Uptown Radio

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

HOST: All New York commuters love to gripe about their commute. The subway line people love to hate? The G train. It’s often called the worst train in the city – and it’s even the only line with its own advocacy campaign. Stephanie Kuo reports after years of complaints from riders, the MTA has agreed to look for ways to improve the G.

AMBI_G Train Station fade up at “rush hour,” then fade under NARR.

The G train station at Metropolitan Avenue is packed, with streams of people coming down the stairs onto the platform. It’s rush hour. Deon Brannan charges down the stairs as he hears the Church Avenue-bound train pull up – one hand holding down the top of his Yankees cap, the other swinging a black plastic bag holding his lunch. But he just misses the door.  AMBI_bingbong up full. AMBI_train departing up full then fade under NARR.

He throws his hands up in frustration.

DEION BRANNAM (0:10)

Aw man, I be mad. What goes through my head, I be mad. I be pissed. But I just gotta wait for the next one, you know?

He says the wait for the next one can be long.

DEION BRANNAN (0:07)

Oh, shhh—, like 20 something minutes. Yeah, like 22 minutes, you know?

Other G train riders agree. They have some choice words to say about the line.

WATERFALL MIX (0:05)

Late. Unpredictable – I would second that. Tardy. The most unreliable train in New York.

It’s not just riders who are complaining. State Sen. Daniel Squadron represents areas along the line.

SEN. DANIEL SQUADRON (0:11)

Right now, if there were a grade after F, it would be G. The G train has seen the highest increase in weekday service of any line in recent times, and it’s too often the orphan of the system.

The conventional wisdom on the G train is that it underperforms because it’s the only line that doesn’t go into Manhattan. It runs from Court Square in Queens to Church Avenue in Brooklyn. The most common complaint among G train riders is the wait between trains, which is known as “headway”.. The 2012 State of the Subway Report Card by transit advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign found the average headway across the subway system to be about five minutes during the morning rush. The G train runs about every seven. But after 9 a.m., the headway rises to 10 minutes, then as much as 15 to 20 during the afternoon and evening. That’s why the G has become known as the Ghost Train.

MATT GREEN (0:02)

It’s a spook. It’s like, it’s here and there and then it’s gone.

Matt Green is a member of the Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization that advocates for better transit. He does research for the Alliance’s G Train Campaign. Green says he’s found that riders can sometimes wait up to 45 minutes for a train. Riders also complain about overcrowding. G trains only have 4 cars instead of the 8 to 10 on other lines. Green says the problems with the line lead some riders to seek alternatives. But a lot of people who live along the G don’t have that option.

MATT GREEN (0:10)

Other trains, when they’re down, there’s alternatives. You can find another route. But when the G train is down, it’s really the one route people depend on.

But fewer people depend on the G than on any other line in the city. For instance, the busiest stop on the G at Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg sees about 13,000 riders a day. Compare that to the 195,000 who pass through Times Square every day. Green says because the line‘s comparatively small ridership creates a vicious cycle among MTA officials.

MATT GREEN (0:12)

I think they’re really focused on supply and demand. And if people aren’t using it, it’s sort of like a cycle. People aren’t using it because the service is bad. But we need people to use the train in order for the MTA to pay attention.

But more people are using the G train. The MTA reports that it saw the largest uptick in ridership of any line in 2012. That’s 2,000 more riders a day, or a little more than 4 percent. Neighborhoods along the G are booming. Williamsburg and Greenpoint are the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city. And the growth along that part of the G is going to continue.

HERBERT KLIEGERMAN

rapid growth

Herbert Kliegerman has been a real estate broker in North Brooklyn for 10 years.

HERBERT KLIEGERMAN (0:09)

We see young people coming in from all around the world. Young students, young people who are coming in for jobs and realizing that there’s an alternative to the Lower East Side.

AMBI_street fade up and under NARR.

Take one look around the intersection of Metropolitan and Union Avenues in Williamsburg, and you’ll see rows of new buildings – sleek, modern and slate gray. Young residents walk shoulder to shoulder along the sidewalk. Two subway stops away, Greenpoint is about to get a 10-building development that will bring at least 4,000 more residents to the area. Kliegerman says that growth is going to force the MTA to improve G train service.

HERBERT KLIEGERMAN (0:07)

Real estate goes with transportation. It’s a necessity. If it’s not addressed, we can’t have a future.

For now, some people who live along the G line have turned to the few alternatives that exist. AMBI_ferry up full then fade under NARR.

