Commuter culture

With nearly 4.5 million people riding the transit network each weekday, the system is also the city's mobile public square, a major venue for commerce, entertainment and political activism. Campaigning at subway stations is a signature of New York politics. Where presidential candidates appear at small town diners during campaigns in other parts of the country, in New York candidates meet and greet voters at station entrances and bus stops.

The buskers, troubadours, musicians, jongleurs, entertainers and artists who make their livelihoods in the New York City subway are legendary. They come from Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. African drummers and opera singers, Tai Chi performers and jazz trios, Chinese erhu players and Harlem break dancing troupes and even musical saw players; the artists plying their trade in the subways are countless. So plentiful, in fact, that in an effort to bring some order to heavily used stations transit authorities established the Music Under New York program, which sponsors more than 100 musicians and ensembles giving over 150 performances at 25 locations throughout the system each week.Metropolitan Transportation Authority: Music Under New York - Facts About the Program Yet these performances account for a fraction of the acts appearing in the subway. New Yorkers relish the performances of their street musicians; in the momentary pauses between the impatient arrival and departure of subway trains, with the warm sounds of a Cuban guitarist wafting through a station, it is not uncommon to find a polyglot crowd of listeners — secretaries, bus boys, bankers, black, white, brown — united in rapt attention. Many subway musicians also have successful careers above ground. Natalia Paruz, better known as the "Saw Lady", is touring the world playing with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Royal Air Moroccan Symphony Orchestra and many times at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. She can also be heard on many film soundtracks and TV commercials. Despite her glamourous career she makes a point of continuing to play in the NYC subway (and at subway systems around the world). The "Cajun cellist" Sean Grissom took his performance from the subways to Carnegie Hall, filling the sold-out house with his fans, and later became an opening act for rock star David Bowie. Folk-rock singer Susan Cagle landed a major recording deal with Columbia Records after being noticed performing in subway stations. She recorded her album live at the Times Square and Grand Central subway stops."Underground Musician" New York magazine, May 1, 2006

As the subjects of song and venues for beauty pageants and guerrilla theater, the subways themselves are a staple of New York City's cultural life. The transit system's annual Miss Subways contest ran from 1941 to 1976 and again in 2004 (under the revised name "Ms Subways"). Past Ms Subways winners were often more unusual than the winners of traditional pageants like Miss America. The Miss Subways of 1960 was Eleanor Nash, an FBI clerk described by her poster that hung in subway cars as "young, beautiful and expert with a rifle." The 2004 Ms Subways winner, Caroline Sanchez-Bernat, was an actress who played a role in Sunday Brunch 4. The 35-minute piece of performance art was a full enactment of a Sunday brunch — including crisp white tablecloth, spinach salad appetizer and attentive waiter in black tuxedo — performed aboard a southbound A Train in 2000. With subway riders looking on, the actors chatted amiably about Christmas, exchanged gifts and signed for a package delivered by a UPS man who entered the scene at the West 34th Street stop.

Mass transit

By far the most significant mode of transportation in New York is mass transit. Only 6% of shopping trips in Manhattan's Central Business District involve the use of a car."Necessity or Choice? Why People Drive in Manhattan." Transportation Alternatives Feb 2006. The city's public transportation network is the most extensive and among the oldest in North America. Responsibility for managing the various components of the system falls to several government agencies and private corporations. The largest and most important is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs all of New York City's subways and buses, and two of its three commuter rail lines.

Subways

Subway riders pay with a MetroCard, which is also used on buses, PATH trains, and in Fall 2006, Bee-Line buses to and from points in Westchester County. It is a thin, plastic card on which the customer electronically loads fares. In the future all New York-area transit systems will use a new, standardized "contactless" payment system that will use smart cards with computer chips that can be read by turnstiles without requiring passengers to swipe cards.

Buses

The Port Authority Bus Terminal, near Times Square, is the busiest bus station in the United States and the main gateway for interstate buses into Manhattan. The terminal serves both commuter routes, mainly operated by New Jersey Transit, and national routes operated by companies such as Greyhound and Peter Pan. The terminal, with direct intermodal links to 12 subway lines, is used by 200,000 people on an average weekday. About 7,200 buses arrive and depart the terminal each day. Over 3 billion passengers have used the building since it opened in 1950.Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.^*

Ferries

New York has several privately-run ferry services. Among the major companies are NY Waterway, which provides several lines running from New Jersey across the Hudson River to Manhattan, and New York Water Taxi, which runs lines connecting Brooklyn, Manhattan, and The Bronx.

