PERMANENT CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE MTA
MINUTES OF MARCH 7, 2013
A meeting of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) to the MTA was convened at 12:00 noon on March 7, 2013, in the 5th floor Board room, at MTA Headquarters, 347 Madison Avenue, New York City. The following members were present:
Andrew Albert William K. Guild
James F. Blair Marisol Halpern
Sheila Carpenter Matthew Kessler
Francis T. Corcoran Trudy Mason
Mark Epstein Steve Mayo
Randy Glucksman Edith M. Prentiss
Mike Godino Larry Rubinstein
Stuart Goldstein Michael Sinansky
Ira Greenberg Burton M. Strauss, Jr.
Christopher Greif Toya Williford
The following members were absent:
Gerard Bringmann Sharon King Hoge
Richard Cataggio Maureen Michaels
Owen Costello Raymond Pagano
Thomas Jost Bryan Peranzo
Rhonda Herman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas
Neal Zuckerman
In addition, the following persons were present:
William Henderson -PCAC Executive Director
Karyl Berger -PCAC Research Associate
Bradley Brashears -PCAC Consultant
William Wheeler -MTA
Charles Sutter -Concerned citizen
Dan Zweig -Concerned citizen
Yvonne Morrow -Concerned citizen
Colen Jose -Concerned citizen
Ann Guild -Concerned citizen
Barry Adler -Concerned citizen
Gary Prophet -Concerned citizen
Joe Clift -Concerned citizen
Ken Stewart -Concerned citizen
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the March 7, 2013 meeting was approved as amended. The minutes of the December 6, 2012 meeting were approved.
Chairs’ Reports
Ira Greenberg summarized the written Chair’s report, which is being forwarded to the members.
NYCTRC
Trudy Mason noted that the NYCTRC had finally received a response to the letter that the Council wrote about Select Bus Service (SBS). She said that the response was fallacious in its discussion of cameras along the 34th Street SBS route. According to the bus operators, the cameras that are positioned along the route are red light cameras. Ms. Mason said that some operators have been given hand held cameras and that Mike Sinansky had met an operator who was happy about having the camera, but other operators view any additional responsibility for documenting bus lane violations as one more task that creates a need to stop the bus. Also, she stated, the community did not object to SBS stops at Madison and Lexington Avenues and that the decisions to eliminate these stops were made by NYC Transit’s planners.
Ms. Mason also commented on NYC Transit’s refusal to provide “Ambassadors” for the SBS program on an ongoing basis, noting that tourism is New York City’s second largest industry. She said that tourists do not know how the SBS operates and that they are easy prey for enforcement and fines at the hands of NYC Transit’s Eagle Team, which she referred to as the “Gestapo Team”.
LIRRCC
Mark Epstein summarized the LIRRCC report. Mr. Greenberg said that interested members should take a tour of the East Side Access project before further work makes it impossible to appreciate the tremendous scale of the work that has been done.
MNRCC
Randy Glucksman summarized the MNRCC report and noted the addition of new trains to the Metro-North system in April. Jim Blair commented that Metro-North’s goal is to provide half-hourly service on most of the Railroad. With this frequency, if people miss one train they can get the next one without an inordinate wait. Mr. Blair also noted that two prospective members, Gary Prophet and Bill Farrell, are pursuing MNRCC membership with elected officials. Burt Strauss expressed his appreciation to Mr. Glucksman for providing a brief summary of the report and suggested that each Council Chair concentrate on a few major items.
Introduction of William Wheeler, MTA Director of Special Project Development and Planning, to discuss changing ridership patterns in the MTA system
Mr. Wheeler said that the entry of the “millenials” into the labor force is an important event for the transportation system. At this point, subway ridership is once again at a peak not seen since the levels of the 1950’s. He said that the “Dashing Dan” paradigm is changing now and travel is evolving, which results in opportunities and challenges for the MTA.