The East River Ferry makes four stops in neighborhoods served by the G. It takes riders either to Wall Street or Midtown in about 10 minutes.

MILENA TZANKOVA (0:)

I think it’s much better.

Milena Tsankova lives in Greenpoint and rides the ferry every day. It’s more expensive than the subway, but she says it’s more pleasant.

MILENA TZANKOVA (0:)

Well look at the view. It’s a great way to start your day and end your day.

It’s quite punctual. I only wish they had it more often.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel for residents who still ride the G train. The MTA agreed in February to review service along the line. This will be the third study of its kind. Transit advocates say that earlier reviews of the F and L lines led to improved service.

MTA spokesperson Charles Seaton says the transit authority hasn’t begun looking at the G yet, but will in the next couple of weeks.

CHARLES SEATON (0:05)

We always address service to meet ridership and right now, we just don’t know what we’re going to find at the G.

Even with all the complaints about the G, some riders say the line doesn’t deserve its bad reputation. Greenpoint resident Simone Cuevas says people are just too harsh.

SIMONE CUEVAS (0:12)

A lot of people hate on the G. They say it’s never there, it takes forever to come. No, it’s just like any other train. It’s nice. I like it just as much as any other – actually I like more than a lot others that are in the city.

In fact, according to the Straphangers Campaign’s Subway Report Card, the G is NOT the worst train in the city. That distinction has gone to the C train for four years in a row. The report card says the G actually arrives with above-average regularity. The MTA will report on how it thinks it can improve that when it releases its review of the line in June

Stephanie Kuo, Columbia Radio News

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The events in Boston last night put New York police and emergency personnel back on high alert. For New Yorkers, that means transportation delays and more officers out on the streets. Max Rosenthal tells us what else is going on behind the scenes as the city reacts.

(Terminal noise from Penn Station underneath narration.)

NARR: The police lock down of the city of Boston also was felt here in the city. At Penn Station this morning, travelers arrived for their trains, only to find out that some trains were also in lockdown mode.

PA SYSTEM: Amtrak’s Boston service on this date has been suspended indefinitely due to earlier police activity in the Boston area.

Security at Penn Station has been visibly ramped up. Police officers from Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Department of Homeland Security were patrolling the corridors. Plenty of dogs were along with them.

(Barking noises.)

But passengers stranded in New York didn’t appear to be nervous. Instead:

CLOSE: I’m angry.

ROSENTHAL: At Amtrak? The police?

CLOSE: The police.

Scott Close is trying to get home to Boston after a trip to Washington with his wife and grandchildren. He thinks even after last night’s incident, security is going too far.

CLOSE: You know, I understand they’ve surrounded Arsenal Mall in Watertown, and that should be it. It shouldn’t be the entire the entire beltway, two and a half million people, who have their freedom taken away because of one criminal who the police let get away.

Train schedules and operations at Grand Central Terminal and Metro North were not affected, according to the MTA.

(Fade out Penn Station noise.)

The public presence of security officers is only a small part of the work that takes place after a big attack. Erroll Southers is a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California. He’s been a policeman, FBI agent and homeland security official. The coordination of thos agencies, he says, makes up much of the work behind the scenes after a major attack such as the Boston bombing and today’s lockdown. He said that may even include fielding reports from security officers overseas.

SOUTHERS: Every one of the FBI legal attaches abroad, they’re all working very, very hard on this case. They’re going to go to the ends of the earth to find out who did this. So every lead, whether its in the United States or another country, is being investigated and will be reported.

But police also spend a lot of time responding to an increased numbers of calls. Police commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Tuesday that New Yorkers reported 77 suspicious packages. That’s more than three times the usual number. And while every call needs to be investigated, few, if any, turn up anything dangerous.

SOUTHERS: I won’t say it’s useless, but often these are items and/or people the reporters would have walked by a week ago and not said anything.

(Fade up truck noise.)

Sure enough, last night, police and fire vehicles rushed to the corner of 116th Street and Broadway. Officers closed traffic and members of the bomb squad waddled out in full-body protective gear. One of the officers said they were responding to a suspicious package at an apartment building. But after just a few minutes, the responders shut off their flashing lights and drove away. False alarm.

On the street, Columbia student Gregory Graff said it was the first instance of increased security he’d seen all week. But either way, he didn’t think it mattered.

GRAFF: Anyone can take a bomb and put it in a backpack and leave it in a crowded area. Unless you put a National Guardsman on every street corner, I don’t think there’s much you can do.

