Local-Motion

Reports out of New Jersey are that officials at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey are considering raising tolls at the Hudson River crossings by $2 -- and are discussing whether or not to eliminate the $1 E-ZPass discount. All of which means that future trips across the George Washington Bridge -- or through the Lincoln or Holland tunnels -- could cost $8, instead of $6. The goal is to raise about $300 million a year for construction projects. Now, we don't have a problem with officials raising tolls in order to raise construction funds in order to improve infrastructure in order to improve our commutes. That all seems fair. However, it seems unreasonable to institute toll hikes when delays at the bridge and tunnels are often more than a half-hour -- and, sometimes, more than an hour -- and when there is no relief in sight. The proposal would have to be approved by Gov. Jon Corzine and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. We think that, before that happens, officials need to mandate that the fund is dedicated for construction and maintenance of the bridges and tunnels and ensure that the E-ZPass discounts remain in place. The future of our infrastructure in at stake. And, without these guarantees, that future remains in jeopardy.

An airline passenger walked through an exit -- and, past a security guard -- Tuesday night at Kennedy Airport and boarded a Delta Airlines flight to Albany. The crack security staff at the airport -- what, were these guys trained by Barney Fife? -- emptied two terminals of passengers, then re-screened them all in a process that took about three hours. But, of course, they never found the man, who despite sidestepping security, actually flew to Albany -- where he was questioned by police. Oh, thankfully, after all was said and done Transportation Safety Administration officials announed that the man was not a terrorist threat. Now, that's reassuring. Of course, we were of the understanding that all these elaborate security measures were put in place to determine who might be a threat to the traveling public before anyone ever got onto to a commercial airline flight -- not after a flight had been completed. The incident occured at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, when the man, whose identity has not been released, walked past a security guard who was neither able to stop him -- or locate him. But, hey. Heaven forbid I leave a pair of nail-clippers in my carry-on. Now, that's a security threat.

For years New York State has worked hard to toughen driver's license requirements in a battle against fraud. It became the leader in doing so in the U.S., establishing a "point" system for identification documents needed to get a license -- therefore making the process the most stringent and demanding in the nation. The idea, state officials said when the system was implemented, was to make it difficult for terrorists, among others, to get official state documents so they could rent trucks used to transport goods for car bombs or buy plane tickets. To make it difficult for them to "blend in" to legal society in the U.S. That was the plan. But years after officials here made New York the national leader in these kinds of requirements, Gov. Eliot Spitzer wants to take a giant step back by making it possible for illegal immigrants -- the emphasis on "illegal" -- to obtain driver's licenses in New York. The idea, according to Spitzer? To make it easier to identify potential terrorists, while forcing current illegal, uninsured drivers to get insurance. The same reason the system was toughened to begin with. Allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a license will not do anything to force them to become insured. Thousands of registered drivers allow their insurance to lapse as it is -- and the system cannot stop that, it can only punish them once the lapse becomes apparent. Which, by the way, more often than not never happens with any real penalty. And allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a license without specific documents -- such as a Social Security card, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services documentation, a valid foreign passport with a valid permanent resident card for example -- will not provide better safety for citizens or for the U.S. It will actually make the system unsafe and promote fraud. The current system was devised and implemented for a reason. At the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars it was done specifically to provide better security for New York, since New York was a prime target in a Post-9/11 world. Now, Spitzer wants you to believe the system isn't working and that his idea will be better. It won't. Actually, since the new plan won't require such strict documentation it will open the door officials closed years ago. And that is a bad thing. It is time to shoot down Spitzer's plan, once and for all. Because if it ever is implemented it will only be a matter of time before it comes back to haunt New York.

A 6-year-old girl fell through the gap between platform and train Monday at the Long Island Rail Road station at Syosset. But calls to the railroad went unanswered, with no spokesperson being "available" to talk to reporters about the incident. However, railroad public relations was available to send out press releases regarding bus service replacing train service on the Babylon line due to track work on the branch Monday. What does that say about priorities? It really has to make you wonder what these guys are thinking -- and if they are at all.