Commuter rail

Pedestrians and bicycles

Walk/bicycle modes of travel account for 21% of all modes for trips in the city, according to the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey; nationally the rate for metro regions is 8%. New Yorkers each walk an average of seven miles over the course of a day. According to data from the Federal Highway Administration, in 2000 New York had by far the largest number of walking commuters of any city in the United States in both total number and as a proportion of all commuters in the city: 517,290, or 5.6%. By way of comparison, the next city with the largest proportion of walking commuters, Boston, had 119,294 commuter pedestrians, amounting to 4.1% of that city's commuters.Journey to Work Trends in the United States and its Major Metropolitan Areas, 1960-2000, Nancy McGuckin and Nanda Srinivasan, FHWA-EP-03-058, Ch. 4. New York's "pedestrian culture" and famous street life, which has given rise to art forms like break dancing and a thriving street food scene, is also integral to the city's cultural life.

Pedestrians in New York compete with cars, taxis, trucks, bicycles and street vendors in the city's densely trafficked streets. Jaywalking, considered by many to be a quintessential New York practice, is so common that former mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to introduce harsh new anti-jaywalking legislation. The proposal was met with derision by many New Yorkers, and jaywalking continues as before. Although a city law does prohibit jaywalking, it is rarely enforced and the fine is the price of a subway ride: $2.

Taxis

Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). "Medallion taxis," the familiar yellow cabs, are permitted to pick up passengers hailing them on the street. The TLC also regulates and licenses "car services" which are legally permitted to pick up only those customers who have called the car service's dispatcher and requested a car. While medallion taxis in New York are always yellow, car service vehicles may be any color but yellow, and are usually black.

Medallion taxis are so named for the official medallion issued by the TLC and attached to a taxi's hood. The medallion may be purchased from the City at infrequent auctions, or from another medallion owner. Because of their high prices, medallions (and most cabs) are owned by investment companies and are leased to drivers ("hacks"). Yellow cabs are often concentrated in the borough of Manhattan, but patrol throughout the five boroughs of New York City and may be hailed with a raised hand (Hired professionals use a hankercheif or a cloth to flag down taxis to nearby commuters) or by standing at a taxi stand. In order to figure out which cabs are available, you must look at the light at the top of the cabs (Some cabs have advertisements on them). When just the center light showing the medallion is lit, it means the cab is empty and available. When both the medallion light and the two side orange lights are lit, that means the cab is off-duty. When no lights are lit, that means the cab is full of passengers. There is an additional light on the back of the cabs located to the left of the trunk lock. Taxi drivers press a button when a crime is being committed to alert passing police. The maximum amount of passengers if four, but children under seven can sit on an adult's lap in the back seat if the maximum has been reached.New York Taxis -- Getting around New York City in a Taxi Cell phones or any communication devices may be carried by a passenger, but are not allowed to be used in a cab. Drivers are required to pick up the first or closest passenger they see, and may not refuse a fare anywhere within the five boroughs, neighboring Westchester and Nassau Counties, or to Newark Liberty International Airport. As of June 2006, fares begin at $2.50 ($3.00 after 8pm, and $3.50 during the peak weekday hours of 4-8pm) and increase based on the distance traveled and time spent in slow traffic (40 cents for each one-fifth of a mile or 120 seconds of no motion or motion under 6 miles an hour). The passenger also has to pay the fare whenever a cab is driven through a toll, but the price is discounted when the cab has an E-ZPass.[http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab_rate.shtml New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission: Passenger Information, Rate of Fare, accessed June 11, 2006.

241 million passengers rode in New York taxis in 1999. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, of the 42,000 cabbies in New York 82% are foreign born; 23% are from the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and 20% from South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).

The TLC also licenses livery cars, known locally as "car services", which are legally permitted to pick up only those customers who have called the car service's dispatcher and requested a car, although some do pick up hailing passengers as well. Car services that are independently owned and solicit passengers on the street are known in New York City lingo as "gypsy cabs". They are often found in areas not routinely visited by regular cabs, such as northern Manhattan.

The average cab fare in 2000 was $6; over $1 billion in fares were paid that year in total."Taxi Dreams." PBS and WNET, Aug. 2001.^* In 2005 New York introduced incentives to replace its yellow cabs, most of which are Ford Crown Victorias, with efficient hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid.

