Mass transit can no longer just mean buses and subways. We need mass transit strategies that take into account the myriad of new transit options that are now available to the public.
Better Biking and Beyond
Big cities all over the world are falling in love with biking. It’s a healthy, quiet and clean way for people to move around the city. And if streets are appropriately designed, it’s also extremely safe. And while CitiBike is statistically the world’s largest bike-share network, our biking infrastructure is lacking, and people are dying every month because of it. Its unacceptable.
We need more and more protected bike lanes, and we also need to prepare to accommodate more electric bikes and scooters, creating spaces where they can be more easily parked, stored and docked.
City Control of the Subways
New York City needs to develop more mechanisms that enable us to expert control over our own transit system. Too much of our city’s critical transit infrastructure is controlled by New York State and undemocratic entities like the MTA and Port Authority. The subway system, which exists entirely within New York City, should be controlled by New York City’s government.
Other transit infrastructure that extends beyond NYC’s borders should also be managed in a holistic manner that is more directly connected to democratic accountability structures. This is why I propose the development of a new, regional governance entity that could ultimately unify the 31-counties in the New York City Metropolitan Area together into an entity tasked with coordinating government actions and providing a mechanism whereby the over 22 million person metro-region can organize regional action.
Beginning an explicit journey towards regional governance, while also pursuing aggressive digital transformation of the various transit agencies that are active in New York City, is the only solution-set powerful enough to deliver New York City residents the transit solutions they deserve.
Putting Privatization on the Table
London and Tokyo have both have world renowned mass transit systems, and both have privatized significant portions of their mass transit system.
London’s famously efficient and massive bus system is coordinated by a government board that designs the routes and determines the fares, and then awards the operation of buses to private companies. It’s one of the world’s best bus systems.
Tokyo’s famously efficient subway system were publicly run until 1987, when the government organized private companies that it continues to own, and gave them responsibility for operating the lines.It’s widely considered one of the best subways int he world.
New York City’s subway system was built by private companies and consolidated into a public entity over a 15 year period in the 1950 and 1960s.
So the concept of public and private operation of transit is, actually, quite gray. Privatizing mass transit does not mean putting Coca Cola or Lockheed Martin in control of the subway system. It means pressuring the monolithic, corruption-prone, endlessly problematic and remarkably unaccountable MTA to do better by threatening to introduce some competition.
We deserve a clean, efficient and safe mass transit system and we should do whatever we need to do to get it.