Have you ever been stuck in traffic, and upon seeing no apparent reason for the slowdown wondered why the city can’t better manage its traffic patterns? Well, now it supposedly can. New York City is entering the 21st century in traffic control.
A new, $1.6 million state-of-the-art traffic control system is being introduced that allows the Department of Transportation to effortlessly alter the flow of traffic to alleviate congestion and keep the streets moving.
This is certainly welcome relief considering how hostile the city has become to motorists. With an overly aggressive ticketing strategy for both parking violations and minor moving transgressions, like blocking the box (no matter how little), the city has become an expensive place to navigate. And let’s not forget the brilliant idea Bloomberg, along with our Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Kahn, had to eliminate multiple car lanes in major midtown arteries in favor of bike lanes, parking spots and smog-laced pedestrian plazas.
Now, through the use of technology, such as motion detectors, cameras and data from E-Z Pass®, the city can react in real time to any traffic slowdown, and with the push of a button change traffic lights to make certain streets move faster or slower to balance the flow and keep NYC moving. Additionally, they can now make adjustments for traffic accidents and disabled cars, and even dispatch traffic agents to the scene to help reroute cars to prevent undue backups.
This is certainly a better plan than just having traffic agents wait until you get stuck in a crosswalk and then issue you an unconscionably expensive violation. In a rare case, the city is spending money to improve our lives, instead of taking our money while making the city a less friendly place to live and work.
Time will tell how well this system will work, or if it will be full of glitches or implementation problems, like City Time. Nevertheless, it is a smart idea and one that keeps the city moving forward. If it works well, you likely will never read about it again. It will be taken for granted like most of the things in our lives that work as they should.
However, if Bloomberg wants to help alleviate traffic, here’s a solution that will cost less than $1.6 million. All you need is a bulldozer and some black paint. Tear down those ridiculous pedestrian plazas and mid-street parking spots and paint over the web of bike lanes that are tangled throughout midtown. That would be a real step in the right direction. One that if this mayor won’t take, let’s make sure the next one does.
Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant, blogger, and an active member of the Queens Republican Party.