(Fade out truck noise.)

Southers doesn’t agree. He says that New York is a leader in counterterorrism work. The city set up the country’s first Joint Terrorism Task Force, which coordinates, city, state and federal agencies, and has thwarted several attacks in the last few years.

SOUTHERS: New York has been doing the right thing since 9/11.

NARR: And after the first successful terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11, that’s more important than ever.

Max Rosenthal, Columbia Radio News.

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

HOST: London does it, Paris does it, Montreal does it. And now, bike sharing is in more than thirty U.S. cities. This May, New York will launch its very own system with more than 5,000 bikes. Anna Goldenberg reports on what effect it might have on the safety of cyclists in the City.

NARR: In a few weeks, New York City will break yet another record, when it launches the country’s largest bike share system. It is called Citibikes because Citibank is the main sponsor.

(Fade up ambi_bike station.)

Some New Yorkers got a first glance at it over the past few days, as new rental bike docking stations were installed in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

SHELTON: Looks like some sort of spaceship docking apparatus sort of thing.

New Yorker Matthew Shelton eyes such a bike share station near Brooklyn Bridge Park.

SHELTON: I’d imagine it’s for where the bikes are going to be set up.

He’s right – it’s also where the instructions for the program are displayed. The bikes can be picked up and returned at any of the 300 stations. Riders only need a registration, which costs 103 dollars a year, or 11 dollars a day. Online registration started earlier this week and 6,000 people have signed up.

Citibikes organizers have set up skills classes especially for inexperienced bikers.

(Fade up ambi_bike shop.)

On a Thursday night, around 15 people have come to the Red Lantern bikeshop in Fort Greene, where instructor Emilia Crotty goes through a slideshow.

CROTTY: If nothing else, follow these four rules. Yield to pedestrians, stay off the sidewalk, obey traffic lights, and ride with traffic, and not against it, like a runner would do.

But the majority of users will never have the chance to attend such a class. That’s because most are likely to be visitors, not full-time residents. Richard Conroy is the education director at bike new york which runs the Citibike classes. He says riding a bike in New York isn’t that different from anyplace else.

CONROY: I think what’s a little different about New York is the volume of traffic sometimes, and that there is a little bit of anarchical libertarianism on the part of all traffic users.

Citibike strongly recommends wearing a helmet, even though it is not required by the law for anyone above the age of thirteen. A Citibike annual membership comes with a discount for purchasing the protective headgear. John Kraemer is a professor of Health Law at Georgetown University. He conducted a study to find out whether bikeshare riders were more likely to wear helmets.

KRAEMER: In that population, only about a third wore a helmet when they were on a bikeshare bike. Compared to about seventy percent wearing helmets on their own bikes.

Kraemer says data show that wearing a helmet can decrease the risk of injury by two thirds – no matter what sort of accident you end up in.

KRAEMER: A lot of people think, a helmet can only protect me if I run into a tree and I hit my head. So, you know, in a city like New York, I am most likely to get hit by a car, and the helmet won’t protect me then. That’s the line of thinking.

He admits that there are logistical issues with requiring helmets for bike share riders – like where to store them.

But the very existence of Citibikes may make biking safer in the City, says Miller Nuttle of advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

NUTTLE: The beautiful thing about bike share is that the more people ride bikes, the incidences of crashes actually go down because people are more accustomed to seeing people ride bikes on the streets.

It’s safety in numbers – and it has been shown to work in other cities with bike share systems, such as Washington DC. The new Citibikes are also designed to prevent accidents. They are highly visible and they weigh 45 pounds – which means that riders simply can’t go that fast.

This is Anna Goldenberg, Columbia Radio News.

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

President Obama signed the Hurricane Sandy relief bill into law a few weeks ago and now the relief is showing its initial benefits. Now, nearly $300 dollars worth of funding from the Department of Transportation is on its way.

Lance Dixon has the story:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Senator Chuck Schumer gave a press conference today at the Downtown Heliport only a few feet away from the Brooklyn Battery tunnel—one of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy. $250 million is coming to New York and Schumer says it is right on time.

“The quick federal aid means that taxpayers will not bear the burden, many of the dollars that the city and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk had to lay out, they’re now getting reimbursed for,” he said.

The counties are now better positioned to continue the long process of recovery and planning for future usage.

“Now that they’ve been reimbursed, they can use those dollars to start doing other repairs that are needed,” Schumer said.

