Talking Transportation 2024

Darien Commons in Noroton Heights: Transit Oriented Development Done Right

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It’s the buzzword du jour in Hartford these days: TOD, or Transit Oriented Development. What it implies and how it’s implemented aren’t always the same. The idea is to put new, denser housing near train and bus stations, encouraging folks to drive less by being able to walk from their homes to mass transit, taking them to and from their jobs. An admirable enough goal in a state that’s failing to get its war on global warming underway. But just plopping housing, affordable or luxury, near a train station doesn’t mean people will want to live there if the only amenity is a short walk to transportation.

Talking Transportation 2024
DWI Driving while intoxicated

Strategies for Traffic Safety: Congestion Pricing, Speed Cameras and More

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Stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic the other day on I-95 I grumbled to myself “Where is all this traffic coming from?” And then I remembered: If you’re stuck in traffic, you are the traffic! Guilty. But what’s being done to reduce all that traffic? Congestion Pricing Coming to NYC
In New York City they’re about to embark on a daring test: Congestion Pricing. Barring any last minute legal moves by opponents, it will soon cost $15 to drive your car into Manhattan below 60th street.

Talking Transportation 2024
Possible future look of New Haven's Union Station

Transportation Roundup: A More Inviting New Haven Station, Ships Versus Bridges, Alternatives to Driving to the Station

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Lots of transportation related stories to catch up with, so here goes:

NEW HAVEN STATION: Over 1.7 million Metro-North and Amtrak passengers use New Haven’s Union station each year. And while the 100-year-old station has been restored, it still sits in a comparative wasteland of parking lots and empty land. Now the city is launching a major redevelopment plan to gentrify the station with shops, cafes and high-rise, mixed-use buildings nearby — true transit oriented development. But be patient: they have neither the funding, the zoning revisions or specific plans at hand.  

COLLAPSING BRIDGES: How disappointing to see Connecticut media regurgitating the same old stories about the sorry state of our bridges following the ship collision in Baltimore that destroyed the Key Bridge.

Talking Transportation 2024

‘Everybody Plans for Retirement, But They Should Also Plan for Driving Retirement’

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How old is “too old to drive”? None of us are getting any younger, but when is it time to hang up our keys for our sake and that of others? “Age is a number, not your capabilities,” says Nora Duncan of the AARP. There are lots of young people out there who are worse drivers than their elders, she says, so age alone isn’t an indication of how well you can drive. “It’s the wild west out there right now, but I doubt those driving 100+ mph on our interstates are our older drivers,” she added.

Cameron on Transportation
GWB George Washington Bridge

George Washington Bridge, Called One of the Most Beautiful in the World, Was Built With Later Expansion in Mind

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With the sad news out of Baltimore this week about the collapse of the Key Bridge, I thought we’d reprise a story I wrote awhile back about New York City’s iconic George Washington bridge. It’s the bridge we love to hate. Congested, expensive ($17 toll) and nowhere near as modern as the new Tappan Zee Bridge, the George Washington Bridge is best to be avoided, but often you can’t. The “GW” was not the first New York City bridge designed to cross the Hudson River. Back in 1885 there were discussions about building a suspension bridge to bring the Pennsylvania Railroad into Manhattan at 23rd Street.

Cameron on Transportation

Most States Have a Special Tax for Electric Vehicle Owners (Who Don’t Need Gas), But Not CT

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A while back I was in Greenwich doing one of my regular talks about transportation and conducted a quick poll, asking the crowd “How many of you drive EVs (all-electric vehicles)?”

Being Greenwich, about five hands went up. I congratulated the early adopters of cleaner driving and then said, “You know you’re not paying for our highways — and that’s not fair.”

It’s true. Drivers of EVs are literally getting a free ride on our highways because they don’t buy gasoline and don’t pay gas taxes, which are used to pay for the maintenance and repair of our roads. Full disclosure: I drive a Prius hybrid that gives me double the mileage of my old Honda, so I’m half a freeloader, buying only half the gasoline I used to. The point is: EV drivers should be paying for our roads just like everybody else.

Cameron on Transportation
License Plate Reader

License Plate Readers and the Games People Play With Them

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We all know how bad the traffic is despite the State Police’s recent ticketing blitz on reckless drivers.  On the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways, in just one week, they made 170 traffic stops and issued 150 tickets (including 51 commercial vehicles) totaling $8,000 in fines. That includes the arrest of a Norwalk cop accused of a road rage incident when he tried to run another car off the road.  When even the cops are acting out, you know things are bad. Aside from radar, red light and speed cameras, some of the best tech being employed by cops these days is license plate readers (LPRs) — special cameras mounted on vehicles scanning license plates on passing cars.  The system recognizes the plate number and sends the data to a national crime database, immediately alerting the officer to violations. Have an outstanding arrest warrant?  Registration expired?  No insurance?  The LPR will know and you’ll probably get pulled over. A few years ago when my town was testing the technology, I did a ride-along with a local officer and watched it in action.  The system flashed red so often, notifying the officer, that she couldn’t decide which violator to pull over.

Cameron on Transportation
42nd street subway station

Could Lawlessness on New York City Subways Shrink Commuting on Metro-North?

