12 JULY 20, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDITORIAL
New York needs a new transit deal
Queens residents are generally
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(subject: Queens Snaps).
angry that the city’s public
transportation system has been
failing all year long — and they have
every right to be.
The city’s subway system is reliant
upon technology that was outdated
decades ago. The MTA continues to
use subway cars and buses that are
decades old, have logged hundreds
of thousands of miles beyond their
intended lifespan and are prone to
breaking down frequently. The mobility
problems are such that more people
are turning to independent modes of
transportation — including bicycling
and the automobile, either through
their own vehicles or ridesharing.
There’s a sense that the city’s almost
going in reverse here when it comes
to transportation. In the decades
since Robert Moses tore apart entire
neighborhoods to build a network of
expressways across the city, there’s
been a movement to get New Yorkers to
stop driving and to start using public
transportation. In recent years, the de
Blasio administration has also fostered
the proliferation of bike lanes which
— for better or worse —have aimed to
encourage more bicyclists to take to
the streets.
But so many Queens residents still
remain reliant upon the automobile.
This is especially true in the eastern
half of the borough, where the Long
Island Rail Road serves as the sole
rail option over the cheaper and more
frequent subway lines that come to an
abrupt halt in Jamaica and Flushing.
That vehicular reliance will get
worse if the city doesn’t do something
substantial to bring the public
transportation system up to a state
of good repair and great service.
That means not only investigation
billions of dollars in upgrading the
subways and buses, but also moving
forward with proposals to expand
public transportation options — such
as a proposed light rail line between
Long Island City and Glendale, or the
Brooklyn-Queens Connector on the
East River waterfront.
Money, of course, is the overarching
issue here, but the state and city are
not in a position to choose between
repairing or expanding. They have to
do both, expenses be damned.
New York City is a 21st-century city
reliant upon 20th-century technology
to get around. It needs to fi x the existing
problems while also investing in
its future.
We might not be in a depression, but
it’s time for a “new deal” program that
will restore our transit system for our
modern time. If the federal government
won’t come up with the billions
of dollars needed for that eff ort, then
the city and state must work together
to fi nd every possible way at raising
the necessary revenue to accomplish
this mighty task.
