Adi Talwar
Friday evening traffic at the intersection of 42nd Street and 6th Avenues in Manhattan. Turns across crosswalks are where the dangers of a car-pedestrian encounter are high. A city law set out to address that. but enforcement has been lackluster.
“Congestion pricing is just one of many tools that will help tame some of the city street chaos a generation of car-centric planning left us with. And one of the primary benefactors of congestion pricing will be automobile drivers themselves.”
“The crash on the Manhattan Bridge calls attention to the immediate need for visionary leadership as well as difficult conversations about the purpose of the city’s precious bike lane real estate, food delivery worker equity and the role NYPD should play in enforcing existing rules.”
“If New York’s city and state leaders truly prioritize a society where social equity as well as environmental sustainability are fundamental values, discussion of subway and bus fare increases would not be on the table. And if the overarching goal is to bring riders back to the nation’s greatest public transit system, why disincentivize them with higher fares?”
“Automobile crashes killed 273 people in 2021, a whopping 33 percent increase over 2018, the safest year in New York City’s recent traffic history…It’s a mystery as to why so many city residents, as well as city and state politicians, seemingly accept such a heartbreaking level of carnage as just another unfortunate trade-off of city life.”
‘The loss of an innocent baby as well as five other individuals in just one weekend is more heartbreaking evidence that New York City’s lame efforts to protect its people from arrogant, irresponsible, and entitled automobile drivers has been an epic failure.’
‘I’m beyond thrilled some inkling of normalcy may return to this gorgeous mosaic of a city by summer. But city and state officials are going to have to step up their game on how to best address vaccine coronavirus hesitancy or otherwise, we may be setting ourselves up for problems down the road.’
‘If safe streets are still front and center of the Vision Zero mayor’s mind, why not forward stricter policy and regulatory measures that makes similar demands of automobiles and their manufacturers?’
‘Perhaps it’s time to impose a tiered tolling system that takes in account an automobile’s fuel performance. Or maybe it’s just time to just ban SUVs from congested cities like New York altogether.’
‘A city that prioritizes the lives of a majority of its people over the demands and convenience of automobile drivers would not hesitate to saturate every city street, avenue and highway throughout the five boroughs with speed cameras that operate 24 hours a day. ‘
‘In a truly just and fair city, public transit would be an affordable lifeline to economic opportunity. The subway and bus system would support upward mobility and the best way to bring that vision to fruition, would be to do away with subway and bus fares altogether. ‘
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