Semi-formal

Dollar vans (they retain the name even though their fare is now $1.25) serve major corridors in Brooklyn and Queens, and a few have begun operating in the Bronx. Service in Queens runs between Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer and Green Acres Mall via Merrick Boulevard, or Cambria Heights, via both Merrick and Linden Boulevards. In Brooklyn vans run from Kings Plaza to Downtown Brooklyn via Flatbush Avenue or Crown Heights via Utica Avenue. In 2006, the New York City Council, responding to a series of accidents involving dollar vans, began debate on increasing regulation of the industry. Among the proposals were requiring all dollar vans to be painted in a specific color to make them easier to recognize, similar to the public light buses in Hong Kong. The vans pick up and drop off anywhere along a route, and payment is made at the end of a trip.

Similar to dollar vans, Chinese vans serve predominantly Chinese and other East Asian populations of Brooklyn's Chinatown, Manhattan's Chinatown, Elmhurst and Flushing. Chinese van drivers are a mix of Cantonese and Mandarin speakers hailing originally from Hong Kong but now predominantly from the Chinese province of Fujian. With pick-up points at the eastern end of Manhattan Chinatown, their routes terminate in door-to-door service in Brooklyn's Chinatown, Elmhurst and Flushing. Chinese vans are identifiable by small signs written in yellow ink on red signs with the number 168. The average Chinese van fare was $2 to $2.50 in 2005, with a temporary increase to $5 during the 2005 transit strike.

There are also highly competitive Chinatown bus lines operating routes from New York City's Chinatowns to Chinatown communities up and down the East Coast, especially to major cities like Boston and Philadelphia. These bus companies use full-size coaches and offer fares around $10 to $15, far below the $30 to $50 charged by traditional carriers like Greyhound Lines.

There are numerous other transportation services in the city, including RightRides, a free car service operated by a nonprofit that shuttles women home from bars and parties on Saturday nights from midnight to 3 a.m. in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. RightRides uses vehicles donated by Zipcar, a membership-based carsharing company providing hourly or daily car rentals in New York City to its members, who often do not own cars.

Aerial tramway

The Tramway was built by the Swiss company Vonroll and is operated by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC). Each cable car has a capacity of 125 passengers. The tramway's maximum height as it crosses the East River is 250 feet. Travel time from Roosevelt Island to Manhattan is just under five minutes and the fare is the same as a subway ride.

Service is currently suspended on the tramway after a service malfunction that required all passengers to be evacuated. On April 18, 2006, two trams were stuck over the East River for seven hours, trapping 69 people at about 5:22pm EDT because of mechanical problems. See Roosevelt Island Tramway for details on the incident and work required to bring the tramway back into operation.

Inter-city rail

Roads

Street grid

Manhattan's avenues run North and South, and its streets East and West. The avenues begin with First Avenue on the East Side, and span westward to Twelfth Avenue. There are additional avenues, Lexington Avenue, between Third and Park Avenues (formerly Fourth Avenue), and Madison Avenue, between Fifth and Park Avenues. Therefore, there are in fact, fourteen avenues running the length of Manhattan, as well as some smaller north-south roads (not all of which are referred to as "avenues"), found for short stretches along the east coast of wider parts of the island.

Manhattan's streets, running East and West, start with 1st Street downtown and span northward to 220th St at the northern tip of the island. Rather than referring to specific areas, "Downtown" and "Uptown" are usually used as relative terms; one is heading North while going uptown, and South when going Downtown. The Upper East Side is separated from the Upper West Side by Central Park from 110th Street south to 59th Street. South of 59th Street, Fifth Avenue divides east and west Manhattan until it ends at Washington Square Park, after which Broadway becomes the divider. Manhattan's blocks are in fact rectangles, not squares; the distance between avenues is roughly three times longer than the distance between streets.

New Yorkers commonly give addresses by the street and avenue number, as in "34th & 5th" for the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building's nearest cross street is 34th St and 5th Ave. This is the customary way New Yorkers tell taxi drivers where they want to go.

One of the city's most famous thoroughfares, Broadway, is one of the longest urban streets in the world. It begins at the southern tip of Manhattan at the Battery and continues north approximately 150 miles (241 km) to Albany, New York. Other famous streets include Park Avenue, one of the city's most prestigious and elegant residential boulevards, and Fifth Avenue, among the most famous high-end shopping districts in the world. 42nd Street, a major crosstown artery intersecting with Broadway at Times Square, is synonymous with New York's cultural district and capital of American theater. The Grand Concourse, modeled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, is one of the most notable streets in the Bronx.

