Ian Sacs

<p> So, I&#39;m out at a site visit with the city engineer last week and we&#39;re talking about ways to implement curb extensions to reduce pedestrian exposure to vehicular traffic.  We&#39;re discussing inexpensive ways to accomplish this, and then on queue, as is the right and obligation of all civil engineers, the ugly villain subject of all things bumped-out rears its head: drainage. </p>

<p> For those who either have been wondering about, or not regularly following, the private life and times of your correspondent, I believe some sort of explanation is in order for what appears to have been my abrupt and complete disappearance off the face of the Earth.  No, I did not get hit by an electric bus.  No, there were no sinkholes in my proverbial bike lane.  No, I didn&#39;t fatally discover an improperly phased pedestrian “Don&#39;t Walk” message on a recent signal timing field test.  In fact, I have not disappeared from the face of any planet; rather, I have been devoured by the political wranglings and machinations of a very complex and tumultuous mayoral campaign in my fantastic hometown of Hoboken, New Jersey.  More importantly, one week after being <a href="http://hudsonreporter.com/pages/full_stories_home/push?article--Hoboken+Mayor+Zimmer+hires+Ian+Sacs+to+head+Parking+Utility-+Corea+can+return+to+City+Hall+at+lower+salary-%20&amp;id=3510818--Hoboken+Mayor+Zimmer+hires+Ian+Sacs+to+head+Parking+Utility-+Corea+can+return+to+City+Hall+at+lower+salary-&amp;instance=up_to_the_minute_lead_story_left_column">appointed Provisional Director</a> of the Hoboken Parking Utility, my wife gave birth to a wonderful boy.  But – sniff – I did miss you! </p>

<p> You probably already know that the largest mass transit system in North America is in New York City.  Perhaps you didn’t know that this system is supplemented by a very heavily used sister-system between New York City and New Jersey called the Port Authority Trans-Hudson, or PATH for short.  PATH runs two lines through Jersey City, Newark, and Hoboken, carrying tens of thousands of passengers daily.  My hometown, Hoboken, is considered one of the most densely populated cities in the country, and a large number of those residents commute via PATH on a daily basis.  As the popularity of living in the city has increased, so have the swarms of passengers crowding onto PATH each morning and afternoon in their daily commute between New Jersey and Manhattan.  The cars are very old and make for a rickety, sometimes enthralling ride.  So it is not with anything but a huge warm welcome that we began to receive <a href="http://www.panynj.gov/path/new-path-cars.html">new rail cars</a> over the past month.

<p> Move over XBox; step aside Playstation.  The height of game-playing action is free and it&#39;s online.  The <a href="http://www.its.umn.edu/trafficcontrolgame/game/">new game in town</a> is University of Minnesota, Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute&#39;s &quot;<em>Gridlock Buster</em>&quot;.  Test your mettle on the increasing levels of difficulty in processing vehicular traffic through a network of intersections.

<p> Everybody knows that most, if not all, of downtown businesses&#39; customers arrive by car.  So it&#39;s intuitive to try to come up with a way to encourage drivers - who normally wouldn&#39;t venture downtown - to hop into their rides and cruise on down to Main Street to shop for wares.  If we could do this, just think of all the new business we&#39;d be stimulating!  In continuing with this logic, it&#39;s also a given that it&#39;s impossible for would-be customers to actually get to downtown without the essential <em>attaché</em> to driving, gasoline.  So, isn&#39;t it therefore intuitive to suggest that if cities were to give away a little bit of gas to each customer – you know, to kind-of thank them for their generosity - then customers would find an overwhelming incentiv