Welcome to the "magic bullet" theory, 2007, brought to you by the Long Island Rail Road and its president, Helena Williams: * A three-pound metal clip used to lock down rail road track was picked up by a trespasser and thrown onto the grounds of the Floral Park-Bellerose Elementary School where it was later struck by a lawnmower operated by a groundskeeper. Which, of course, is why the tracks -- and debris from the railroad's right-of-way area -- pose no threat to anyone. Uh, yeah. Does anyone believe this? Does anyone buy that some drifter who can throw the shot like Mike Stulce or Yanina Korolchik -- or the discus like the late Al Oerter -- walked by this twisted piece of steel, decided on the fly to pick it up and toss it and then threw it a few dozen yards onto the school grounds? The groundskeeper swore he saw the metal land on the school field as a speeding train passed by. He swore the metal was hot. He swore his lawnmower did not run over it. All of which, by the way, seems more logical -- and plausible [especially, since the blades on the lawnmower would have shattered if they had struck a piece of steel that big]-- than the explanation given by Williams, who sounded more like a corporate executive trying to explain away potential liability than anything else. Which is to say that every time something bad happens around the railroad all we -- the traveling public, the taxpayers -- get are excuses. Hey, Helena. Enough of the excuses, already. The explanations are not believable. They're tiresome. And we're tired of them. The railroad has problems. The public expects solutions. Find them -- or find someone who can find them. Period. But in the meantime be honest. The system is broken. Admit it. Meanwhile, save us talk about thrown clips and vandals and "magic bullet" theories. You might think the public will buy such explanations. We're not.

Another delay, another cancelled train. More apologies, more explanations, more excuses. This is the slice of life these days on the Long Island Rail Road, an operation whose service seems to be getting worse with each passing day -- instead of better. The latest delayed train was the Penn Station to Ronkonkoma Thursday morning. The latest cancelled train was the 6:21 a.m. Thursday from Speonk. Commuters have been writing to say service is the worst it's ever been on the Long Island Rail Road. Recent -- and, continued -- events make it hard to argue they're wrong.

So the new electronic "Traffic Alert" system installed by the New York State Department of Transportation on the Northern State Parkway doesn't work when traffic is moving too slow? Considering traffic on Long Island does that mean it will ever work? Unveiled Tuesday, the new $450,000 system was heralded by officials as a real-world 21st Century transportation solution that would make commuting easier for drivers by informing them of the approximate time to their destinations. Then a truck illegally entered the Northern State Parkway -- and hit an overpass. Then traffic was ground to a halt when the road was shut down. Then officials realized the electronic system doesn't work when traffic is barely moving. Or isn't moving at all. The system decides how long it will take drivers to travel between Point A and Point B by reading information from E-ZPass tags. It records the time it takes cars to travel the distance, averages it, then displays the time in minutes on electronic signboards posted roadside. The idea is to alert commuters to potential delays so they can use alternate routes, therefore reducing the potential for traffic jams. But once the average speed fell below 10 mph Wednesday, the system stopped. It has been recalculated to track traffic moving faster than 5 mph, but will not record data for traffic moving slower than 5 mph. What all this means is that the system works best when traffic is moving closest to its optimal speed -- and is more prone to failure when traffic isn't moving at all. Which also means the system works best when we need it least -- and at its worst when we need it most. We've already said we think that ultimately the electronic system will be used to turn Long Island highways into toll roads. Certainly, we don't see it as the answer to our clogged arterials. No matter how much officials tell us it is.

