Pothole

If you have been driving in NYC in the last few months, you probably have swerved to avoid a pothole. You know what a pothole is, but here’s the office NYC definition:

• A hole in the street with a circular or ovular shape and a definable bottom.
• The bottom may be the concrete roadway base and may be partially filled with mud, dirt, or loose gravel.
• Condition does not look man-made and usually is not sitting in an area of collapse.

These large holes — some as big as 2 feet wide — slow down NYC traffic, can be hard to avoid, destroy NYC road conditions, ruin your car and never seem to get fixed fast enough.

How do these enormous holes that can be as deep as 10 inches, just show up suddenly?  There are a few different theories:

• Theory 1 says that roads need to drain water. When a puddle naturally occurs in a depression in a road, that water gets pushed into the road by heavy vehicles and gets into tiny cracks. Eventually, all that pressure loosens and erodes the crack into a hole that just gets bigger. Voila! — pothole.
• Theory 2 says that when water gets into little cracks on a paved road and freezes, it expands. That expansion forces apart the tar, causing cracks and eventually, holes. When the ice thaws the pavement weakens and then Theory 1 comes into play with traffic loosening up the pavement even more. Eventually, the pavement crumbles and pops out.  Wait — I know some of you are thinking that a liquid forming into a solid should be the same volume, but if you go back to 3rd grade science, you’ll remember that water actually gets bigger when it freezes. That’s why you never fill the ice cube tray to the very top.

If you look at where so many of the potholes are, you’ll see they’re often right where the road was patched or has a seam from the pavement being put down. These are sure-fire places for water to creep into the pavement and so the first step of a pothole is born.

How do NYC potholes get fixed?

1. First, a pothole needs to be ‘actionable’, which means that the pothole should be at least one foot in diameter and three inches deep.
2. Once notified of a pothole, a NYC DOT (Department of Transportation) inspector will look at the pothole to determine if it’s ‘actionable’.
3. If it is, the NYC DOT inspector will assess the degree or severity of the damage.
4. The crew then removes any excess material or debris from the hole and, if there is a jagged configuration to the hole, squares it off. After this, asphaltic cement is poured into the pothole, which is followed by a mixture of hot asphalt. This material is compacted by machine and the hole is again sealed with the asphaltic cement to prevent water from penetrating the hole.
5. Once this process is complete, the street is ready for traffic. DOT currently has 40 pothole crews out on the roads filling an average of 2,000 potholes a day.

If your car is damaged by a NYC pothole, you can submit a claim. It’s long and requires a lot of detail, but it’s worth a shot. And you must submit your claim before the pothole is fixed, or your claim will be rejected (as mine was).

Want to report a NYC pothole? If the pothole is on a highway, you need to call 311. It will certainly help those of us dealing with NYC driving and NYC traffic.

So the NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) got together with Transcore and a few other companies to create an Active Traffic Management System to improve NYC traffic. Now dubbed ‘Midtown in Motion’, this is a broad network of 100 microwave sensors, 32 traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers initially installed at 23 intersections in NYC midtown. These devices measure traffic speeds covering a 110-block area from 2nd – 6th Aves & 42nd – 57th Sts in an effort to get NYC traffic moving faster by adjusting Midtown traffic signal patterns, unplugging bottlenecks and smoothing the flow of traffic.

Phase I resulted in an overall 10% improvement in travel times on all the Aves (based on E-ZPass readers and taxi GPS data).

Phase II expanded the ‘Midtown in Motion’ area to Midtown from 1st – 9th Aves and 42nd – 57th Sts. These 270 blocks will include an additional 110 microwave sensors, 24 traffic video cameras, and 36 E-ZPass readers. It was to be fully operational by September 2012.

The E-ZPass readers help estimate travel time, while vehicle sensors give information about NYC traffic flow and lane occupancy. This data is analysed in Manhattan’s Traffic Management Center, and will be used to control traffic signals at 12,000 intersections in Manhattan alone.

We previously wrote about Midtown in Manhattan when it launched in July 2011. Check out the video about this very cool program with Transportation TV.

Midtown in Motion is a series of 100 microwave sensors, 32 traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers installed at 23 intersections in NYC midtown. These devices measure traffic speeds covering a 110-block area from 2nd – 6th Aves & 42nd – 57th Sts in an effort to get NYC traffic moving faster by adjusting Midtown traffic signal patterns, unplugging bottlenecks and smoothing the flow of traffic.

Phase I resulted in an overall 10% improvement in travel times on all the Aves (based on E-ZPass readers and taxi GPS data).

Phase II expanded the ‘Midtown in Motion’ area to Midtown from 1st – 9th Aves and 42nd – 57th Sts. These 270 blocks will include an additional 110 microwave sensors, 24 traffic video cameras, and 36 E-ZPass readers. It was to be fully operational by September 2012.

• Int. 762 would make it easier for vehicles to stand near a school or day care center for longer than it takes to drop off or pick up a passenger.
• Int. 527 would require the DOT to post notice of permanent street sign changes that affect parking.
• Int. 824 would make it expressly legal for homeowners to park in front of their own driveways.  

