About Transportation

Transportation

Transportation

OneNYC is a comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City’s future.

Goal: Expand sustainable transportation choices and ensure the reliability and quality of our transportation network.

To measure progress towards this goal, we are tracking the switch to more sustainable modes of transportation (modal shift) and mass transit capacity, as well as whether our transportation system is meeting a state of good repair.

Modal Shift

We are tracking the extent to which people are using non-automobile modes of transit including public transportation (e.g., bus, subway), bicycling and walking. These alternative modes, which use less land and create less pollution than automobiles, result in less congestion and increased mobility for NYC residents.

To quantify the extent of the modal shift in NYC, we measure the way people travel to the central business district (Manhattan below 60th street) as well as the way people travel citywide. For travel to the central business district, we look directly at changes in the percent of all trips that use non-automobile modes of transit.

To track the switch to mass transit citywide we look at the relative growth of auto and transit travel demand. Travel demand is highly correlated to economic activity - during recessions, it tends to go down and during periods of economic growth, it increases. To control for this economic impact, we measure the relative changes in use of transit (including non-motorized travel) and automobiles from the year 2000.

Our goal is to increase the mass transit and non-motorized share of travel in NYC, both to the central business district and citywide.

Transit Capacity

Increasing transit capacity will reduce traffic congestion by allowing more people to take mass transit. To measure whether NYC has increased capacity, we are tracking the number of transit vehicle revenue miles in the New York metropolitan area. Vehicle revenue miles are miles that transit vehicles (e.g., subway cars, buses) are scheduled or travel while in revenue service. They do not include miles traveled without passengers or when returning to a storage depot. Non-city agencies provide significant transit service to and from the city (e.g., Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road, New Jersey Transit) so we have included them in our computation. We have also included all modes of mass transit (e.g., bus, tram, ferry, rail, subway paratransit vehicles) to ensure a complete view of transit capacity.

State of Good Repair - Bridges and Roads

NYC owns and maintains 786 bridges and related structures. In the ’70s and ’80s, the dire financial situation led to decisions to defer bridge maintenance, which in turn led to declining conditions. Today, we apply lifecycle analyses to make strategic investments in maintenance and component replacement. The approach has yielded better bridge conditions and longer life expectancy for some bridges, which will both save NYC money in the long run and provide the highest safety and service for our customers. The NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) has spent $3 billion in capital construction on city bridges since 2000. With stepped up maintenance, it has led to the near elimination of bridges in “poor” condition and an increase in bridges rated “good” or “very good.” The NYC DOT goal under this program is to have all of its bridges rated in very good, good or fair condition and none rated poor. Bridges in fair condition (or better) receive routine maintenance and component replacement. As they approach the low end of fair, bridges are reconstructed or rehabilitated. This is the most cost-effective approach for the long-term maintenance of city bridges.

NYC DOT also tracks the road network on a bi-annual basis. Street conditions are assessed on a scale of 1-10. Ratings of 7 or above indicate good condition, while ratings below 7 qualify a street for resurfacing or reconstruction. A certain number of streets will also be below 7 because of utility work or other issues unrelated to the road itself. The goal is to have at least 85% of city streets rated at or above 7, which assumes that the remaining 15% can be scheduled for resurfacing within the next two years. This translates to about 1,050 lane miles resurfaced each year.

State of Good Repair - Subway stations

NYC Transit’s 468 passenger stations are used by millions of customers each day. The system has 277 underground stations, 142 on elevated structures, and 49 on viaduct, embankment, or open-cut structures. In 2008, NYC Transit completed a comprehensive condition survey of all stations conducted by independent engineering consultants. Over 14,500 components were rated on a scale of 1 (best) to 5 (worst) to identify structural and architectural defects. Components rated 3.0 or worse are identified as needing repair. Transit’s goal is to eliminate the most deficient conditions throughout the system within 15 years through a program of comprehensive and targeted component-based station projects, combined with coordinated maintenance strategies. These investments will target components such as stairs and platform edges that most affect safety and the customer experience. Investment in stations will be guided by an ongoing Condition Assessment Inspection Program and reevaluation of implementation approaches to improve efficiency and effectiveness of investments to benefit customers.