New York: Transit By Example

New York's Mayor Bloomberg is making the battle against gridlock one of his administration's top priorities.

1 minute read

March 26, 2002, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"In Mr. Bloomberg's budget, in his policies, even in the example he is setting by riding the subway to City Hall most mornings, he is questioning the assumption that New Yorkers with cars should be able to take them where they want when they want with few hindrances - other than the heavy traffic created by too many other drivers doing the same.Evidence of the mayor's thinking can be found throughout the small print of his proposed budget. Beginning in the spring, for example, at about 3,500 parking meters on the East Side of Manhattan, parking on Sundays will no longer be free. Mr. Bloomberg has made it clear since he took office that he intends to start attacking totems of car culture, beginning with the entrenched one that has long existed in city bureaucracy. He asked agencies to shrink their car fleets, and ordered a cut of 30 percent in the huge number of official parking passes issued to everyone from the press to priests...Aides say that the mayor also fully supports keeping the peak hour SOV bridge ban in place as a permanent traffic management tool, to force people onto trains, buses and ferries and to thin out traffic into Manhattan during the morning rush."

Thanks to Linda LaSut

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 in The New York Times

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