In terms of regional trends, we are returning from the economic downturn, but this rebound is uneven. The stock market is up, but employment is still not back to its previous levels. Mr. Wheeler noted that looing inside economic indicators gives clues to the future. Employment in architecture is at a high not seen since 2006, we are now 6 years from the dip in the economy, and development tends to move in seven year cycles. Another factor arguing for growth is the continuing positive net immigration to the region.
Mr. Wheeler said that NYC Transit is experiencing ridership on the subways that is practically at World War II levels and that during the war most people had six day a week work schedules. He said that the weekend ridership is now at 1946 levels on weekends, and that overall ridership is the highest since the 1950’s. Commuter rail ridership is up 24 percent since 1990. Metro-North ridership has grown, but interestingly this growth has not been in commuter markets, and planners believe that the LIRR can have a similar growth pattern as new capital improvements come on line.
Changes in employment and commuting patterns differ from County to County in the MTA region. Some areas are growing slowly, such as Orange County. Many areas are holding their own but not experiencing substantial growth. Some of these areas have more people working in suburban environments. The income difference between parts of the region is extraordinary, but more people travel from suburb to suburb than from suburb to Manhattan.
The peak hour ridership is flattening with a longer sustained period of increased ridership in rush hours, and there are other changes, such as increased ridership in the reverse commute. Mr. Wheeler noted that not all trips to Manhattan are to the Central Business District and that education and health care are the new growth industries. Many people are working in jobs that involve medical records because of new health care laws, and these people can work anywhere at any time. We are seeing vehicle miles of travel grow in only two states, and this trend is reflected in the volume of MTA Bridges and Tunnels crossings, which are no longer growing. New York City’s counts of the number of automobiles entering the City are down. While these trends are troubling to some, they also represent a tremendous opportunity.
Mr. Wheeler provided some comparisons between “millennials” and “boomers” as they relate to transportation. He said that millenials own fewer cars, they prefer trains to buses, but that cost is one of the issues that is attracting younger people to buses. London is trying to use WiFi availability to attract people to buses. For younger people driving around is not a recreational activity, and they communicate with each other using new media and then make quick decisions about where to go and when to meet.
Mr. Albert commented that the increasing cost of public transportation is a dark cloud on the horizon. Mr. Wheeler agreed that there needs to be a new way of funding transit if we are to take advantage of the opportunity that presents itself. He said that the changes in attitudes are not confined to younger people. Along with younger people who are increasingly settling in cities, older baby boomers are increasingly moving back to Manhattan after raising a family, which presents another opportunity.
Edith Prentiss pointed out that the subways are not evenly distributed throughout the City and that the NYC Transit bus system is poor. In the suburbs, transit is limited as there is no evening bus service even in Nassau and Suffolk
Mr. Wheeler noted that there are a number of capacity hot spots on the current system. Many of these places are areas where there was little ridership before and infrastructure is not sufficient for the growth that has taken place. Chris Greif remarked that he has seen other capacity problems in places like the subway lines that run over the Manhattan Bridge and under Lexington Avenue.
Mr. Wheeler said that hospital employment is growing in this area and the sky appears to be the limit. The question is not how to grow ridership but how to fund Transit needs. He noted that Richard Ravitch has said that MTA Managers were setting ridership targets when he was the Chairman because ridership was so low. This situation has completely changed.
Ms. Prentiss asked who is in charge of looking at the long-term planning of accessible stations. Mr. Wheeler responded that there is a need for more accessibility, but at $30 to $35 million per elevator, expanding accessibility has some real limitations.
Ms. Mason commented that while older people are moving to Manhattan, there are also younger people moving back home because of the state of the economy. She said that the intergenerational family is returning. Ms. Mason wanted to know if the growth in these areas had been projected and how it will affect the system. Mr. Wheeler stated that if commuting patterns had not changed, we would have tremendous capacity problems in the peak hour, but the peak ridership has flattened. He noted that people are doubling up in housing and putting more residents in less space because of the cost of housing.