The repairs include repairing the infrastructure of all transit-related groups such as subways, bus terminals and other hubs that continue to reel from the damage of Superstorm Sandy. LaHood says this initial aid is part of $2 billion that the DOT has at its disposal to aid the city on a rolling basis. The two agree that this aid is arriving at a much quicker pace than it did after Hurricane Katrina because of federal emphasis.

“The President said get the money out there. Get the job done. Get people to work. And let’s rebuild, it’s really the President pushing this. It is, no question,” LaHood said.

The $60 billion Sandy bill will eventually disperse funds related to relieving homeowners, small businesses and hospitals. And in May, a city report will be released determining the most effective plans for future funds and rebuilding efforts.

The Department of Transportation has been using materials like this promotional chart to survey people's biking habits in neighborhoods where the city will install the first bike share stations. Photo by John Light

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

BY JOHN LIGHT

Portland Oregon got its first bike share in 1994, followed in recent years by Denver, Minneapolis and Washington DC. Last year, Boston got a bike share. And this summer, the popular program comes to New York.

All it takes is a credit card and any New Yorker will be able to use any of 10,000 bikes that will be available around the city. But New York is not just the latest but also the most diverse city to try bike sharing.

A professor at Virginia Tech named Ralph Buehler had his students interview people who used Washington DC’s bike share. Overwhelmingly, the short term users– bikers who rent a bike for just one ride– were white were young, they were male, and they were very highly educated — 43% had masters degrees. Dr. Buehler thought these statistics might be a reflection of bikers in America overall, not just bike share users.

“I think some of the things that we pick up here are probably what we pick up, not just in bike sharing, but in general in cycling in the US,” he said. “It may not be a problem or an inequitable issue within bike sharing but within bicycling in the US at the moment.”

Aware of these findings, the New York Department of Transportation has been trying to be inclusive as they plan their bike share. Part of this effort includes holding evening meetings in the neighborhoods that will get bikes.

Last Tuesday, the DOT hosted one at Hunter College’s 25th street campus, on the East River. True to Dr. Buehler’s study, the people at the meeting are mostly young and white. But the DOT says it does recognize that others may want to get involved.

Seth Solomonow, a spokesperson for the DOT, suggested that the bike share could be a cheap way for people living in New York’s lower income, nonwhite communities to get around.

“One of the key elements of bike share is that it is really so affordable,” he said. “We were talking about the cost of a metro card being about $95 for a month. That’s what we’re talking about for membership for an entire year. And you could have unlimited free trips of basically from half an hour to 45 minutes for an entire year for that investment.”

Nine different nonprofits on the Lower East side have formed an organization, called Local Spokes, that focuses on biking. The organization has surveyed over a thousand Lower East Side residents. Douglas Le, one of the groups leaders,  said that issues of access are associated with income level,  but that other factors like race were less important.

“We did find that lower income folks face different challenges than higher income folks,” said Le. “We didn’t see as much of any kind of destinction between, you know, Asian, versus latino, versus black or white, or the surveys that were done in Chinese or Spanish versus English.”

The neighborhoods that Local Spokes works in are at the nexus of the new bike sharing system. But Le is concerned that some of the lower income residents of his neighborhood may not be able to use the bike sharing system that they live within. One of the issues, he says, is credit cards. Most bike share systems require a credit card for payment and to establish the for identity of the user.  Jon Orcutt, the Director of Policy for the DOT says the city program is working on it.

“We don’t want lack of a credit card to be a barrier for New Yorkers accessing the system. So we’re looking for a variety of ways to do that,” he said. “We’re talking with the housing authority about how housing authority tenants could participate, since the authority knows who their tenants are.”

Another issue that both the DOT and Local Spokes are looking into is the price tag. Le says that it would be easier for many New Yorker’s to pay in installments.

“Though $100 is affordable for most families in the city, it may not be affordable up front,” said Le. “So can they pay it throughout the year?”

And even if those issues are figured out, the bike share only reaches so far. DOT eventually hopes to expand the program east into Brooklyn and north into Harlem and the Bronx, but Jon Orcutt, the DOT’s director of policy, said it could be years before that happens. The first priority was the city’s business district.

Still, Le said it’s nice to see that the department is making an effort to communicate their plans to residents. They’ve held information sessions in Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese. The sessions haven’t been well attended, but Seth Solomonow said there are more foreign language sessions in the works.

“I think in a place like New York you can’t make everyone happy, and they know that more than anyone,” said Le. “But I do want to acknowledge that DOT has made an effort in terms of being transparent about their process.”

