🛣️ Trucks, Tolls & Toxic Slime: Welcome to Edition #7 of the BOMA-NY Transportation Report 🗞️
April 2023 | BOMA-NY Codes & Regs Committee
Welcome back, transit warriors, property pros, and curbside chaos connoisseurs.
The April edition of the BOMA-NY Transportation Report brings you right into the heart of the city’s moving parts—where subway ridership is surging, truck routes are up for a long-overdue redesign, and e-bike batteries are setting off more alarms than ever (literally). Add in ghost license plates, BQE widening battles, and a splash of radioactive-looking subway goo, and you’ve got this month’s must-read roundup.
🚨 What’s inside?
-
⚖️ Budget battles: The MTA needs billions—so legislators are floating streaming taxes, Uber surcharges, and a parking permit scheme that’s already making headlines.
-
🌆 Congestion pricing: Still (maybe) coming in 2024—but now with a $130M “please-don’t-sue-us” sweetener for The Bronx.
-
🔋 Battery safety: Adams signs new laws as e-bike fire risk worsens—and City parks prepare to reopen to scooters this summer.
-
🏗️ Penn Station makeover limbo and MSG’s vanishing tax break.
-
🚛 BQE madness: Weigh-in-motion fines, decades-old delays, and widening worries return with a vengeance.
-
🚲 Cyclists beware: Fatalities already match all of 2018—and it’s only spring.
Plus: the Pope drives a limo, a cobra boards a flight, and green slime oozes into a Brooklyn subway station.
Whether you’re overseeing loading zones, negotiating tenant concerns, or just trying to predict the next urban mobility curveball, this month’s issue gives you the news, insight, and yes—a little levity—to stay informed and ahead.
📍Let’s dive in. And maybe check your license plates—just in case they say “New Jersey.”
🗞️ April 2023 BOMA-NY Transportation Report Summary
Prepared by: Glenn Waldorf, Bell Environmental Services
Date: April 13, 2023
🏛️ MTA Budget & Funding Uncertainty
-
NY State Budget talks delayed to April 17, leaving MTA funding unresolved.
-
The Governor proposed shifting paratransit costs to NYC, increasing payroll taxes, and seeking $500M from the city.
-
Alternative proposals include a 4% tax on streaming services, Uber, 25¢ per delivery, and parking permits for NYC.
-
MTA describes the fiscal situation as “existential”.
🚘 Congestion Pricing: Delayed But Active
-
Still scheduled for Q2 2024, but heavily contested.
-
Opposed by NJ Governor Murphy and NY/NJ anti-congestion caucus.
-
The Bronx fears spillover traffic.
-
-
MTA proposes a $130M mitigation package:
-
No overnight tolls
-
Electrified refrigeration trucks at Hunts Point
-
Air filters in schools
-
New asthma center
-
Truck charging infrastructure
-
Parks and green space improvements.
-
⚡ Federal Push for Electric Vehicles
-
Biden administration wants:
-
67% of new cars
-
25% of heavy trucks to be electric by 2032.
-
-
NY/NJ already targeting 100% EV sales by 2035.
-
Legal and logistical hurdles likely; automakers concerned about feasibility.
🚛 NYC to Redesign Truck Routes
-
First major update since the 1970s.
-
120,000 trucks deliver 90% of city’s goods daily.
-
Proposals: routing restrictions, delivery hubs, greener “last-mile” vehicles.
🏟️ Penn Station & MSG
-
Vornado’s office-tower funding model appears dead.
-
State may proceed with a glass-wrapped redesign around MSG.
-
MSG’s 40-year tax break under scrutiny; permanent permit not yet renewed.
🚇 Transit & Subway News
-
Subway ridership nearly back to pre-COVID levels (4M/day).
-
MTA to scale back bloated 2nd Ave Subway design after NY Post exposé.
-
GCT Madison continues to underperform; most riders stick with Penn Station.
-
OMNY tap-to-pay system coming—except for AirTrain, requiring $34M in bridge costs till 2026.
🔋 E-Bikes & Battery Safety
-
Mayor Adams signed laws:
-
Ban on reconditioned lithium-ion batteries
-
FDNY education campaign
-
-
Fires and injuries continue to climb.
-
Parks will lift e-bike/scooter bans this summer.
🛣️ BQE Drama Continues
-
NYC considers re-widening the BQE from 4 to 6 lanes—despite safety improvements from prior narrowing.
-
Plans would impact Brooklyn Bridge Park and require broader reconstruction.
-
“Weigh-in-motion” ticketing system for overweight trucks delayed but now under $1M contract with NYU.
-
Trucks over 40 tons will be fined up to $7,000.
-
🧪 Oddities, Safety & Humor
-
Green slime appeared in Brooklyn subway (yes, right before St. Patrick’s Day).
-
Cyclist fatalities spike: 10 deaths in Q1 2023 = full-year total for 2018.
-
Ghost license plates from NJ/GA dealerships enable toll and camera evasion.
-
Mayor Adams concedes: Remote work is here to stay for city employees.
-
Joke of the month: “How many people work at City Hall?” – Mayor Adams: “About half.”
✈️ And Finally…
-
Snake on a plane (a Cape Cobra!) forced an emergency landing in South Africa.
-
And Much Much More!