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It’s not safe to ride the subways in New York City. Not that the subways aren’t operated safely, it’s just that the people riding them are victimizing each other as well as MTA personnel. Hardly a day passes without another report of incidents like these:

• A man is slashed with a box cutter by an assailant spewing anti-LGBTQ remarks, who then runs off. • In another incident a 64-year-old postal worker is kicked down off the platform, falling onto the tracks. He was rescued by bystanders before the subway train entered the station.

Cameron on Transportation
Stamford Station Parking Garage

Looking on the Bright Side as Connecticut’s Transportation Improvements Stumble Along

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Forget what the calendar says, I say it’s Spring! And with this hopeful season comes good news on the Connecticut’s transportation front. A reader recently told me my weekly screed comes off sounding like I’m a “cranky old man.” Guilty, on both counts. So let’s celebrate these rare glimmers of hope for our roads and rails. Increased Traffic Enforcement
The Connecticut State Police has announced a new crackdown on reckless drivers to, as one pol put it, “take back the highways.” Special patrols will be working the interstates and parkways and writing a lot of tickets.

Talking Transportation 2024

Houthi Attacks Off Coast of Yemen Could Lengthen Shipping Delays (Worth $1 Trillion a Year) Even More

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What do 15,000 sheep, 7,000 U.S. sailors, that order for your new patio furniture and your recent “Temu haul” have in common? They’re all affected by the shipping bottleneck in the Red Sea caused by the Houthis. You may not know or care about the Yemen-based Sunni Islamist Houthis, but their attacks on shipping on its way to and from the Suez Canal are affecting your life and pocketbook. As they attempt to control the 14-mile wide seaway known as the Bab el-Mandeb (also known, appropriately, as “The Gate of Grief”), the Houthis have recently fired ballistic missiles and drones at 45 ships, including U.S. warships. So dangerous has become this passage, traversed by 15% of global shipping, worth $1 trillion a year, that container-ship owners are now diverting their vessels around the tip of Africa, adding 3 to 4 weeks of sailing time from China to Europe and adding almost $1 million to each vessel’s shipping costs.

Talking Transportation 2024
Darien School Bus

Solution to the ‘SUV Parade’ to and from Schools: Two Feet and Sidewalks

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In our small town we call it “The SUV Parade”, the weekday ritual-like procession homing in on a handful of targets, carrying that most precious of cargos — our kids — heading to school. But why the private car parade when the town already spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on school buses? Why aren’t the kids on the yellow buses? Sure, sometimes they have early activities or don’t want to shlep their tuba on the bus. But often its because the kids don’t think its cool to “bus” when mom (or increasingly, work-from-home dads) can drive them?

Cameron on Transportation
Stamford Train Station aspirational image

Lots of Smiling for the Public, But Not Enough Improvements on Metro-North

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It was billed as a “Transportation Summit.”

But the gathering last week in Stamford was more of a PR event than anything else, as Gov. Ned Lamont, the leaders of the state Department of Transportation, the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, Metro-North and the ever-smiling Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons sounded mostly like cheerleaders for the multi-billion dollar spending to come for our rail system. Sponsored by the Northeast Corridor Commission, the invitation-only confab attracted about 60 people, most from the business community. Noticeably absent: anyone representing commuters. Needless to say, I was not invited, but neither was the Commuter Council. Fortunately, you can watch the entire hour-long event thanks to Connecticut Network television.

Cameron on Roads 2024
Use Ya Blinkah! sign

Signs of the Times: Highway Exits Renumbered, Wordplay on the Roadway

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“Are we there yet, Dad?” cried Junior from the back seat. “Only two more exits to go, son,” said the father, scanning the roadway ahead of him. Many miles later, Junior was moaning again. “You said two more exits, not dozens of miles!”

Well, Junior, that’s about to change. the Connecticut Department of Transportation, pressured by the Feds, is about to renumber all of the exits on the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways and our interstate highways.

Cameron on Transportation
Dudaweyll Dietmar Rabich

Faster Trains Are More Dangerous Trains, and When They Have a Lot of Railroad Crossings …

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Much has been written in praise of Brightline, the modern, stylish privately owned railroad serving Miami to West Palm Beach to Orlando with fast, comfortable trains. But the railroad also has the highest death rate of any railroad in the U.S., having killed 108 people since it began operations in 2017 — not its passengers but people crossing the railroad’s tracks. Last week alone at one grade crossing in Melbourne, Florida there were two accidents causing three deaths in as many days. Those “accidents” are under investigation by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board. But all indications are these deaths, like the others, were caused by stupidity: people driving around the crossing gates that lower before the train roars through.

Cameron on Transportation

The Car Insurance Trade-Off: Cut Your Bill or Keep Your Driving Habits Private

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Are you paying too much for auto insurance? You’re not alone as rates in Connecticut went up 8% last year and 20% since 2018 thanks to inflation, higher repair costs and riskier driving by too many drivers. But now there’s a way to lower your rates significantly — if you are willing to let Big Brother monitor your driving habits online via Telematics. All of the major insurance companies are now employing this technology to better understand their customers’ driving style and reward good drivers. When first launched almost 20 years ago this meant you’d have to plug a fob into your car’s OBD (on board diagnostics) connection which would monitor how you drive for a few months.