Written by Rosemary Scanlon and Edward Seeley, this report examines the relationship between proposed transit system capacity improvements in the downstate metropolitan area, the updated post 9-11 job projections for the Manhattan Central Business District, and regional economic growth. It further explores a number of key issues Ed Seeley first covered in a highly publicized report on these topics for the New York City Department of Transportation in 1997. The findings of this report are relevant to the current discussions concerning the next MTA Five Year program. Ensuring that the MTA maintains a state of good repair and normal replacement is the highest priority of most, if not all transportation policy experts for the next 5 year capital program. Nonetheless, as historians and planners have frequently asserted, New York's growth and prosperity has consistently been tied to additions and improvements to its transportation network and this report suggests this is likely to be the case in the foreseeable future. [Download Report]
On June 19 - June 20, 2003, the Rudin Center hosted a peer-to-peer exchange session, funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and supported by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), on context sensitive design/solutions (CDS/S) in large central cities. Participants at the session were drawn from departments of transportation or public works in nine major cities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, and Philadelphia) and three states (Illinois, Maryland, and New York). Representatives also attended from the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO), and FHWA. Representatives from the NACTO cities agreed that understanding CSD/S and sharing lessons learned and best practices is important for central cities and that because of their unique role in the nation's economy and society there is something fundamentally different about large central cities that renders illustrations from less urbanized areas insufficient. The goal of the session was to lay a foundation for dealing with standards, processes, and the implementation of context sensitive solutions and to identify specific examples that could be used as benchmarks for lessons learned and best practices. [Download Report]
This study, funded by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, explores the feasibility of freight ferries as an alternative for domestic truck freight movements that cross the Hudson River via existing bridges and tunnels. While 'mode shift' efforts, such as direct rail or barging of material, can reduce some truck movements, trucking will remain a dominant component of the region's freight system and traffic. At the same time, congestion is growing on the region's roadway system, making the evaluation of alternatives for truck movements more imperative. [Download Report]
At the request of the New York State Assembly Legislative Commission on Critical Transportation Choices, and funded by an appropriation made available from the New York Department of Transportation's budget, the Rudin Center completed a one-year study of Environmental Justice (EJ) in New York State. Conducted by Linda Spock, a Visiting Scholar to the Center, the study involved a literature search and interviews with various federal, state, and local agencies, transportation planning entities, and interested constituency groups to determine the extent of EJ activities throughout the state and especially in agencies related to transportation. The resulting report summarizes EJ activities within the state, compares the activities here with those in other states, and highlights key considerations for further study by New York State.
Historically, transit agencies have implemented fare increases largely on an "as needed" basis. In practice, this has resulted in relatively infrequent changes in fares which are often large in magnitude by virtue of the need to "catch up" on expenses since the previous fare change. This study examines an alternative approach to fare policy - "programmed fare increases" to keep up with expenses on a pre-determined regular basis. This report documents and synthesizes the experience of twelve transit agencies with programmed fare increases. Interestingly, many of the agencies did not know of each other's experience with similar fare policies prior to this study. While still the exception rather than the rule, the research shows that programmed fare increases can be viable across a range of transit agency sizes, organization types, and funding structures. Whatever their individual differences in policy and practice, the experiences of the agencies studied suggest the importance of clearly communicating the need for regular fare increases to transit customers in the context of agencies' efforts to maintain service, constrain costs, and address customer needs and concerns. Collectively, the limited but nonetheless significant experience of the case study agencies represented in this report sets a precedent for the practice of programmed fare increases. This report provides a resource for transit agencies' consideration of adopting programmed fare increases by documenting the actual experience and lessons learned by peer agencies to date. [Download Report] [Download Appendices]