Planes . . . Officials in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and New York are voicing outrage over flight pattern changes around LaGuardia Airport -- changes approved by the Federal Aviation Administration -- that would shift arriving flights over their quiet little towns. Heaven forbid. The new traffic patterns, unveiled recently by the FAA, are part of an effort to reduce air traffic congestion in Philadelphia, Newark-Liberty, Kennedy and LaGaurdia -- four of the most-congested airports in the nation. The idea is to not only provide better traffic flow, but to make the airspace safer. As a result, jetliners will end up flying over places like Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Wilton, Stamford, Norwalk, Weston, Westport, Redding and Ridgefield, as well as Pound Ridge, N.Y. Officials in these towns -- some of them, like Greenwich and Pound Ridge, being highly-exclusive and upscale -- think this is unconscionable. So, officials in some of the towns are now joining forces, according to the Associated Press, to raise a legal fund to fight the FAA on the new plan. No word yet on when any potential suit might be filed. But the argument is that the new flight patterns will be noisy for the communities -- and could ruin their air quality, due to residual jet fumes. Your safety as an air traveller? Irrelevant. Trains . . . Um, so Long Island Rail Road officials miscalculated just a wee bit when they said earlier this week that 2,000 customers had been double-billed by their ticket-vending machines due to a programming error. Turns out the number was actually 19,000. Our bad, the railroad said. And now officials swear the program has been fixed and that every customer will receive a full refund, as well as a reimbursement of any surcharges resulting from the double-billing. Uh, thanks? Well, at least this explains why railroad officials only consider their trains to be late if they're more than 5 minutes, 59 seconds behind schedule. They can't do simple math -- or, apparently, tell time . . . And one more thing: It turns out Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials -- yes, the folks who run both the Long Island Rail Road and the New York City Transit system -- might have also miscalculated the amount of the fares hikes proposed last month. Meaning, off-peak trips might cost more than first expected. Surprise, surprise. Our question: Is this any way to run a railroad? Yeah, we know the answer to that one, too. Automobiles . . . Okay, taxi cabs. Turns out after all the protests -- and strikes and proposed strikes -- against a new law that will require credit-card readers to be installed in New York City taxicabs the Taxi and Limousine commissioner said this week that customers who pay taxi fares with credit cards actually tip better than those who pay cash. Cash passengers generally tip between 10 and 15 percent, Commissioner Matthew Daus said. Credit card passengers tip more than 20 percent. Taxi drivers -- and the Taxi Workers Alliance -- have argued the credit-card readers will be bad for business. In reality, it just means they'll have to report those tips to the IRS. Which is their real complaint.

So now drivers on the Northern State Parkway can see how much time it will take to travel between exits and destinations, thanks to an electronic monitoring system unveiled this week by the New York State Department of Transportation. The idea, officials said, is to monitor traffic flow by reading encrypted information on E-ZPass transmitters, then averaging the time it takes vehicles to travel between transmitter readers -- and posting the travel times on electronic signboards alongside the parkway. This, officials said, will lead to better traffic flow. This, officials said, is a system that soon -- or, sooner or later -- will come to other Long Island roadways, like the Long Island Expressway. Sounds good, right? You get better info on road conditions, traffic conditions. This helps officials monitor potential snarls -- and work to diffuse them before they create nightmare traffic jams. How could this be bad for drivers? Well, here's a thought: You have to wonder if the system sets the stage for the eventual introduction of tolls on our roads here. If, before long, the state will see this for the money-making opportunity it is -- and introduce its own version of a congestion-pricing plan under the guise of slimming traffic flow. You know, for your benefit as a commuter. The fact is such systems have been instituted on roads elsewhere, namely in California. With more than 100,000 vehicles daily on the Long Island Expressway, more than 100,000 a day on the Southern State and nearly that many daily on the Northern State, Wantagh Parkway, Meadowbrook Parkway and Sagtikos State Parkway there's money to be made for New York. And you can bet -- and remember where you heard this first -- sooner or later state and local officials will figure out how to make it. And take it. From your wallet. The electronic system revealed Tuesday as a benefit to your commute will, before long, likely evolve into an electronic system that picks your pockets. One toll at a time. Because if the system can read your E-ZPass to assess driving information then eventually it can -- and will -- be configured to bill your E-ZPass. Officials have not said -- and will not say -- this publicly. But the day will come. And it will come under with the promise of making commuting better for all of us, when all it will do is make it more expensive.

