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Previously on HN, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602151 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602151 If you care about congestion, address congestion.

by mcny 8y ago

Previously on HN, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602151 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602151 If you care about congestion, address congestion. As much as I would like to support Mr Mayor, I find it difficult to do so. This mayor points the finger at Mr Governor and the state legislature -- rightly so I assume about 99% of the time. However, this last one percent is what grinds my gears. There is not a lot that the city can do on its own but this isn't something they can't fix. I think the correct answer is to enforce existing traffic laws and strengthening them where necessary. Traffic violation? Suspend their TLC license at the first offense. Ideally, there would be no additional cost to the driver. The TLC license is simply suspended for a short period of time (lets say three months). At the end of three months, the driver can apply to be reinstated at no cost (assuming no further violations -- by which I mean no Uber or Lyft work -- during this time). Now the important part: actually enforce this. This is the difficult part because I frequently see cars with a reflective vest in front of the steering wheel (which I assume is supposed to signify the car belongs to a police officer?). I think it is difficult to ask for strict enforcement of traffic laws when even the police officers so blatantly disregard traffic laws. New York Times reports ridership on the MTA and MTA bus is stagnating at best or likely declining. In another world, I would be advocating for turning many of the existing bus lines into subway lines (at least here in Queens) because as someone else commented a few months back, a bus every three minutes is no longer a bus but a very expensive train. In any case, I thought there was a solution coming in the form of congestion tax in New York City. What happened of it?

Eric_WVGG 8y ago
> Traffic violation? Suspend their TLC license at the first offense. Seriously, all this city needs is "broken windows" policing for traffic violations.
- mancerayder 8y ago
  ... meanwhile the State killed the red light cameras, and the City explicitly pushes cops to stop 'overpolicing'. It's increasingly an annoying place to live.
  - Eric_WVGG 8y ago
    I've been following the red-light-camera issue, was not aware of this "overpolicing" but that certainly explains a lot.
    - lovich 8y ago
      Wasn't the over policing they wanted stopped policies like Stop and Frisk which were targeting people based on race? That's a far cry from policing people based on actually breaking the law
      - mancerayder 8y ago
        It's a loaded term, over-policing. Stop and frisk is one thing, but local politicians use it to mean other things, too. When the police deployed during the K2 overdoses in Bed Stuy (the first news incident), politicians said on record that we needed to be careful not to over-police the neighborhood. What they meant by this was presence - don't put police everywhere, people dislike it. There's more. They reclassified numerous crimes that were deemed quality of life crimes that deserve at most a desk ticket. They also stopped cracking down on turnstile jumpers, they became more lax with the homeless by policy (you can read DeBlasio's quotes on that too). There's a general Zeitgeist against policing in general. Is it good, moral social justice policy? I don't know, but I strongly suspect we care more about equality of outcome (and statistics) than true justice. Back to the cameras. There's a terrible irony here: the police union was instrumental in pressuring to not renew them. Fear of being automated out of a job? That's a strong HN topic if I ever saw one.
        mcny 8y ago
        > They also stopped cracking down on turnstile jumpers, they became more lax with the homeless by policy (you can read DeBlasio's quotes on that too). I am still waiting on Germany to make mass transit "free of cost" or paid for completely by tax payers. I think we can learn a lot from their experiment. What worries me here in the US is that everything costs so much more. I think I will be salty until the day I die about the WTC Path terminal being 100% over budget. I mean those FOUR BILLION DOLLARS I think would be better spent toward the second avenue train for the MTA or the signal problem on the Newark WTC Path bridge at Harrison (Disclaimer: I use neither of those two services but I still think either of those would have been a better choice.) I don't know the details but I think we ought to walk away from a bad deal at some point. If we are sure we can control costs, I am all for a fully taxpayer funded MTA subway and buses as well as a fully taxpayer funded Path train. I hope people understand that $2.75 does not fully cover the cost of a bus ride. I don't have any numbers but as someone mentioned here some time ago there is a lot of taxpayer money already going into building and maintaining the roads. > Back to the cameras. There's a terrible irony here: the police union was instrumental in pressuring to not renew them. Fear of being automated out of a job? That's a strong HN topic if I ever saw one. The main thing is we have to be willing to cut costs. Everything I say is a pipe dream until we can cut costs. This means automating as much as possible. This includes train conductors, bus drivers, and yes, the police (and the administrative staff at all these places). Feels like a chicken and egg problem, right?
apeace 8y ago
I've also been looking forward to the congestion tax. Haven't heard anything about it since it was first proposed[1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/mayor-congestion-pricing-cuomo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/mayor-congestion...