In 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated annual investment needs over the next 20 years of $56.6 billion for highways and bridges and $10.8 billion for transit, simply to maintain the nation's existing infrastructure. At the same time, current baseline projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will be depleted by 2006 and that the Mass Transit Account balance will fall to $0 three years later. In the swirl of debate on reauthorization of federal transportation funding, these projections have spurred a number of recommendations aimed at shoring up the financial base of the HTF. This study, conducted by the Rudin Center's Co-Director, Allison L. C. de Cerreño, explored the fragility of the current means for funding the Highway Trust Fund. The report elaborates on the causes of this fragility, analyzes the various proposals for bolstering the fund, and provides an assessment of the potential impact on New York. [Download Report]
Working together with San José State University, the Rudin Center was involved in an effort on high-speed rail (HSR), funded by the Mineta Transportation Institute. The goal of this study was to identify those lessons learned for successfully developing and implementing HSR in the United States. Given the early stages of these projects, "success" cannot be based on implementation, but will be based upon whether a given HSR project is still actively pursuing development and/or funding. The work proceeded in two phases. Phase 1 constitutes a literature review that looks back to federal (and where warranted, state) legislation to determine what was intended in terms of objectives and criteria identified in the legislation; and briefly assesses all HSR efforts in the United States since 1980 to determine their history and current status. Phase 2 includes a more in-depth study of several of these cases along with a number of interviews. The study provides a unique and valuable contribution to the field by providing a much-needed and strong foundation upon which additional research in this area could be based. [Download Report]
In August 2005, the Mineta Transportation Institute issued the report, High-Speed Rail Projects in the United States: Identifying the Elements for Success. The report noted that since the 1960s, highspeed ground transportation (HSGT) has "held the promise of fast, convenient, and environmentally sound travel for distances between 40 and 600 miles." After briefly discussing the different experiences with HSGT between the United States and its Asian and European counterparts, the report proceeded to review three U.S. cases-Florida, California, and the Pacific Northwest-as a means for identifying lessons learned for successfully implementing high-speed rail (HSR) in the United States. This report is, in essence, volume 2 of the previous study. Also using a comparative case study approach, this effort adds to the earlier work with three additional cases-the Chicago Hub, the Keystone Corridor, and the Northeast Corridor (NEC). As with the earlier report, the goal of this study is to identify lessons learned for successfully implementing HSR in the United States. Given the early stages of most of these projects, "success" is defined by whether a given HSR project is still actively pursuing development or funding. However, in the case of the Northeast Corridor, a fuller discussion of success is provided since HSR has been implemented on that corridor for some time now. [Download Report]
This report is the culmination of a study, funded by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), that seeks to identify and recommend means for reducing one set of barriers--namely institutional barriers--to effective and efficient freight movement in the downstate New York region. The goals of the report are four-fold: (1) to identify and analyze institutional barriers to effective and efficient freight movement in the downstate New York region; (2) to identify potential means for overcoming such barriers; (3) to identify regional actions that could potentially improve the movement of freight in the downstate New York region; and (4) to identify a set of priority actions that could be taken. The findings of this report call for efforts aimed at increasing communication, sharing best practices, and gathering additional information. [Download Report]
Through the same request and appropriation as the EJ project, the Rudin Center also undertook a study of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) with the purpose of providing a comprehensive review of how they relate to New York State transportation programs and policy. The study was led by Henry Peyrebrune, a Rudin Center Visiting Scholar. Phase I painted, in broad brush strokes, a picture of the various ITS activities around the state and outlined 10 key issues for further research; Phase II focused in on three of those issues: (1) the use of ITS for national and state security in light of the terrorists attacks of 9/11/01; (2) institutional issues regarding information sharing and program coordination; and, (3) ITS as a safety and enforcement tool, with a case study on increased truck traffic at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. [Download ITS Context Report] [Download ITS Security Applications]
