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Mayor Adams' plan to reduce traffic congestion? Crack down on double parking.
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 25, 2024
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Michael Appleton / Mayoral Photography Office
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Jun 25, 2024
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Mayor Eric Adams is proposing more traffic enforcement as a way to address gridlock on New York City’s busiest streets in the wake of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to delay congestion pricing.
“One of the biggest problems with congestion is double parking,” Adams said during a City Hall press conference. “It’s a safety hazard.”
The mayor’s comments highlight the challenge the city faces amid the abrupt halt to the plan to toll vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street, which was expected to take thousands of cars off the streets in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Last week, the MTA began ticketing drivers caught double-parking in bus lanes with a new program that relies on bus-mounted cameras. It’s unclear if the mayor intends to hire more traffic enforcement officers for additional parking enforcement.
Adams also cited the city’s plan to build more bike lanes and to continue its focus on crime in the subways. “A lot of that traffic happened because of COVID and because people stopped feeling safe on the subway system,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi added that the city sought to take trucks off the road during peak hours partly by incentivizing cargo bikes, overnight deliveries and the use of barges.
But what stood out among some transit experts was what the mayor did not mention: a legally mandated plan to build more bus lanes.
“It’s incomplete,” said Daniel Pearlstein, a spokesperson for Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group. “Bus riders are the first people that are forgotten.”
More than 2 million New Yorkers ride the bus, and many of them working-class residents, according to Pearlstein.
Other cities have modeled the benefits of rapid bus lanes. And as a mayoral candidate, Adams promised to build 150 miles of bus lanes in four years. But amid opposition from business owners and residents, his administration has completed less than 30 miles in his first two years in office.
City transportation officials last week announced that a bus lane in a busy stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn would move forward next summer — two years later than scheduled.
The pending work on Flatbush Avenue suggests that Adams may be in favor of boosting bus lanes in “some places,” Pearlstein said.
The problem, Pearlstein added, is that “he may not see it as something that needs to be done in many places.”
Tagged
new york city
Politics
eric adams
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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