by mcny 8y ago

Eric_WVGG 8y ago

> Traffic violation? Suspend their TLC license at the first offense. Seriously, all this city needs is "broken windows" policing for traffic violations.

mancerayder 8y ago
... meanwhile the State killed the red light cameras, and the City explicitly pushes cops to stop 'overpolicing'. It's increasingly an annoying place to live.
- Eric_WVGG 8y ago
  I've been following the red-light-camera issue, was not aware of this "overpolicing" but that certainly explains a lot.
  - lovich 8y ago
    Wasn't the over policing they wanted stopped policies like Stop and Frisk which were targeting people based on race? That's a far cry from policing people based on actually breaking the law
    - mancerayder 8y ago
      It's a loaded term, over-policing. Stop and frisk is one thing, but local politicians use it to mean other things, too. When the police deployed during the K2 overdoses in Bed Stuy (the first news incident), politicians said on record that we needed to be careful not to over-police the neighborhood. What they meant by this was presence - don't put police everywhere, people dislike it. There's more. They reclassified numerous crimes that were deemed quality of life crimes that deserve at most a desk ticket. They also stopped cracking down on turnstile jumpers, they became more lax with the homeless by policy (you can read DeBlasio's quotes on that too). There's a general Zeitgeist against policing in general. Is it good, moral social justice policy? I don't know, but I strongly suspect we care more about equality of outcome (and statistics) than true justice. Back to the cameras. There's a terrible irony here: the police union was instrumental in pressuring to not renew them. Fear of being automated out of a job? That's a strong HN topic if I ever saw one.
      - mcny 8y ago
        > They also stopped cracking down on turnstile jumpers, they became more lax with the homeless by policy (you can read DeBlasio's quotes on that too). I am still waiting on Germany to make mass transit "free of cost" or paid for completely by tax payers. I think we can learn a lot from their experiment. What worries me here in the US is that everything costs so much more. I think I will be salty until the day I die about the WTC Path terminal being 100% over budget. I mean those FOUR BILLION DOLLARS I think would be better spent toward the second avenue train for the MTA or the signal problem on the Newark WTC Path bridge at Harrison (Disclaimer: I use neither of those two services but I still think either of those would have been a better choice.) I don't know the details but I think we ought to walk away from a bad deal at some point. If we are sure we can control costs, I am all for a fully taxpayer funded MTA subway and buses as well as a fully taxpayer funded Path train. I hope people understand that $2.75 does not fully cover the cost of a bus ride. I don't have any numbers but as someone mentioned here some time ago there is a lot of taxpayer money already going into building and maintaining the roads. > Back to the cameras. There's a terrible irony here: the police union was instrumental in pressuring to not renew them. Fear of being automated out of a job? That's a strong HN topic if I ever saw one. The main thing is we have to be willing to cut costs. Everything I say is a pipe dream until we can cut costs. This means automating as much as possible. This includes train conductors, bus drivers, and yes, the police (and the administrative staff at all these places). Feels like a chicken and egg problem, right?

apeace 8y ago

I've also been looking forward to the congestion tax. Haven't heard anything about it since it was first proposed[1]. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/mayor-congestion-pricing-cuomo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/mayor-congestion...