Mr. Wheeler said that it is important to look at ridership patterns such as those on Queens Boulevard, where much of the capacity problem is caused by outer borough to outer borough travel rather than travel to Manhattan. He said that we need to find ways of tracking how people are traveling so that we don’t make the wrong assumptions. Mr. Albert commented that some capacity could be freed if we had the Freedom Ticket and ridership was more greatly diffused through the system.
Mr. Wheeler discussed strategies that are being used to deal with capacity problems. These include better signaling, completion of work at Nostrand Junction that will result in smoother system operation, and increasing access to subway stations by expanding or improving entrances. The key is to look for alternatives to new routes, as creating new routes takes time and often spurs neighborhood opposition. BRT as a strategy that can work in some places and the MTA’s version, SBS, can be a workable strategy. Also, branch line scoots for suburban areas can provide an appropriate level of service for less dense areas. The MTA has often used technology as a strategy and is working to advance the rollout of countdown clocks on B Division lines and to place real time bus information inside vehicles as well as on smartphones.
Ms. Prentiss remarked that while we can discuss technology, some riders have high floor buses that use lifts at their rear door for accessibility, but they pay the same fare as those who have more technologically advanced equipment.
Chris Greif asked what the next step in fare collection technology will be. Mr. Wheeler responded that he is not a part of the day to day planning of this area, but smart cards or smart payment devices are coming.
Sheila Carpenter pointed out that there should be a way to get basic information related to fare payment, such as the balance on a fare card. Larry Rubinstein suggested that riders should be able to access this information from the internet.
Mr. Wheeler continued that there is still a need for the megaprojects that are under construction despite the use of less capital intensive strategies. These are specifically the second phase of East Side Access improvements, including the Jamaica Station improvements and the Ronkonkoma Branch 2nd track, as well as phases 2 to 4 of the Second Avenue Subway project.
Ken Stewart asked to what degree the MTA is looking at stations as income producers. Mr. Wheeler replied that the issue is not only income produced directly in stations, but also the need to capture the value created by the stations in the surrounding area.
Mr. Wheeler noted that there are many environmental challenges to planning for the future of the transit system. He said that there were lots of predictions of environmental change and that some of them have come true. The question now is whether we should prevent or adapt to environmental threats and what this says about the useful life of capital investments in the system. There is a question whether the MTA should design to withstand events expected every 20 years or for an event that may only happen every 200 to 300 years. Mr. Wheeler noted that when he saw the destruction caused by Sandy, he saw another hungry mouth competing for capital dollars.
Mr. Wheeler stated that investing in the MTA is as critical as ever despite many competing needs. He said that when Sandy hit, the effects of having no transit were clear, but going beyond that point if you want functioning roads you have to subsidize building transit capacity to make sure that the roads can work. He noted that the capacity of roads to handle traffic is actually dropping because of the need for their reconstruction. In short, someone has to speak up for infrastructure funding.
Ms. Carpenter remarked that as we build, accessibility needs to be incorporated into the design. Dan Zweib asked whether there are any transit system improvements that could be profitable on a net basis. Mr. Wheeler stated he couldn’t think of one and he didn’t believe that one exists in current conditions.
Joe Clift pointed out the PCAC should recognize the need for MTA to be honest about their assessments of future conditions. He said that peak hour LIRR ridership has declined by 20 percent, but planning for expansion continues. He said that the problem may be overspending rather than underfunding.
Old Business
Ms. Carpenter asked where the Reduced Fare issue stands. Mike. Godino said that he was told that he was told that a letter was under preparation by the LIRR but was dropped when Sandy occurred.
Ms. Prentiss commented that there is a need to go back to ADA Coordinating Committee and find out what their areas of responsibilities are. Mr. Greif said that the PCAC should deal with outstanding ADA issues over the next year.
New Business
No New Business was discussed.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 pm
Respectfully submitted,
William Henderson
Executive Director