Scott M. Stringer has seen the future, and it is creaky, over budget, and behind schedule.
At a conference he organized last week on the outlook for New York City’s transportation network, Mr. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, declared that the city’s transit systems had “come to a standstill,” held back by ballooning costs and reluctant taxpayers.
He noted that the region’s current slate of major construction work, like the extension of the No. 7 line and the Second Avenue subway is costing billions of dollars per mile to build, far more than comparable projects in Berlin, London and Paris.
“These projects are way over budget and they take too long, and that has become the accepted standard now,” Mr. Stringer said. “There’s almost this sense that we can’t get it done any other way.”
He added, “We cannot allow that to be the case, or we’re never going to be able to build out the city,”
Still, identifying the problem is one matter, and finding a solution another entirely. The conference, which attracted many of the region’s major transportation policy experts, was an attempt to generate discussion about a number of progressive policy changes, as varied as on-street parking rates and the addition of bicycle lanes and rapid-transit bus lines to alleviate congestion.
Labor and construction costs in New York City are among the highest in the nation, in part because of extensive union rules. But Mr. Stringer said that European capitals often provided similar benefits to their workers, and he pointed to regulatory requirements and bureaucratic issues as more addressable culprits. (European cities and countries, of course, also devote far more government money to subsidizing transportation. New York City’s transit agencies are often starved of funds by legislators.)
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in the midst of finishing four major construction projects, has tried to root out waste and renegotiate contracts with vendors. Mr. Stringer urged its new chairman, Joseph J. Lhota, to continue that practice.
One problem that has plagued the Second Avenue subway is New York’s vast, and partly unknown, subterranean realm. Engineers must navigate public utility lines, water tunnels, gas mains and other pre-existing wiring that make it increasingly difficult to dig underground. (When the first subways were built, of course, much of the city’s present underground infrastructure had not yet been built, making the task far easier.) Mr. Stringer called for a map to be created that could better guide engineers.
The final two years of the transportation authority’s capital plan, which pays for major expansion and maintenance projects, have not yet been approved by Albany. Reluctance among state lawmakers to pay for transportation projects will probably force the authority to borrow billions of dollars, which drives up operating costs and ultimately could lead to higher fares. The dance of who finances transit in New York goes on.
Slow Down!
The city wants Bronx drivers to stop burning rubber. The speed limit in the borough’s Claremont neighborhood was reduced to 20 miles per hour on Monday, down from 30, after the city’s Department of Transportation selected the area for the first neighborhoodwide speed-limit reduction.
City Department of TransportationDo not drive fast in the Claremont neighborhood in the Bronx.The quarter-square-mile “slow zone” includes 14 speed bumps, bright blue signs and eight-foot-high letters and numbers that spell out “20 MPH” painted along the road. The program, led by the transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, is intended to increase pedestrian safety, particular in areas with several schools, and neighborhoods will now be allowed to request their own slow zones from the city’s Web Site.
“Local neighborhood streets are not highways,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said. “They are not shortcuts. They are where New Yorkers live.”
The city has been pushing to prevent speeding, even using skeleton-themed LED signs that feature a gaunt, bony figure who appears whenever a car is detected at speeds above 30 m.p.h. An extensive public service announcement campaign has also pointed out that pedestrians are more likely to be killed in accidents in which motor vehicles are traveling above the speed limit.
The Claremont area has suffered a high rate of traffic accidents, the city says. The new zone is bordered by Southern Boulevard, 167th Street, West Farms Road and East 174th Street.
Our transit reporter, Michael M. Grynbaum, advises you on the latest chatter from the city’s roads and rails. Check back every Monday. Got a tip? He can be reached at OffTheRails@nytimes.com.