, (the kind of guy who puts "leaving Brooklyn, fuggedabout it!" on highway signs) thinks it will create insufferable congestion for motorists.

It's the stated policy of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reduce automobile use in New York, to cut the city's carbon footprint. Many cities are eying whether parking policy can be used to drive people out of their cars and onto bikes, transit, or into carpools. But as Andrea Bernstein's interview with Borough President Markowitz shows, sparks fly when social goals rub motorists the wrong way.

Street space is one of the most valuable commodities in New York City, and the volume knob has been turned up since City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan started adding hundreds of miles of bike lanes to city streets.

The latest firefight is over space on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn, with cyclists, the DOT, and the community board lined up on one side, and motorists and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz on the other.

Markowitz has long been leery of moving fast in re-organizing city streets, opposing, for example, banning all car traffic in Prospect Park, and bridge tolls on the East River Bridges.

To learn more about his philosophy of transportation, WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein sat down for a wide-ranging interview with the third-term borough president, Brooklyn’s chief cheerleader. You’ll find out why he thinks Commissioner Sadik-Khan is a zealot, how he feels about turning over parking spots to pedestrians, why he’s for a gas tax -- and why he welcomes the hipster-yuppie class to his borough.

Listen to the WNYC segment here:

Listen to the full interview here, or read it below:

Andrea Bernstein: The things that you’ve said over the years, and the positions that you’ve taken, show an identification with “Joe Brooklyn Driver.” A sense that if you are living in Brooklyn and you are a working person and you have a car, life can be tough. Do you think that is fair?

Marty Markowitz: Well, I’m not going to say it’s unfair. The world of Brooklyn is not dominated by those that deem it, that everyone has to be on bicycles and those that own cars should be isolated. And there is a segment of those who are avid bicyclists that believe that car owners are evil, and therefore the philosophy of the city of New York should do and be whatever one can do to help minimize car owners, cars and to try to rid the world of automobiles and to ensure that everyone is on a bicycle. There are people that really want to do that.

My job as borough president is to balance the needs of this entire borough. The majority of Brooklyn lives on the southern side of Prospect Park, not the northern side. And very often, many people in Brooklyn need their vehicle either for their livelihood or their personal pleasure. And I for one want to continue to do my part to make Brooklyn, and New York, a resident-friendly place as much as possible. So it’s a balance that you have to find. And that’s why I have supported bicycle lanes, throughout the borough. The Greenway is a good example -– that I’m one of the leading advocates for. And will continue to press for that. The bicycle lane on Ninth Street that’s around the corner from where I lived, I fully supported, not one peep from me, because it made sense, because it leads into Prospect Park. But where I feel bicycle lanes would have an adverse affect my job is to speak up for it.

Those that wanted to close Prospect Park inside to traffic twenty four hours a day -– I represent the whole borough, and not just one community. And that would be a hardship for many owners of cars that need the pathway, need to drive to get to and from work. There has to be a balance, and that’s the balance that I seek to find.

AB: The first time I heard you talking about these issues was in fact at a press conference in Grand Army Plaza. I’m trying to figure out when it was –- it all blends together -– but I think it was sometime in the earlier part of the last decade, when there was a decision to restrict the car use in the park. And you were quite clear at that press conference that you didn’t want there to be an adverse impact on Ditmas Park and those neighborhoods on the east side of the park. And I’m wondering what you’ve heard from people since then. Has restricting the use of cars in fact made life tougher for those people?

A taxi driver gives change to a customer on 7th Avenue at Penn Station. (Getty Images)

(New York - WNYC) -- WNYC's Kathleen Horan has been reporting on NYC taxi drivers and their reaction to the assertion almost all of them stole from customers: disbelief, anger, wounded pride.  Now it turns out the city's accusations may have way overreached. Outgoing Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus is acknowledging "significant" errors in the data, and saying the city doesn't yet know how many (or how few) cabbies actually overcharged customers. Turns out the TLC had data "it didn't know existed" that may exonerate many cabbies.