Along with the steep rise in normal super commuting — people commuting to a metropolitan area’s central county from homes outside the metro area — the number of people commuting across the country by plane has grown dramatically as well, at least in Manhattan. And New York is unlikely to be the only city struggling to accommodate the travel needs of long distance commuters.
NYC
A transportation engineer rethinks congestion pricing
Congestion pricing in New York City should be easy; there are only bridges and tunnels to get into the most congested areas of the city, and many already have tolls. Access is limited, and transit is plentiful once commuters arrive in congested Manhattan. But political pressures from the outer boroughs and anti-tax sentiments defeated efforts to implement congestion pricing in 2008. Now a veteran transportation engineer has offered a new plan that could be more popular in the suburbs and still provide incentives to find alternatives to driving into the central business district.
Off-street parking access linked to higher VMT
When it comes to parking in new residential developments, planners often face stakeholders with two opposing positions. Some want land-use authorities to require lots of off-street parking in order to avoid over-demand for street spots. Others complain that all that off-street parking will just induce more traffic; if authorities require anything, they should set parking maximums, not minimums. A new study by Rachel Weinberger of the University of Pennsylvania provides evidence for the latter view.
NYC counts travel with greater detail.
Accurate figures about who is using the road, and the sidewalk, are one of the many elements in allocating transportation dollars. New York City is not content with the way the census counts how people …
Shining a light: New York City’s new zoning handbook
In releasing a new zoning handbook, New York City’s Planning Commissioner, Amanda Burden, extolled its virtues: “Zoning is the language of the city, it is a three-dimensional blueprint for what any area of the city …