Q&A
Council Member Brewer questions DOT on congestion pricing, resurfacing, daylighting, and infrastructure projects
1:36:19
ยท
4 min
Council Member Gale A. Brewer engages in a Q&A session with DOT officials, covering various transportation-related topics including congestion pricing, street resurfacing, daylighting intersections, and infrastructure projects. The discussion touches on the impacts of congestion pricing, street maintenance statistics, and potential improvements for pedestrian safety.
- DOT officials provide updates on street resurfacing targets and actual numbers for recent fiscal years
- The effectiveness of different daylighting methods is discussed, with hardened daylighting showing positive results for reducing injuries
- Council Member Brewer proposes exploring the use of infrastructure funds for tree planting to address cooling and dead tree issues
Gale A. Brewer
1:36:19
Thank you very much.
1:36:20
The chair is allowing a few more questions, and I appreciate it.
1:36:23
I know very well about the construe the postcongestion pricing study.
1:36:28
18 months, is that what it's going to be?
1:36:30
That's what it's supposed to be according to the legislation.
1:36:32
Is it on track?
Eric Beaton
1:36:35
So, yes, we we've been working closely with with the MTA, but I think what we'd say is we're not gonna wait 18 months if we're seeing an issue.
1:36:43
Right?
1:36:43
Like, there's a it can be a full study and report that comes out at that point.
1:36:47
But if we're seeing issues before that, we're gonna be ready to respond.
Gale A. Brewer
1:36:50
Right.
1:36:50
Okay.
1:36:50
Number 2, I was talking about resurfacing.
1:36:54
How many streets were resurfaced in 24?
1:36:56
How many constructed?
1:36:57
And how does this compare to previous years, just generally?
Margaret Forgione
1:37:03
As I mentioned earlier, our target is 1150.
1:37:08
In fiscal 24, we resurfaced 11.76.
1:37:11
We we always try to have some overage because we hate, hate, hate to lose that miss that target.
1:37:17
Mhmm.
1:37:18
The year before in 23, we did 1200 lane miles.
1:37:22
And in 22, we did 1192.
1:37:24
So it's always around there between 115 and 1200.
Gale A. Brewer
1:37:27
That's very helpful.
1:37:28
And then secondly, in terms of my trucks, obviously, you got congestion pricing.
1:37:32
You're gonna pay when you go in as a truck.
1:37:35
My fear is, bigger trucks mean less fees.
1:37:39
So I'm still concerned about this truck problem.
1:37:42
Have you seen obviously, the study will indicate this.
1:37:44
But do you have any sense that people are using bigger trucks, less fees, that kind of situation?
Eric Beaton
1:37:49
Yeah.
1:37:50
It's not something we've particularly observed yet, but we're we're very early, and I think people are still reacting.
1:37:55
So it's a good thing to keep an eye on.
Gale A. Brewer
1:37:57
Okay.
1:37:57
And then, daylighting.
1:37:58
I'm very supportive.
1:37:59
Does this take into consideration as you're resurfacing and so on, daylighting in terms of doing it as a project and a plan and a policy?
Eric Beaton
1:38:09
Yeah.
1:38:09
So we as, commissioner Forgione mentioned, like, the the resurfacing effort is not, you know, it's not embedded with the other things.
1:38:16
But every time we resurface a street, it goes to our our traffic design engineers, and they look at that street and see if there's anything else that needs to be done.
1:38:24
So day daylighting isn't the only tool, but it's one of the tools we can look at as part of that effort.
Gale A. Brewer
1:38:28
Okay.
1:38:28
And it makes things safer.
1:38:30
Is that true?
1:38:30
Or I'm just living with it in complaints and parking spaces?
Eric Beaton
1:38:34
So that that's a good question because there's actually some nuance to it.
1:38:37
What what we've what we found and we put a study out just last week is that hardened daylighting, like, where we put in a neck down or we put in bike racks, we find that to be definitely be effective in reducing injuries.
Gale A. Brewer
1:38:49
Okay.
Eric Beaton
1:38:49
What we find is if we just put up signs, it's, it's, has essentially no effect.
1:38:56
And if we do it just sort of universally, we've actually found locations where it has a negative effect.
Michael Capasso
1:39:01
So we
Eric Beaton
1:39:02
think it's something that done well is positive, and we just wanna make sure we keep doing it well.
Gale A. Brewer
1:39:05
Okay.
1:39:06
79th Street go ahead.
1:39:08
Did you say well, sorry.
Margaret Forgione
1:39:09
One other thing you wanna add about daylighting?
Paul Ochoa
1:39:11
Yeah.
1:39:13
Thanks for your advocacy and and, mayor's office.
1:39:16
We've received a new need in just this January plan that was released for, more daylighting work, both to the traffic planning team, the and also our roadway teams who are the ones who are dropping off the the the hardened day daylighting, barriers and removing them, on repaving operations.
1:39:36
So we did get a new need, which we're very thrilled about.
Gale A. Brewer
1:39:38
Right.
1:39:39
Okay.
1:39:39
2 things quickly.
1:39:40
79th Street, can you update me on the construction?
1:39:43
I know the chair has some good lists of major projects.
1:39:47
That's one of them.
1:39:47
So if you could rotunda update me.
1:39:49
And second, trees.
1:39:52
I have speed humps.
1:39:54
Always could use more, but I got a lot of them.
1:39:56
I got a lot of dead trees.
1:39:57
Parks department takes forever.
1:39:59
Can you get infrastructure money to say trees provide cooling, and that would be something that could be included in your infrastructure?
1:40:08
Just a out of the box idea.
Margaret Forgione
1:40:09
In interesting.
1:40:10
So
Gale A. Brewer
1:40:10
I have lots to
Margaret Forgione
1:40:11
talk about that more.
1:40:12
And if we can get with parks and we can strengthen applications, to help them, we would be very interested in doing
Gale A. Brewer
1:40:20
that.
1:40:20
Okay.
1:40:20
So in other words, infrastructure could perhaps pay for trees in terms of street repaving, blah blah blah for heat reduction.
1:40:27
Something to think about.
1:40:29
Right.
1:40:29
We we We
Margaret Forgione
1:40:29
would have to
Michael Capasso
1:40:30
They die.
Margaret Forgione
1:40:31
To see, like, how where that nexus is and how, we could be involved.
1:40:35
But we're Okay.
1:40:36
We'd be interested in exploring that.
Gale A. Brewer
1:40:37
Okay.
1:40:38
And then seventy ninth Street, do you have any update?
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:40:39
You know what?
Margaret Forgione
1:40:40
I don't have that update with me.
1:40:41
We can get it to you today.
Gale A. Brewer
1:40:42
Great.
1:40:43
That's fine.
1:40:43
Thank you, madam chair.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:40:45
Thank you, council member and commissioner.