Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

pedestrianobservations.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 113 posts

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#71

Post by iuafhiuah »

> Nothing there is truly designed to optimize how to improve in a place that can’t build. London can’t build either, even if its costs are a fraction of New York’s

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this statement, but between 2009 and 2022 London finished the 73 miles (118 km) long Crossrail Project (Elizabeth Line), with 26 miles (42 km) of new tunnel, 10 new stations, and 31 refurbished stations (some of which were entirely rebuilt).

  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/13/elizabeth-line-crossrail-opening-london
  https://web.archive.org/web/20180730181725/http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/crossrail-in-numbers

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#72

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ghaff wrote: post #69
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> taking transit in, especially for an evening event, is often not a reasonable option If it’s that much of a hassle, for most entertainment one commutes into Manhattan for, you are fine paying the toll on an Uber. People driving themselves in and sensitive to the toll are, by definition, not adding much to the local economy.

I'm basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city. At that point, I'm probably going to make a weekend out of it whether I take commuter rail in or not--and I'm not going to do it very often. We're talking probably a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation and whatever the actual activity is. (And I'm not sure from a driving in perspective what's actually been gained rela…

> basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city

The congestion charge will be between $9 and $23. For certain parts of Manhattan. During certain hours. It sounds like your problem is where you live, fundamentally, not the charge.

> a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation

You do see how, from a resident's perspective, you spending more money less frequently is not a downside?

> what's actually been gained relative to me taking my own car in and parking in a garage

A reduction in space wasted to parking. Also, congestion: your car adds a car to the road. (You're also a non-professional driver in a dense urban environment.)

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#73

Post by nerdponx »

ghaff wrote: post #59
JambalayaJim wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. People don’t want people driving into their cities and making noise/ taking up a bunch of space with their cars. We have zero problems with people taking transit in. Suburban residents want to treat the city as both a low density car friendly space and a place filled with culture/concerts/plays/restaurants, not realizing that the two are opposites.

Except that taking transit in, especially for an evening event, is often not a reasonable option. I'll happily take commuter rail in if I have to go into our urban office for the day but it's utterly unworkable for an evening event given how few trains there are and how long they take. And this is a city (Boston/Cambridge) with relatively good transit options. If driving in for the evening became any more difficult t…

The NY Metro North railroad is so much better than the MBTA Commuter Rail that it's not even in the same category. You absolutely can take it into the city for the evening.

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#74

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #72
ghaff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city. At that point, I'm probably going to make a weekend out of it whether I take commuter rail in or not--and I'm not going to do it very often. We're talking probably a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation and whatever the actual activity is. (And I'm not sure from a driving in perspective what's actually been gained rela…

> basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city The congestion charge will be between $9 and $23. For certain parts of Manhattan. During certain hours. It sounds like your problem is where you live, fundamentally, not the charge. > a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation You do see how, from a resident's perspective, you spending more money less frequently is not a down…

[deleted]

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#75

Post by bradleyjg »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #66
bradleyjg wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

… and it’s made commutes worse for almost everyone. Imagine spending that much money and that many years and ending up with a net negative.

> it’s made commutes worse for almost everyone How?

They changed the schedules around to have some trains go to grand central from every line but there’s limited numbers of trains, track space, and platforms at Jamaica. The upshot is that there are fewer peak express trains at good commuting times and transfers at Jamaica are no longer synchronized by time and track.

The Oyster Bay line has been hit particularly badly.

On top of that because of how far underground the gcs platforms are and the fact that the old Hunters Point Ave method wasn’t that bad, even people that work on the east side aren’t seeing big benefits, if any.

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#76

Post by uw_rob »

kouru225 wrote: post #50
CensoredInSF wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new socialists tax you at 40% and then give you no services and a huge payroll of government workers. Socialism IS the problem.

We have all these problems right now and the US has the lowest tax rates in history. Stop falling for lies and start looking at numbers. Edit: FYI socialism doesn’t mean the government controls or owns anything. It means that the workers own the means of production.

Interchanging USA with NYC is misleading

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#77

Post by booleandilemma »

officialchicken wrote: post #68
booleandilemma wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need another Giuliani (90s Giuliani, not what he's become).

Ok, that made me laugh. His only contribution to MTA in the 90's was to replace the old metal subway tokens with (first paper, then plastic) swipe tickets.

I mean a mayor like Giuliani would see the state the city is in and improve it. Unlike this clown Adams, who is doing absolutely nothing. Keep laughing though.

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#78

Post by ghaff »

nerdponx wrote: post #73
ghaff wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that taking transit in, especially for an evening event, is often not a reasonable option. I'll happily take commuter rail in if I have to go into our urban office for the day but it's utterly unworkable for an evening event given how few trains there are and how long they take. And this is a city (Boston/Cambridge) with relatively good transit options. If driving in for the evening became any more difficult t…

The NY Metro North railroad is so much better than the MBTA Commuter Rail that it's not even in the same category. You absolutely can take it into the city for the evening.

There's a whole cultural aspect to it as well as the actual physical infrastructure. But it's probably unique in the US in that regard.

The MBTA commuter rail is commuter rail. And, outside the occasional other event, no one looks at it differently and it is empty (and probably loses a bunch of money) whenever it runs outside of rush hour.

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#79

Post by Spooky23 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #72
ghaff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city. At that point, I'm probably going to make a weekend out of it whether I take commuter rail in or not--and I'm not going to do it very often. We're talking probably a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation and whatever the actual activity is. (And I'm not sure from a driving in perspective what's actually been gained rela…

> basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city The congestion charge will be between $9 and $23. For certain parts of Manhattan. During certain hours. It sounds like your problem is where you live, fundamentally, not the charge. > a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation You do see how, from a resident's perspective, you spending more money less frequently is not a down…

"Certain parts of Manhattan" is south of 66th St.

The things that people want to deal with the PITA of living in Manhattan over depend on volume of people. COVID and WTF killed commercial office traffic - now that it's getting dark early take a walk up 3rd Avenue in the late afternoon - the offices are empty.

So the residents don't want to deal with commuters, don't want to deal with drivers, etc. Cool. I don't want to hear about bailing people out of their $2M mortgages on 800 ft^2 apartments when the cultural, dining and entertainment that brought them to Manhattan migrates to Brooklyn and Jersey.

Re: The NYC's MTA 20 year needs assessment reminds us they can't build

#80

Post by nerdponx »

ghaff wrote: post #69
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> taking transit in, especially for an evening event, is often not a reasonable option If it’s that much of a hassle, for most entertainment one commutes into Manhattan for, you are fine paying the toll on an Uber. People driving themselves in and sensitive to the toll are, by definition, not adding much to the local economy.

I'm basically $200-300 round-trip to get a car to take me into the city. At that point, I'm probably going to make a weekend out of it whether I take commuter rail in or not--and I'm not going to do it very often. We're talking probably a thousand dollars at that point between hotel and transportation and whatever the actual activity is. (And I'm not sure from a driving in perspective what's actually been gained rela…

I don't get this. Garage parking + bridge tolls + gas can't cost more than $100 to drive into NYC. Boston even less due to no bridge tolls and shorter distances.
Post reply on HN