Metropolitan

Highways
New Highways Don't Boost Economy
An analysis by Professor Marlon Boarnet of the University of California found that "Highway infrastructure contributes little to state or national productivity... Yet the idea that highways add to the economy is common." Boarnet argues that what many planners see as growth is actually highways shifting economic activity from one part of a region to another. See: www.scweb.uci.edu/faculty/boarnet.html.

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New York
NY Senate Transportation Chair Pans East River Bridge Tolls
Owen Johnson, the Babylon, Long Island Republican who chairs the New York State Senate Transportation Committee, spoke out in the last issue of AAA's New York Motorist against East River Bridge tolls because of his concern that they will add to traffic congestion. Senator Johnson seems unaware of non-stop tolling systems in place around the world. These can easily be adapted to work with existing EZ-Pass technology. Nobel prize winning economist William Vickrey showed decades ago how "congestion pricing" on the bridges would actually reduce, not increase, traffic congestion. Reconstructing the East River Bridges has consumed the lion's share of federal transportation aid to NYC and will eventually cost more than $3.4 billion.

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New Jersey
Commuter Rail Stalls
While the $600 million Trenton-Camden light rail project whistles along, a study of adding new commuter lines along the west shore of the Hudson River in northern New Jersey has been bogged down in planner land. One problem is that NJ is using state funds unencumbered by red tape for its Camden project and more ponderous Federal funds for the Hudson study. A north-south conflict has emerged in Jersey where about $133 million in transportation funding will shift south in 1999.

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Connecticut
CT Shell Game Exposed
The Connecticut Bicycle Coalition (CBC) is preparing to launch a lawsuit against the Connecticut Department of Transportation for misusing Federal Transportation Enhancement funds. CBC says ConnDot has failed to meet ISTEA and TEA-21 mandates to have a full-time bike/ped coordinator and a Statewide bike/ped plan, and for illegally allocating TEA-21 Enhancement money towards funding gaps incurred during ISTEA. Of the $41 million in Enhancement funds available during TEA-21, ConnDOT has grabbed $18 million for ISTEA era project funding.

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Transit
Subway Crime Continues to Plummet
Police report that serious crime on the subways has fallen another 24%, to levels last seen in the early 1960's. Only one person was murdered on the system this year.

--Compiled from Mobilizing the Region, a publication of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. www.tstc.org; and The Ride magazine

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