Rudin Center for Transportation : New Jersey Commuter times Jump by 20 minutes post Sandy
November 27, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
According to the Rudin Center for Transportation at NYU New Yorkers managed to reach their places of work in impressively large numbers following Super storm Hurricane Sandy, not only as a result of transportation providers’ major efforts, but also through residents’ own adaptability and ingenuity.(https://wagner.nyu.edu/faculty/publications/publications.php?pub_id=2292 )
In the absence of subways, which typically transport 5.3 million people daily, commuters fanned out to buses, taxis, bicycles, and telecommuting. In the NYU Rudin Center’s survey of 315 commuters, where approximately half had typically taken subways to work, patterns shifted significantly to allow for a diversity of modes: buses, walking, bicycling and telecommuting, as shown in the charts below:
These figures represent the remarkable multi-modal transportation supply and user adaptability seen in few cities outside of New York. In many U.S. cities, which are limited to cars, buses or other singular transportation modes, the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy would have, at least temporarily, crippled the economy.(https://wagner.nyu.edu/faculty/publications/publications.php?pub_id=2292)
Even further, the November 1-2 commutes often took twice or three times as long, and frustration levels were self-reported at an average of 3.35 out of 10, but the return to work was palpable on November 1-2, the days immediately following the Hurricane. It should be noted that the frustration levels were highest in Staten Island (7) and New Jersey (5.7), the surveyed areas most geographically separated from the operating offices of midtown Manhattan. The travel times and frustration index for those reporting to a workplace (not telecommuting) on November 1-2 is shown below: 50
Location Pre-Sandy Commute Time (minutes) Commute Time Nov. 1-2 (minutes) Average Frustration Level
Brooklyn 42 86 3.93
Manhattan 29 52 2.97
Queens 45 47 3.00
Bronx 41 63 2.14
Staten Island 84 240 7.00
New Jersey 52 69 5.67
Northern Suburbs 73 61 2.40
Long Island 85 85 2.00
Source https://wagner.nyu.edu/faculty/publications/publications.php?pub_id=2292
Won’t get back to normal until the BRAND FUCKING NEW engines and cars that were left in the flood plain either get repaired or replaced. They could have fit all that stock on the third track between Glen Rock and Waldwick, but no, they figured it was safer at sea level down in Kearny.
Who leaves valuable equipment in a flood plain when a flood is predicted? Who is that stupid? Now my $273 monthly is going to be $400 monthly to pay for this!
Let’s ask our Ridgewood municipal government what they think about flood plain contingency…actually, wait…Village Hall is…oh…Oh…OH MY GOD THE STUPID IS ALL AROUND US!!!
You are more than welcome to jump. Pack your bags and move to a low train fare country. Good luck finding one in the 1st world: you are better off trying Africa. You could probably go years in Congo or Liberia without paying a dime in commuter fees….
NJ Transit and our elected officials have left Bergen County in a pinch when it comes to public transportation post-Sandy. They continue to slash the train schedules (calling them “modified schedules”). What were once rush hour express trains and service have been eliminated. Lets keep in mind that only two short years ago, NJ Transit spend $40 million to renovate Ridgewood Station. Think about that….$40 million to renovate a station that they called “key” a few years ago which just had its scheduled service cut. $40 million…..and they still parked the equipment in flood zones. I guess the station was key but the equipment wasnt.
#2 I think the station expansion (which I am not defending; I won’t go into my problems with it here) was signed off back in the heady days when we were supposed to get a one seat ride into midtown. Christie killed that, and instead focused on fixing Xanadu, which should be done just about any day now. Really…any day now.
Incidentally, the bill for Sandy dwarfs the ARC budget (what was it, $8B or something?). A little perspective.
So yeah, it does seem like we’ve been left high and dry. Transferring in Sec was never a lot of fun to begin with and now it’s just got worse. Falling asleep in Ridgewood and waking up on 34th street would be a dream. And I was looking forward to my house being worth another $40k or so…oh well.
Rob , I think yu are mixing up a bunch of stuff, Xanadu and the tunnel to Macy’s basement have nothing to do with each otherand neither does the Sandy clean up .
The press omitted to tell you the tunnel did not go to penn station but Macy’s basement…STUPID , and only NJ and not NY resident would be paying for it.
As for your house going up 40 grand tell me when to stop laughing , highly unlikely in a recession with little to no prospect on any job growth in the NY metro area.
Xanadu was a Jim Mac Greevey project and is a huge while elephant in which the Gov and taxpayers are stuck . You couldnt even burn the place down to collect the insurance ,
As for the mess since Sandy nothing wuld have prevented the current delays and new tunnels to Macy’s basement could have been flooded just like the rest