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Put a new bridge crossing Hudson between west Manhattan and Jersey City to reduce the ACTUAL traffic coming in from New Jersey. Oh wait..they can't as it will b
by CodeSheikh 9y ago
Put a new bridge crossing Hudson between west Manhattan and Jersey City to reduce the ACTUAL traffic coming in from New Jersey. Oh wait..they can't as it will bring down inflated real estate in Manhattan held by older folks with convincing power to city planners.
- erentz 9y agoArguably the whole metro New York area should be reorganized under one government.
- apaprocki 9y agoWell, when you speak of bridge/tunnel crossings between NJ/NY, it quasi-is: http://www.panynj.gov/ http://www.panynj.gov/
- scott_s 9y agoExcept that one of the bridges in this article, the Tappan Zee, was built where it was for the express purpose of keeping it out of the jurisdiction of the Port Authority. This was done so that the revenue from tolls could go to the New York State Thruway Authority, and not the Port Authority. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tappan_Zee_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tappan_Zee_Bridge.
- Pxtl 9y agoAsk Toronto how that worked out for them. Hint: The suburbs took over the mayor's office and Toronto got and loud, angry crack-addled car-traffic obsessed mayor.
- simonbarker87 9y agoToronto has some of the worst traffic I've ever experienced anywhere. The drive from Toronto to Guelph at 2pm on a Wednesday (i.e. A time that is not peak) was nose to tail for the first 20 miles. The whole drive took just under 2 hours and apparently that's considered pretty normal. It's 58 miles!
- Retric 9y agoD.C. area traffic is so bad I once felt stupid for taking 66 at 6pm then I realized it was Saturday.
- closeparen 9y agoA 30mph average is excellent compared to bicycling or mass transit.
- Pxtl 9y agoThe disastrous state of our expressways and commuter rail are provincial responsibility - the mayor is in charge of in-city roadways and transit. The 401 and QEW are a disaster though, I agree. Mississauga and the rest of the Western GTA sprawl are the worst-case example of how induced demand can ruin a roadway.
- slededit 9y agoThe Gardiner Expressway is managed by the city, as is the DVP. So not all expressways are provincial.
- jowiar 9y agoThis problem is even worse in DC. "Local" policy is effectively a multilateral treaty negotiation. ~5 counties, 2 states, the District, and Congress.
- Spooky23 9y agoThat would be the end of NYC. The inherent tension between NYS and NYC is one of the things that makes the city so powerful. Changing the dynamic to a North Jersey/Westchester/Rockland/Long Island/NYC block would kill the city. Hopefully some events tip the political scales, as the open hostility of the Federal government will cause irreparable harm.
- umanwizard 9y agoCan you elaborate on why you think this is the case?
- Spooky23 9y agoSuburban interests are usually not aligned with the needs of an urban environment, and smaller administrative units always resist and win against consolidation efforts. Everything from patronage, NIMBY, well-run local governments to outright racism are factors. For residents, it's typically easier to deal with a village or town hall type entity than trying to navigate the bureaucracy of NYC municipal government. Maintaining things like school districts, towns, villages and special districts will always be local priorities that always win against regional initiatives. You probably have 50 police departments alone just on Long Island, with at least 50 collective bargaining agreements that would need to be consolidated and dealt with. That's 50 police chiefs who need jobs, and thousands of generously paid policemen who would need to integrate with a larger and less generously paid NYPD. You'd have the same situation with school districts. The formation of "Greater New York" (New York City) was only possible in the 1890s because the political machinery was in place to allow annexation and takeover to be effective. Tammany Hall was more powerful than the opposition. State administrations in New York have been trying to encourage consolidation and shared services for decades with very limited success. Even dying places in Upstate New York want to hold on to local autonomy.
- mfringel 9y agoAlternately, they could build a tunnel across the Hudson that connects up to the New York City Subway (and possibly NJ Transit on the Jersey side), which would dramatically cut vehicle traffic... but Christie wanted the Tea Party votes, and he got them.
- 46Bit 9y agoI'd thought PATH pretty much did this. Is it not as useful as it seemed?
- greglindahl 9y agoPATH is at peak ridership. In 2010 it had a signals upgrade so that train spacing could be reduced, allowing more trains/hour at peak. The single tunnel shared by Amtrak and NJ Transit trains is 100% full of trains which are over 100% full at peak. So yes, PATH and other trains are extremely useful.
- prions 9y agoThe issue with PATH is that the tunnels are extremely old - older than the Manhattan subway tunnels. Whereas Manhattan subways have two tracks per tube, the PATH has only one. Service is not only slower, but you usually wait significantly longer just sitting on the PATH before it even leaves the station. Hurricane Sandy also did irreparable damage to the tunnels crossing the Hudson.
- JBReefer 9y agoCan you cite that? I thought that the PATH ran on the local tracks of the IND 6th Avenue tubes for most of it's Manhattan haul. I believe you are correct about the tracks through the cross river tubes, but less traffic makes it easier to incorporate in NYCTA, not harder. They talked about running PATH trains up the rest of the 6th Ave trunk in the early Aughts, but it fell apart due to political dysfunction (shocking).
- epc 9y ago
- ascagnel_ 9y agoDoesn't the Holland Tunnel already serve this purpose?
- freditup 9y agoThe current infrastructure for transit between Manhattan and NJ is quite lacking, an additional tunnel for trains and bridge for bikes/cars seems like a great idea. (This also allows the current aging infrastructure to be closed for repairs.) As far as I know, there's no reasonable way to bike between middle/lower Manhattan and New Jersey. A new tunnel / bridge should definitely add some bike lanes!
- exhilaration 9y agoDepends where in New Jersey you are! I've biked from Bayonne across the Bayonne Bridge to the St. George ferry terminal in Staten Island - that's about a 6 mile ride - then I've taken the free ferry to lower Manhattan.
- Nav_Panel 9y ago> an additional tunnel for trains This is known as The Gateway Project[1], has been in progress for many years and with many years and billions left to go, and was listed in Trump's "top 50" infrastructure plan. It's a long distance. The GW Bridge was seen as a "world wonder" level engineering achievement when it was constructed. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Program_(Northeast_Corridor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Program_(Northeast_Cor...