A "software problem" led to about 2,000 Long Island Rail Road customers being double-billed for credit-card ticket purchases made on Monday, Oct. 1. The customers will be credited, officials said. The railroad "regrets any inconvenience" the so-called software problem may have caused. Fair enough. Technology fails, after all. Things happen. But how many times must the railroad suffer such failures -- such misadventures, misunderstandings and mistakes -- before it becomes painfully obvious these failures are endemic, systemic, thematic and pathologic and that something needs to be done? Railroad officials -- i.e., new president Helena Williams -- said that the LIRR is working hard to improve customer service. Railroad officials -- i.e., Helena Williams -- said that the LIRR is working hard to address historic failures. All of which is well and good. The problem is that, meanwhile, the railroad continues to be its own worst enemy, bumbling and stumbling toward a finish line it has yet to define using a gameplan that seems piecemeal and scattershot. It's time for officials to make a practical "To-Do" list and to determine a real timetable and a real budget in order to get it done. The recent "Nelson Report" provides a reasonable starting point and framework, despite its shortcomings. So enough of the lip-service and promises. Enough of the excuses and the apologies. Enough of the explanations. Time to roll up sleeves, get dirty -- and get busy. Time for railroad officials to actually fix the system, instead of just promising to.

So, the Long Island Rail Road is better than it's been in years? Maybe ever? Oh, yeah, a new report said. Except for the signal system. And major structures, such as viaducts and tunnels. And "many" stations. And, oh, yeah. Except for the diesel and dual-mode locomotive fleet. And the soaring rate of gap-related incidents. And drainage issues and vegetation control on right of way areas. Other than those things, the railroad is better than ever. So said the so-called "Nelson Report" -- an "Assessment of the Condition of the MTA Long Island Rail Road" conducted by Donald N. Nelson and released recently by the LIRR, which announced: "LIRR Customer Service, Cleanliness Wins High Marks From Outside Consultant." Um, we're kidding, right? First of all, Nelson is the former president of MetroNorth, which, like the LIRR, is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Second of all, though his assessments were dead-on in many areas, the entire spin on the report by LIRR and MTA officials -- namely, new LIRR President Helena Williams and, in places, even Nelson, himself -- is a little like entering a mule in the Kentucky Derby and saying, "If only he were a thoroughbred, we're sure he'd win. But, even though he isn't, you should bet on him -- because we're still very hopeful." Railroad officials can put the best face on it all they want. But, truth is, after reading the report, the LIRR has several potential disasters waiting to happen -- some safety-related, others service-related. The dual-mode and diesel fleet breaks down twice as much as it should, some sections of track are inherently prone to flooding conditions that have not been remedied, the communications and signal system is antiquated and underfunded -- and overgrown vegetation sometimes obscures crucial safety-indicators, such as whistle posts, that could lead to potential disasters when coupled with what were termed "young, inexperienced train engineers." The response of the railroad -- and Williams, the president -- is to say that improvements are being made or being addressed or are in the works. That the system is great, better than ever, and the improvements in the offing will only serve to make it better still. Because, the LIRR cares about its customers. What this report should tell you, however, is that the railroad often has cared about little more than the window dressing -- making stuff look nice, while covering up the real problems -- and that it has spent monies in the wrong places while often ignoring crucial, long-term concerns. Something needs to be done about that -- and though Williams promised the railroad is working on that, it still seems maybe some sort of independent oversight is needed to guarantee the problems get fixed.

Cabbies said they will strike again, a protest over the requirement that all New York City taxi cabs be equipped with global positioning systems and credit card readers by early next year. The 24-hour strike is scheduled for Oct. 22. Let them strike. Because the bottom line is that, though cabbies said the systems will be detrimental, the fact is they will be beneficial to riders. The installation of GPS will force cab drivers to pay more attention to traffic laws -- and will ensure they take more direct routes shuttling fares around the five boroughs. Credit card readers will make it easier for riders to pay fares. What cab drivers are really upset about is that the installation of credit card readers will mean the Internal Revenue Service will be able to monitor their tips, their income. And GPS means poor driving habits will be exposed -- and they'll be liable for infractions like speeding. But both systems will mean safer, more convenient travel for customers. And if the cab industry really wants to serve customers -- the paying public -- then drivers should bite their tongues on this one and realize what's good for their customers is ultimately good for them, as well.