By Philip Newman
The MTA has appointed a special committee to look into possible challenges the MTA might experience in future decades and how it might be improved.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo recommended establishment of the Transportation Reinvention Commission last May, urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to look into changes in customer expectations, commuting trends and extreme weather patterns as it develops capital plans.
The commission will be headed jointly by former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey.
LaHood and Garvey will oversee 22 commission members who represent business, construction, planning, transit, finance and advocacy groups.
“The MTA has made incredible strides in rebuilding the network that makes New York grow and thrive, but we can never be satisfied with what we have done so far,” said MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast.
“As we prepare the next capital plan to guide investment for the next five years as well as future five-year plans, we want experts, stakeholders and customers to offer their thoughts on how to make those investments work for decades to come.”
The commission will hold public input sessions as part of its plan.
The commission, in addition to LaHood and Garvey, will include these members among others:
• Rohit Aggarwala, professor of practice in international and public affairs at Columbia University
• Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress
• Kate Ascher, associate professor of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture
• Andy Byford, CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission
• Isabel Dedring, deputy mayor for transportation in London
• Alain Flausch, secretary-general of the International Association of Public Transport
• Craig Gotsman, professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute in New York City
• Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York
• Kevin Law, president and CEO of the Long Island Association
• Robert Lieber, chairman of ULI New York
• Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia
• Robert Puentes, director of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative and senior fellow at the Bookings Institute
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
