Job for Trump Team: Traffic in New York and Elsewhere

Voters elected Donald Trump as President because they expect some bold strokes. We direct his attention to New York’s congested streets which are getting worse and worse.

What jarred us is plans to raise the monthly bus/subway fare to $121 from $116.50. Single fares would go to $3 from $2.75.

The $121 is an unconscionable burden on the working poor. The subway cost five cents from 1904-48. So that is a jump of 60X. Inflation has not been 60X since the 1940s. The fare went to ten cents in 1953 and 50 cents in 1980. Mayor Rudolf Giuliani eliminated two-fare zones in 1997.

Our solution, killing two birds with one stone, is to put a $1 per gallon surcharge on gas in the New York area and plow the funds into the subway/bus system. Other New Yorkers we have talked to say a $500 sticker might be required for any private vehicle using New York streets.

Other cities have worse traffic problems, according to USAToday, which says commuters lost 6.9 billion hours, and 3.1 billion gallons of fuel to traffic delays in 2015. Excess fuel and lost productivity cost American commuters $160 billion in 2014, up from $114 billion in 2000. The worst cities:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
3. Honolulu
4. New York
5. Seattle
6. San Jose
7. Miami
8. Chicago
9. Washington
10. Portland

Union Seeks New Contract, Makes Threats

A major force behind the bus/subway hikes is 34,000-member Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union which shut down the system three times to press its demands—12 days in 1966, 11 days in 1980 (despite a new law barring such strikes) and two days in 2005. An airing of labor and other costs of the transportation system is needed.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority and TWU agreed to a new contract on April 17, 2014 that includes 8% raises over five years and will not increase the base fare beyond existing plans, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

However, 7,000 TWU members rallied Nov. 15, 2016 outside of MTA h.q. on lower Broadway, demanding a new contract by Jan. 15, 2017. “Without us, the city grinds to a halt,” said TWU Int’l president Harry Lombardo. “We make this city go, and we can make it go in the other direction too,” he added.

Traffic Jams Boost Taxi Costs

Traffic jams are the norm in New York. Getting from midtown East Side, where we live, to the West Side, is an arduous undertaking whether buses or cabs are used. Cab rides that used to cost $5-$10 are now $15-$20 because of stalled traffic and increased fares.

There are many cabs and black Uber SUVs but most cars are private including those of service people.

Generating this increase in traffic is the boom in apartment and office construction. Lux apartments generate lots of vehicular traffic including cars owned by the occupants, car services they employ, trucks making deliveries, services that need vehicles such as internet, telephone, interior remodeling, etc.

City of 10,000 Under Our Window

Our apartment window looks down on probably the most valuable undeveloped piece of land in the world—the 5.5 acres next to the United Nations on First ave. from 38th to 42nd st.

But, as the photo shows, a half dozen large earth-movers have come to the site. After more than five years of legal skirmishing, way has now been cleared for construction of at least three high-rise apartments, one of them half again as tall as the U.N. A “city” of 10,000 is planned.

On the 36th st. side of our building are the “dancing towers,” two new high-rise apartments on land sold by Con Edison to JDS Development at 616 First ave. with 800+ units that are connected by a gymnasium.

Both of these developments plus many more that we can see from our windows will add to the congested streets of New York.

Federal Gas Tax Same as in 1993

The federal gas tax has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993.

States can also charge gas taxes but rarely increase them. New Jersey in September announced a 23-cent raise to 37.5 cents, its first increase since 1998. Gas taxes are a political hot potato that almost no one wants to handle.

Boosting gas taxes by $1 or more per gallon plus other measures would drive people into public transportation where the funds raised could help drop the subway/bus fares back to the $1.50 or lower level. Owners of private cars in New York are mostly in upper-income levels.

New York and many other cities are choking on vehicular traffic and no one seems to be connecting the problem with unbridled real estate development and expensive and/or inadequate public transportation.

Add Single Pay Med Plan, Ditch Tolls

Systemic, deeply-imbedded abuses that afflict the pocketbooks and health of many Americans also deserve attention from Trump.

Since it is so easy to collect money from gas taxes, a mere ten or 20-cent increase nationwide would probably be enough to eliminate toll roads. Collecting tolls physically or even electronically is 22X less efficient than collecting them via a gas tax. Connecticut has no toll roads and other states should study how they do it. Tolls cause traffic delays and waste both time and money of drivers.

A single-payer medical plan is also needed on the model of Medicare. Every industrialized nation has such a plan except the U.S.

Pushing both reforms would pit Trump against powerful lobbies. But he likes a fight and may take up these causes.

Radiation Warnings Needed; Movie Planned

Another worthwhile cause is eliminating as much as possible the ill-health effects caused by cellphones, computers, powerful Wi-Fi routers in classrooms and elsewhere, cell towers and host of other devices emitting pulsed, electromagnetic radiation. Incidence of autism has skyrocketed to one in 66 children and such radiation is a prime suspect. Plenty of other evidence of the harm of radiation is at www.bioinitiative.org

The California Brain Tumor Assn. said a major Hollywood producer plans a movie on cellphones and cancer and is searching for someone recently diagnosed with a brain tumor or breast tumor related to cell phone use. CBTA executive director Ellen Marks is assisting in the search.

The producer’s goal is to follow the person through treatment while showing how industry and government dodge the issue. “Big Hollywood names” are involved, says CBTA.

The group’s advice, especially to children, is to keep cellphones away from the body and have a wired computer mouse, wired internet connection and wired keyboard. Males should not put cellphones in pockets or pants but should carry them separately in a briefcase or male handbag.

CTIA, the cellphone industry association, whose motto is "Everything Wireless," is battling the one city in the U.S., Berkeley, Calif., that is trying to have stores post signs calling attention to warnings in the literature of the cellphone makers saying users should keep the phones away from the body.