Bridges and tunnels

New York has historically been a pioneer in tunnel construction. The Lincoln Tunnel, which carries 120,000 vehicles per day under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan, is the world's busiest vehicular tunnel. The Holland Tunnel, also under the Hudson River, was the first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel in the world and is considered a National Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Lincoln and Holland tunnels were built instead of bridges to allow for the free passage of the large passenger and cargo ships that sailed through New York Harbor and up the Hudson to Manhattan's piers. Soon after the Holland Tunnel was opened in 1927, support grew for a tunnel under the East River to relieve congestion on the bridges connecting Manhattan with Queens and Brooklyn. When it was completed in 1940, the Queens Midtown Tunnel was the largest non-Federal project of its time. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first person to drive through it. In 1950, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was opened to traffic. At 9,117 feet (2,779 meters), it is the longest underwater tunnel in North America.

Expressways and Parkways

Also designed by Robert Moses are a series of limited-access parkways. Originally designed to connect New York City to its more-rural suburbs, they have become heavily-used thoroughfares in their own right, despite the fact that they were designed from the outset to only carry cars. The FDR Drive and Harlem River Drive are two routes through Manhattan, the Bronx River Parkway and Hutchinson River Parkway link the Bronx to nearby Westchester County and its parkways, and the Grand Central Parkway and Belt Parkway provide similar functions for Long Island's parkway system. A number of expressways got their start as parkways (including the Whitestone Expressway, the Prospect Expressway which links to Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, and the Gowanus Expressway).

Aviation

With nearly 100 airlines operating regularly scheduled flights, JFK is the major entry point for international arrivals in the United States and is the largest international air freight gateway in the nation by value of shipments.Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation.It is located in Jamaica, Queens. La Guardia, also in Queens, handles domestic flights, while Newark, located in Newark, New Jersey, handles both international and domestic flights and rivals JFK in prominence. JFK and Newark are connected to Manhattan and the metropolitan region by AirTrain rail service. The three airports may not have enough capacity to meet future demand; in a March 2006 interview with New York Magazine, head of the Port Authority Anthony Coscia said the next project the Port Authority should work on is to consider a fourth major airport for the region." target="_blank" >^* New York Magazine March 13, 2006.

New York is also served by two smaller airports in its suburban areas. MacArthur Airport on Long Island is about forty-five minutes east of New York, and is the New York airport of choice for Southwest Airlines. Westchester County Airport, located about thirty minutes north of New York in White Plains, is sometimes favored by New York travellers because it is significantly smaller and thus less busy than the three major airports. It has recently become the airport of choice for AirTran Airways.

Teterboro is New York's primary general aviation airport. The first airport in the city was Floyd Bennett Field, now closed and part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Manhattan has three public heliports. The Downtown Manhattan Heliport, located at the eastern end of Wall Street on Pier 6, on the East River, was the first heliport in the United States to be certified for scheduled passenger helicopter service by the Federal Aviation Administration. The heliport is the normal landing spot for President George W. Bush on visits to New York. The soundproof terminal contains gift shops, administrative offices, a VIP lounge and general passenger waiting area, as well as X-ray and bomb-detection machines at a security checkpoint. U.S. Helicopter operates regularly scheduled flights to JFK Airport. The flights last less than 10 minutes and cost $159 each way. Two other terminals are the East 34th Street Heliport, which consists of a terminal building and fuel filling station and averages 20,000 take-offs and landings each year, and the West 30th Street Heliport. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the West 30th Street Heliport can see as much as three times the traffic of the Downtown Manhattan Heliport during peak travel periods. There is also seaplane service at the 23rd Street Skyport located on the East River

See also

• John F. Kennedy International Airport
• Newark Liberty International Airport
• LaGuardia Airport
• Transportation to New York City area airports

Seaports

The Port of New Jersey and New York is now the third busiest in the United States, behind Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. Each year, more than 25 million tons of oceanborne general cargo moves through New York, including 4.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containerized cargo. In 2005 more than 5,300 ships delivered goods to the port that went to 35% of the U.S. population."New York's Port, Beyond Dubai." Gotham Gazette Mar 2006. The port is experiencing rapid growth. Shipments increased nearly 12% in 2005. There are three cargo terminals and a passenger terminal on the New York City side of the harbor, including the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, Red Hook Container Terminal, Brooklyn Marine Terminal, and New York Cruise Terminal; three additional cargo terminals are on the New Jersey side.

