July
1996
Fewer
Cars: A More Livable City
By George Haikalis
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Last summer, architect Philip Goff gave Satya
an overview of the environmental and social costs of overindulging the
motor vehicle in our cities and countryside. This month, urban planner
George Haikalis argues that we can reverse auto-dominance
in New York City in just four short years — if public officials
are willing to grapple with the issue.
New York could become a much more livable city if we would take some
short term, doable steps to improve our public transport network, reduce
motor vehicular traffic on our city’s streets, and convert some
of our precious streetspace into more pedestrian-friendly environments.
A 20% reduction in car use in Manhattan and a five percent reduction
citywide is possible if our political leadership would put in place
a coherent package of "carrot and stick" transportation measures.
How It Works
Reducing car use, thereby creating a more livable city, would encourage
people to live, visit and do business here, bolstering New York City’s
economy. Fewer cars would mean less air and noise pollution, and fewer
accidents, deaths and injuries. A vastly improved public transit system
would increase mobility for virtually all the city’s residents,
not just for those who own cars.
The centerpiece of an auto reduction plan is to quickly upgrade the
city’s public transit system. This need not await the completion
of a great new networks of regional rail lines, as desirable as they
might be. Rather, the city’s existing rail infrastructure —
and its extensive bus network — can be made much more useful and
attractive in the short run. Two key steps are to run more service,
and to cut fares. This, of course, will cost money, and the best way
to raise the needed revenues is to increase motorists’ contribution
through road pricing. This would offset the burden all of us share when
cars are given unfettered use of public streets. By improving transit,
and making it more costly to drive, substantial numbers of motorists
will "do the right thing" and shift to public transit. This
will mean fewer delays for essential traffic. But most importantly,
it will permit streetspace to be made available to pedestrians, cyclists
and other urban amenities.
A Formula for Improving Transit
The key to making public transit more attractive is to make it less
costly and cumbersome. Using the MTA’s Metrocard system, passes
could be sold for time periods of a month, a week or a day. Passholders
could then use the transit system as though it were "free."
They could ride any bus, subway, commuter train or ferry within the
city in any way that was convenient for them. They could make stopovers,
hopping on and off to run errands or visit friends, or take a lunch
hour shopping trip without thinking about the cost, (or stocking up
on tokens). The MTA promised a free bus-subway transfer by July 1997,
as part of its otherwise wrong-headed 20% fare increase imposed last
fall.
Another way to improve transit service is to run more trains and buses
on existing lines. Especially welcome on the subways would be a doubling
of off-peak, evening and weekend service. This could be accomplished
with very little increase in operating cost by halving crew size and
train length. Short, one person operated trains, running twice as often,
would dramatically improve the utility of the subway system and create
almost "waitless" transit service in New York. Rather than
a cost cutting measure, one person train operation should be thought
of as a service improvement strategy.
The potential is even greater on the commuter railroads, where three
and four person crews are the norm. Awakening this sleeping giant of
a regional asset will require the cooperation of labor and management.
Tripling or quadrupling service on the busiest commuter rail lines would
produce dramatic changes in the linkages between the city and the suburbs,
enabling discretionary travel to occur without using the auto. Additionally,
local intra-suburb travelers, and travelers from the outer reaches of
the city could use these regional lines.
Transit agencies can also quickly increase local bus service, linking
virtually every home in the city, and most homes in the suburbs, to
the nearest rail station. Plans for converting one of the busiest bus
routes, the 42nd Street cross-town line, into a streetcar operation
should be expedited, and would lead to the creation of other trolley
routes throughout the city.
Giving Motorists an Added Nudge to "Do the Right Thing"
Peak-hour road capacity is in great demand. But unlike peak hour seats
at popular restaurants or on busy flights, space is given away free
on most roads. Even where tolls exist, the space is offered at a discount
to commuters who travel doing rush hours. Using price to moderate demand
is now possible with new technology that can read license plates electronically.
Sending motorists a consolidated monthly bill, including registration
fees and car insurance payments, would ease the pain of a new system
of road pricing. Road pricing strategies would first focus on congested
areas, such as the Manhattan business district, where public transit
service is already available and traffic is rampant.
Road pricing is not the only way to reduce excess traffic in congested
areas. Shrinking parking supply in Manhattan is also an important measure.
Government agencies can take the first step — eliminating free,
on-street parking for "privileged" workers and diplomats,
and reserving limited curb space for trucks actually making deliveries.
Public agencies can also close their own parking lots and garages in
Manhattan and sell the land. A substantial increase in the Manhattan
parking tax would also moderate demand and reduce congestion.
Roadway capacity can be reduced in certain critical approaches to core
commercial districts, holding back car flow before it reaches the most
congested locations. This "upstream traffic restraint," when
applied to the loop roadways in Central Park and Prospect Park, can
also produce an enormous positive benefit for cyclists and pedestrians
in these traffic-plagued green havens.
The Real Goal — Green Streets
With fewer cars heading for the core of the city, a whole new approach
to thinking about streets becomes possible. A much larger share of streetspace
can be set aside for people, not vehicles. The busiest streets in Manhattan
— where people converge from all over the city, the region and
in fact the globe — can be made auto-free. Neighborhood streets
can become safe play streets for children. Broad boulevards can be made
into greenways instead of de facto highways.
Redesigning streets for people, not cars, is a real challenge. Mainstream
architects, numbed by years of designing cities for the motor car, often
claim that auto-free streets would be boring. But urban design concepts
exist which encourage a diverse variety of people to congregate on once
chaotic streets in the city center, the modernist idea of using the
motor vehicle to moderate human behavior at crowded locations is mean
spirited. One approach to making busy pedestrian streets work well as
auto-free streets is trolley cars. Modern, low-floor streetcars would
complement the walking environment, making short trips possible using
the "nearly free" unlimited ride pass plan described.
New York can be made dramatically more livable in just a few years,
if elected officials would produce and carry out a coherent package
of transport strategies. It’s up to us as citizens to press our
representatives to be brave, and take the first steps toward an Auto-Free
New York.
George Haikalis is a civil engineer and urban
planner. He is the founder of Auto-Free New York and Senior Editor of
New York Streetcar News.
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