BY NOLAN HICKS , DAN RIVOLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, June 28, 2015, 2:23 AM
All aboard for more mass transit misery.
New projections show the New York region’s population should reach 20.5 million people by 2020, further taxing the region’s already overcrowded and cash-strapped subway, bus and train systems.
The projections — calculated by the mapping service ESRI for The Associated Press — estimate the region is growing at a clip of almost 100,000 people annually. Long Island, Westchester County and much of northern New Jersey are included in the metro area.
The importance of these systems can’t be overstated: 31% of metro area commuters use transit to get to work, the U.S. Census estimates.
As the region’s population booms, the strains on mass transit are increasingly evident.
Overcrowding was the single biggest cause of delays on the New York subway system during the last year, MTA stats show. Ridership has also grown on NJ Transit and the PATH trains.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/growing-population-transit-worse-experts-article-1.2273743
Wait,,, What?
I thought we were all supposed to move into metropolitan areas…
you know… reduce our global footprint,…be healthier… have more interaction with our fellow persons…
and achieve world peace and save the planet…
very confused… please tell me what to do
BTW, are we still shunning trans fat?
More high-density apartments, please.
Well, had Christie not killed ARC, we’d be a little over a year from having another tunnel under the Hudson and a one seat train ride into midtown. As it is, the SEC trains out of Penn are murder during the evening rush…on par with the level of crowding I’ve seen in Asia. For example, if you arrive on the platform at 6:10 for the 6:12 train to SEC, good luck: you are not getting on that train without fighting your way on board.
Bottom line is we are not making any investments in mass transit. The pragmatist in me says fine, let NJT self fund the improvements through fare hikes, like private industry would have to do. But then the cost of commuting to a job in Manhattan would be prohibitive, and property values in commuter towns like Ridgewood would decline accordingly.
Much like the broader economy, it is a complicated machine with many moving parts, and unfortunately there is no way to fix part of the problem without addressing the whole.
Personally, I have a few more years in Manhattan. Then I’ll take a pay cut to work locally. Who knows, by then it might not be a pay cut once commuting and taxes are factored in.