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Restoring Confidence in New York’s Subway System

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UCLA Luskin Interim Dean Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke to the New York Times about strategies to increase safety on New York’s subway system. A string of recent attacks, some involving firearms, have eroded many subway riders’ sense of security. To keep guns out of the subway system, officials should consider stepping up security screenings in ways that affect service as little as possible, said Loukaitou-Sideris, who co-authored a chapter of the 2015 book “Securing Transportation Systems.” In addition to conducting frequent and rigorous bag checks, transit officials could install metal detectors and X-ray machines — a more expensive option but one that the Shanghai Metro has implemented efficiently, Loukaitou-Sideris said. Transportation officials around the world have also been studying the addition of firearm-detecting sensors to fare-collection devices and ticketing machines. “You have to eliminate the opportunity to bring the gun on the train,” Loukaitou-Sideris said.

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Astor on New York’s Efforts to Combat Gun Violence

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Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor spoke to the New York Times for a story about the large volume of guns, both legal and illegal, in New York state. Police determined that 13 guns were used in a shootout that killed a college basketball star and wounded eight others at a Harlem community barbecue in June. The article noted that New York is bracing for a surge in gun ownership after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law that made it difficult to own or carry a handgun legally. “It kind of leaves the police with fewer strategies,” Astor said. In addition to determining whether someone is carrying a gun, officers will have to ascertain whether or not that weapon is legal. New York City’s police commissioner said gun arrests are at a 27-year high up to this point in the year.

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Manville on New York’s Congestion Pricing Plan

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville was mentioned in a Smart Cities Dive article about New York City’s plans to implement congestion pricing. Vehicles entering designated downtown areas will pay a congestion fee on a once-a-day basis in order to reduce traffic. New York is currently holding public meetings to discuss the congestion pricing plan, and there will be a 16-month environmental assessment before it can go into effect. Despite local opposition, congestion pricing policies have proven to reduce traffic in other cities, including London, Stockholm and Singapore. “Empirically, from almost any place where we see congestion pricing, it increases transit ridership,” Manville said. Proponents of the congestion pricing plan hope to see increased use of public transit, better traffic flow and reduced air pollution with the new policy. Furthermore, revenue from the congestion fees will be used to fund transit projects throughout the city.

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Congestion Pricing is Pro-Driving Policy, Manville Says

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville spoke to Curbed about New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s efforts to implement congestion pricing. By charging drivers to access Manhattan’s central business district, the congestion pricing system would feed $1 billion in annual revenue to the MTA, which could use the funds for improvements such as increasing bus and bike lanes and widening sidewalks. According to Manville, “Congestion is stopping us from making it a better kind of city for the vast majority of New Yorkers who almost never drive.” He also stressed the importance of creating a universal basic income system for eligible households in the region to ensure that the congestion pricing system is equitable. And he argued that “congestion pricing is actually great for drivers,” noting that the data collected can be used to improve the planning and pricing of parking. “People always want to overlook how much better [congestion pricing] can make driving,” he concluded.

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Goh on Community Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

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Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Kian Goh spoke about the impact of climate change on cities and marginalized communities during two UCLA Arts and Architecture projects — an episode of the “10 Questions” series focusing on resilience and an interview on the podcast “Works in Progress.” Goh discussed her recent research in Jakarta, Rotterdam and New York, all of which are being forced to confront the growing threat of climate change. “Poor and marginalized populations are often pushed into more environmentally risky areas,” Goh said, and planners and designers are facing difficult questions about how to engage communities in future projects for a more just outcome. Goh described an empowering, grassroots notion of resilience “not only as a kind of individual ability to get back up when you’re pushed down, but that you have a community, you have a social network around you, who will help you if you cannot do it for yourself.”

