Imagine sitting in a 12-hour traffic jam perhaps because you absolutely won’t fit on the subway that is jammed beyond capacity (many think that’s the case now… it’s not!) only to arrive home to your dark apartment or house… yep… another blackout. Sounds fun? These are just some of the scenarios Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his staff are expecting by the year 2030 if we don’t continue a major overhaul of the city’s transportation and utility systems, while increasing our ability to handle the city’s massive pollution.
Plans to reduce polluted emmissions by 30%, cleaning up all of the cities brownfields, and building bigger and better transportation systems are all on the mayor’s long-term agenda. He’s not alone. London has already begun implementation of a similar plan and major metropolitan areas across the country and around the globe are going to have to act now to avoid an unpleasant future. No big surprise here but it seems that the discussions are finally progressing more towards action.
My favorite item discussed yessterday at this event was the inplementation of "Congestion Pricing." I absolutely love this concept of charging a toll to all of those who wish to enter midtown in cars and trucks. The mayor seems to think that Albany wouldn’t be likely to pass such a toll, but I think they are seriously going to have to consider this somewhere down the line. I believe that it would both increase the number of people using car pools and public transportation and simultaneously increase the amount of money that the city would have to allocate towards improvements.
In 2030, my son will be 29 years old and my daughter 26. I sincerely hope that they can enjoy New York City as well as the other major metroploitan cities in the world as they remain the ecclectic, cultural, diverse and intellectually stimulating places that they are today. For this to become reality, a system overhaul is inevitable.