The DOT has yet to set an exact date for the opening of the program this summer. Until then, it will be holding information sessions and gathering input on their website. Whether New York’s bike share will turn out to  be  any more accessible than any other cities remains to be seen.

Councilman Eric Ulrich's proposed registration law is meant to deter cyclists from riding on sidewalks and breaking other traffic rules. Photo by Willow Belden.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Cyclists in New York City are supposed to follow the same laws that apply to motorists. But like drivers, they sometimes break them. This year, police have started cracking down on riders who run red lights or break other rules. Now, Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) wants to go one step further. He’s proposing a law that would require all bikes in the city to be registered.

The system Ulrich is proposing would work like this: You’d go online and fill out a registration form, and the city would send you a mini license plate for your bike. It would be free — but mandatory — so cops could identify you.

The way it is now, Ulrich says, it’s easy to identify cars that violate traffic laws, “but when it comes to people on bicycles, there is no way to identify those individuals if they’re involved in an accident or they cause an accident.”

Ulrich says his constituents feel intimidated by cyclists. He thinks his proposed law would deter riders from breaking the rules. But bike advocates disagree and have flooded his office with calls and faxes.

Out on the street, cyclists say New York already has the laws it needs.

“What we need is better enforcement of the law so that what I call the ‘Bad Apples’ are rooted out,” said Peter Engel, a member of the 5-Boro Bike Club.

He and about 10 others have gathered near City Hall for a Sunday morning ride. Another rider here, Steve Bauman, doesn’t think registering bikes will make riders more responsible.

“Registration has been tried in a lot of places,” he said, ” and it just doesn’t do much good.”

Bauman has a point: there’s not much evidence to suggest that registering bikes makes riders behave. Madison, Wisconsin and Davis, California both have registration laws. But their programs are focused on getting stolen bikes back to owners.

Andy Clarke is the president of the League of American Bicyclists, a national advocacy group. He says Washington D.C. police recently convinced the city to repeal its registration law.

“The only time that it actually was being enforced or used was basically not for anything to do with bike safety or bike behavior issues, but it turned out to be sort of a surrogate profiling issue,” Clarke said.

The last time New York considered requiring bike registration was in 1980. At that time, Mayor Ed Koch turned down the idea because he didn’t think it would be effective and because he estimated it would cost 10 million dollars to implement.

But Ulrich is undeterred and plans to introduce the bill at the end of the month. He doesn’t think the expense would make a big dent in the city’s budget. And he says most of his opponents aren’t from his district.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The 3 Decker Restaurant’s store front with a jersey barrier and chain link fence used by crews helping build the Second Avenue Line on the Upper East Side. (Photo by Joe Danielewicz/Columbia Radio News)

The 3 Decker Restaurant sits at the corner of 91^st Street and Second Avenue, its store front is blocked by jersey barriers and a metal chain-link fence, part of the construction for the second avenue subway.

Teddy Raftopoulous  helps his brother run the place.

He says in the past 5 years since subway construction began, business is down as much as 30 percent.

“We used to have a lot of taxi drivers around, lot of limousine guys around, they can’t stop around,” Raftopolous said. “If you have a place and nobody can stop around, that hurts the business.”

One block north of the 3 Decker the MTA has presented what they think is the model for helping businesses weather the construction.

Michael Horodniceanu  is the head of the MTA’s construction division.

“We need to make sure that we are good neighbors,” he said.

Horodniceanu walked reporters through what they’re calling a “model block” today.

It features better signage.

“At the corner of every block, we’re actually identifying only the stores that are on this block,” he said. “Very simple and direct.”

Pedestrian walkways that border construction are also more clearly-defined.

And the equipment inside the fences are hidden behind a screens woven into the fences.  The backhoe is still there, but not staring you in the face.

The MTA wants local businesses to say if they like the model block, in order to expand it.

Robert Zantay lives on the subway route and doesn’t expect much from the new fencing and signs.

Teddy Raftopoulos helps his brother manage the 3 Decker Restaurant at 91st and 2nd Avenue on the Upper East Side. Raftopoulos says business has dropped since Subway construction began. Photo by Joe Danielewicz/Columbia Radio News

He says it’s too little to late.

“Everyone’s gone out of business already,” he said.

Teddy Raftopoulous says when the project is complete, it will be worthwhile.

He’s looking forward to riding the subway.

“You do something, you suffer a little bit and everything, but in the long way, you know, that’s very good for everybody,” he said.

The MTA expects to be working along Second Avenue through 2016.