Negotiating the myriad of issues in dealing with city state arterial highways is of extreme interest to many large central cities around the United States. Issues abound regarding ownership, how such highways are funded both in terms of building and maintenance, and who is responsible for operations. What happens, for example, when the State owns the highway, but the City operates it? Often, the result is a constant tension between the needs and goals of the City and the State, not to mention the agencies involved. Moreover, even in those instances in which responsibilities are clear, those same responsibilities shift as soon as one gets to the border of the city even though the arterial highway may extend for many more miles beyond the city's jurisdiction. This creates another set of challenges in terms of coordinating neighboring jurisdictions. Understanding how other cities around the country deal with such issues will be of help for New York State and New York City. Within the scope of this study, the Rudin Center identified a set of peer cities around the country and compared and contrasted these cities in an effort to draw some lessons learned that will inform the situation in New York. Specific areas of interest included, but were not limited to: funding, mandates, building, operating, managing, and maintaining highway arterials, and institutional communication and coordination related to such arterials.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC)'s Regional Transportation Plan includes an evaluation of the Region's highway needs, including infrastructure life cycle replacement and maintenance, levels of current congestion, 20 year forecasts of traffic growth and analysis of financial resources needed to meet the Region's needs. The Rudin Center is working with NYMTC members and staff to strengthen the analysis and recommendations of the highway portion of NYMTC's Regional Transportation Plan by (1) evaluating highway initiatives being used to address regional highway needs in this and other regions; (2) setting NYMTC's highway analysis and recommendations into a larger regional context that includes northern New Jersey, southwestern Connecticut and New York counties to the north of NYMTC's region; and (3) preparing a highway issues report and holding a conference on the region's highway needs that will illustrate and educate a broad audience including elected officials, agency heads, and department commissioners about the need to address this region's highway needs.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, as part of its Metropolitan Capacity Building Program, the goals of this study were four-fold: (1) to identify and review comprehensively on-street parking policies and management practices in large cities; (2) to determine the impact that parking has on transportation, development, and land-use; (3) to recommend best practice strategies for parking in large cities; and, (4) to facilitate a practical exchange between cities of information to improve parking policy and management. Conducted by the Rudin Center's Co-Director, Allison L. C. de Cerreño, the study involved a literature review, a questionnaire to which nine large central cities responded, and a peer-to-peer exchange session. The resulting report makes a significant contribution to the literature on on-street parking and outlines best practices to be shared with city officials around the country. [Download Report]
After conducting the successful Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) in Large Central Cities workshop in June 2003, the Rudin Center and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) agreed that in tackling other areas of concern for large central cities, it would be useful to employ the same format. NACTO identified the issue of pedestrian and bicyclist standards and innovations as a key area in need of further exploration, and the Federal Highway Administration agreed to provide funding. Thus, the Rudin Center conducted a two phase project involving research of the issue, a workshop for exchanging knowledge and ideas, and a summary report outlining steps for moving forward. [Download Report]
The publication “Strengthening Interjurisdictional Coordination on Transportation and Related Land Use – A Guidebook for Practitioners� is intended to facilitate better integration of land use and transportation planning. The guidebook is drawn from research on the jurisdictional barriers that have had an impact on greater integration of land use and transportation planning in a variety of recent planning studies. It provides training matrices, including on key success factors for interjurisdictional coordination. The guidebook builds on lessons learned from a representative sample of case studies, including the Air Train JFK project; the Route 202/35/6/Bear Mt. Pkwy Sustainable Development Study, Westchester County; Route 303 Sustainable Development Study, Rockland County; the Staten Island Transportation Task Force; and, the Sustainable East End Strategies (SEEDS) [Download Report]
Disparities in the financial flows between the federal government and the states have been a source of contention for several decades as states seek to receive what they consider an equitable share of federal funding. How to define "equitable" is a source of debate in itself, but one that cannot even begin to be addressed until specific facts and figures are known. A series of reports, referred to as the "Fisc reports" have gone a long way to providing such data and have shown, for example, that New York's total balance of payments deficit with the federal government in FY99 was the fourth largest in the country, behind California, Illinois, and New Jersey. In non-defense discretionary spending, which includes transportation, New York ranked 41 out of the 50 states. However, the category of non-defense discretionary spending includes numerous Federal programs in agriculture, education, environmental protection, housing, and national parks as well as transportation. The goal of this project was to assess New York's proportional share of federal funding specifically for transportation and, in particular, transit. Conducted over a period of six months, beginning in November 2002, the study resulted in Dividing the Pie: Placing the Transportation Donor-Donee Debate in Perspective, by Mark Seaman and Allison L. C. de Cerreño, which provides an accurate picture of the status of federal funding to the states. [Download Report]