The port of New York is also a major hub for passenger ships. More than half a million people depart annually from Manhattan's cruise ship terminal on the Hudson River, accounting for five percent of the worldwide cruise industry and employing 21,000 residents in the city. The Queen Mary 2, the world's largest passenger ship and one of the few traditional ocean liners still in service, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazano Bridge, itself the longest suspension bridge in the United States. The Queen Mary 2 makes regular ports of call on her transatlantic runs from Southampton, England. The city is building a new cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Originally focused on Brooklyn's waterfront, especially at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal on the other side of the bay. The terminal, operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the largest port complex on the East Coast. $114.54 billion of cargo passed through the Port of New York and New Jersey in 2004. The top five trading partners at the port are China, Italy, Germany, Brazil and India.

Water quality in the New York Harbor has improved dramatically since passage of the Clean Water Act and extensive harbor cleanup projects. A common misconception is that the Upper Bay is devoid of marine life. It actually supports a diverse population of marine species, including striped bass. New Yorkers regularly kayak and sail in the harbor, which has become a major recreational site for the city. Water quality problems persist in Long Island Sound, however.

Other infrastructure

Future transportation projects

• PATH World Trade Center station, whose construction began in late 2005, will replace the PATH terminal destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks with a new central terminal designed by Santiago Calatrava that will allow easy transfer between the PATH system, several subway lines and proposed new projects. It is expected to serve 250,000 travelers daily.
  • Fulton Street Transit Center, a $750 million project in Lower Manhattan that will improve access to and connections between 12 subway lines, PATH service and the World Trade Center site. Construction began in 2005 and will be finished in 2008.
  • Moynihan Station would expand Penn Station into the James Farley Post Office building across the street.
  • Second Avenue Subway, a new north-south line, first proposed in 1929, would run from 125th Street in Harlem to Hanover Square in lower Manhattan.
  • IRT Flushing Line Extension would extend the 7 service (Flushing line) west from its current terminus at Times Square, then south to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
  • East Side Access project would route some Long Island Railroad Trains to Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn Station. Since many, if not most, LIRR commuters work on the east side of Manhattan, many in walking distance of Grand Central, this proposal would save considerable travel time and reduce congestion at Penn Station and on subway lines connecting it with the east side. It would also greatly expand the hourly capacity of the LIRR system.
  • The Lower Manhattan-Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project would extend an existing Long Island Railroad line from Jamaica Station to downtown Brooklyn via a new 3-mile tunnel under the East River. AirTrain JFK-compatible cars would run along the new route, connecting John F. Kennedy International Airport and Jamaica with lower Manhattan.
  • Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel would add a second pair of railroad tracks under the Hudson River, connecting to an expanded Penn Station.
  • Although New York City does not have light rail as of 2005, there are plans to convert 42nd Street into a light rail transit mall which would be closed to all vehicles except emergency vehicles^*. The idea was previously planned in the early 1990s, and was approved by the City Council in 1994, but stalled due to lack of funds.
  • JFK Airport is undergoing a US$10.3 billion redevelopment, one of the largest airport reconstruction projects in the world. The airport recently opened a new Terminal One, Terminal Four and Terminal Eight. Construction has begun on a new Terminal Five. The remaining five terminals are slated for demolition or reconstruction.
  • Santiago Calatrava has also proposed an aerial gondola system linking Manhattan, Governors Island and Brooklyn as part of the city's plans to develop the island.

  See also

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  • History of the New York City Subway
  • PATH subway system
  • Grand Central Terminal
  • Penn Station
  • Metropolitan Transportation Authority

  References

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  Further reading

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  • Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City, Biju Mathew 2005
  • New York Underground, Julia Solis 2004
  • The Works: Anatomy of a City, Kate Ascher 2005
  • Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the Subways of New York , Susie J. Tanenbaum 1995

  External links

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  • New York traffic webcams
  • Regional Plan Association
  • Friends of Moynihan Station
  • New York City Pedicab Owner's Association
  • New York City Taxi / Limousine Commission
  • HopStop.com Mapquest for the New York City Subway
  • MetroLinkHomes.com Find housing near mass transit in NYC Metro area
  • Trips123.com Online Bus, Subway, Ferry, Train information and planner for the NY Area

  Public transport | Transportation in New York City | U.S. regional rail systems | Urban studies and planning

  New York City#Wirtschaft_und_Infrastruktur | Nueva York#Transporte | Transport à New York | New York#Trasporti_e_mobilit.C3.A0