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Wachs on the Past, Present and Future of L.A. Traffic

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Urban Planning Professor Martin Wachs joined the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy’s Then & Now podcast to discuss the history of traffic congestion in Los Angeles. Wachs was joined by MURP student Yu Hong Hwang and history Ph.D. candidate Peter Chesney. The three described the findings of their recent report, which challenged the myth of Los Angeles’ car culture. Wachs also noted that increasing transit capacity does not necessarily reduce traffic congestion. “Transit is important, but it is not an antidote to congestion,” he said. Instead, he explained that investing in transit means providing people with alternatives to driving so that they can choose to take a bus or train instead of a car. Looking forward, Wachs suggested implementing congestion pricing in Los Angeles. “We will have to learn to live with traffic congestion as long as there is a strong consensus that we would rather sit in traffic than pay a fee to avoid it,” he concluded. The report’s authors also discussed their findings in a recent webinar.

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Cuts in Transit Service Will Hurt Low-Income Riders, Taylor Warns

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Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, spoke to City & State New York about the risks associated with cuts to public transit service as a result of pandemic-related fears. Emerging reports suggest that public transit does not pose a great risk of COVID-19 transmission as long as people practice safe behavior, the article noted. But public transit ridership has plummeted due to safety fears as well as to stay-at-home orders. Those now getting back on subways and buses are likely to be lower-income residents, people of color, essential workers and immigrants with less access to cars, and they would be hurt most by any cuts to service, said Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy. “The social service mission of public transit — providing mobility for those without — is the central role that the systems are playing right now,” he said.

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Armenta Selected as Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar

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Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Amada Armenta was chosen by the Russell Sage Foundation as one of 17 visiting scholars for the 2020-2021 academic year. Armenta will pursue her research on race, ethnicity and immigration while in residence at the foundation’s headquarters in New York City starting in September. The selection of Visiting Scholars is based on an individual’s demonstrated record of research accomplishment and the merit of the proposed project. Armenta will study the legal attitudes of immigrants, focusing on how they understand and make decisions about migration, driving, working, calling the police, securing identification and paying taxes. Her research will culminate in a book analyzing the experiences of undocumented Mexican immigrants in Philadelphia. This will be Armenta’s second book, following the award-winning “Protect, Serve, and Deport: The Rise of Policing as Immigration Enforcement” (2017), which analyzed the role that local police and jail employees played in immigration enforcement in Nashville, Tennessee. The Russell Sage Foundation’s Visiting Scholars Program supports research into the social and behavioral sciences with the goal of improving living conditions in the United States. Research topics have included immigration, race and diversity, poverty, labor practices, gender inequality, climate change and natural disaster recovery.

Manville Points to a ‘Shortage of Road’

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The Financial Times quoted Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville on the growing issue of urban congestion. According to Manville, congestion is caused by “a shortage of road: There is more demand for road space than there is space available.” Manville drew a parallel between roads and other utilities like water and gas, explaining that “the big difference between road networks and other utilities is that we don’t meter for use. Consequently, roads are the only type of infrastructure that suffer from regular shortages.” Manville recommends congestion pricing to encourage drivers to make fewer trips or take public transport. He argued that “Americans just drive more than they need to” because of the lack of associated costs of driving. Congestion pricing has been successful in London, Stockholm and Singapore, and New York is planning to implement the policy in 2021.

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Koslov on NYC’s Battle to Protect Its Shoreline

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Liz Koslov, assistant professor of urban planning, spoke with Curbed New York about the tense debate over how to protect New York City’s 578 miles of shoreline from the effects of climate change. Scientists forecast that lower Manhattan will see about six feet of sea-level rise in the next 80 years, triggering regular flooding and intensive storm surges. Koslov spoke about the competing impulses New Yorkers felt after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, with some pushing to redevelop valuable waterfront properties as others opted for “managed retreat” — relocating away from the perennially threatened coasts. Koslov, who is working on a book about Staten Island communities that rejected the rebuilding narrative, said managed retreat has won grassroots support but raises concerns including the impact of lost property taxes on local governments. She urged civic leaders to flesh out a vision for a well-planned “just retreat,” which can be “potentially empowering and a force for reconstructing communities and making the waterfront public again.”

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