• Int. 762 would make it easier for vehicles to stand near a school or day care center for longer than it takes to drop off or pick up a passenger. But NYC DOT believes the No Standing regulations near schools are important to protect children from getting hit by vehicles. A No Standing sign means that you can drop off and pick up people ‘expeditiously’ but you cannot drop off or pick up objects. We agree that a school zone is a logical place for a No Standing zone during drop off and pick up times. Otherwise, drivers would park curbside and young children would be forced to walk into the street to meet their drivers.

• Int. 527 would require the DOT to post notice of permanent street sign changes that affect parking. NYC DOT retorted that it maintains over 1.3 million signs, and 20% — or 260,000 are NYC parking signs. NYC DOT would have to ‘essentially double the workload’ of its signage staff and significantly increase costs to provide advance notice of any changes to these NYC parking signs. Again, we agree with NYC DOT; putting up a sign to give notice about a new sign seems overkill. People dealing with NYC parking and NYC driving quickly catch on to any new parking rules. What about a ‘grace period’ instead?

• Int. 824 would make it expressly legal for homeowners to park in front of their own driveways.  New York City Council Transportation Committee Chair Jimmy Vacca strongly supported this bill. But Kate Slevin, the NYC DOT Assistant Commissioner testifying on behalf of the NYC DOT.  Slevin believes that ‘… that the bill, as written, could effectively provide ‘blanket forgiveness” for a variety of parking violations,’ according to Transportation Nation.

The article politely alluded to the tense relations between the New York City Council Transportation Committee, which strives to have more control over parking regulations, and the NYC DOT.

New Yorkers, meet ’6 1/2 Ave’.  I noticed the street sign a few weeks ago on 57th St, and the NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) has just announced the completion of ’6 1/2 Ave’. This is a series of pedestrian walkways running North-South between 6th Ave and 7th Ave from W 51st – W 57th Sts.

In additional to these mid-block arcades, NYC DOT has also installed either traffic lights or crosswalks at 6 1/2 Ave so you can cross the street mid-block.

6 1/2 Ave runs from W 51st – W 57th Sts, between 6th & 7th Aves

According to the NYC DOT site, ‘the six spaces connected by these new crosswalks are part of more than 500 areas citywide known as Privately Owned Public Spaces, which were built near ground level of newly constructed buildings. The spaces that comprise 6 ½ Avenue were created between 1984 and 1990 and include commercial, hotel and residential buildings, with public spaces ranging from open plazas and atria to wide lobbies and enclosed corridors. The new crossings shorten trips eliminating the need for pedestrians to travel back and forth to the main avenues to reach midblock locations. At each crossing the sidewalks were extended using crushed gravel and furnished with benches in some locations, further establishing them as pedestrian areas. Adjacent property owners will clean the newly enlarged pedestrian areas, with the businesses maintaining planters and benches.’

NYC Midtown in Motion real-time information

Big Brother just got bigger. Remember back in July 2011 when NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) installed 100 microwave sensors, 32 traffic video cameras and E-ZPass readers at 23 intersections to measure traffic speeds covering a 110-block area from 2nd – 6th Aves & 42nd – 57th Sts to fix NYC traffic? What is now being referred to as the ‘first phase’ resulted in an overall 10% improvement in travel times on all the Aves (based on E-ZPass readers and taxi GPS data), so DOT just announced Phase II — which expands the ‘Midtown in Motion’ area to Midtown from 1st – 9th Aves and 42nd – 57th Sts.

Midtown in Motion uses all these sensors, NYC traffic cameras and E-ZPass reader data to adjust Midtown traffic signal patterns, unplug bottlenecks and smooth the flow of traffic.

The Phase II area will now cover 270 square blocks and will include an additional 110 microwave sensors, 24 traffic video cameras, and 36 E-ZPass readers. It will be fully operational this September.

Something to Think About: We’re not sure how we feel about NYC being able to read the E-ZPass tags we keep in our cars. Is NYC using the data in aggregate, or can the readers identify individual E-ZPass tags and vehicles?

Phase I was funded by a $1.2 million grant from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Phase II’s expansion costs $2.9 million, with $580,000 of that contributed by the City, and the remainder by New York State.  All Midtown in Motion data is transmitted wirelessly to the TMC in Long Island City, where engineers can immediately identify congestion issues and adjust the latest generation of networked traffic signals. In total, DOT has invested nearly $300 million in traffic management tools and advanced technology across the city, an important part of the more than $4.9 billion dedicated to more than 800 capital projects and state of good repair initiatives over the last five years.

Sadly, that convenience may be changing. The NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering changing the rules so that you can use what’s left on the Muni-Meter receipt ONLY at a meter that charges the same rates.

We’re not sure how much this is happening, but the NYC DOT doesn’t want people buying up really cheap parking and then parking in a more expensive area. You can still use a Muni-Meter receipt at multiple parking spaces if you have time on the receipt, but all the spaces have to be at the same parking rates and regulations.

If the change goes through, you could get a NYC parking ticket if you try to trick the system.

If you’re driving in NYC in the 110-square block area between 42nd – 57th Streets from 3rd Ave – 6th Ave, the eyes will be on you in Queens, in NYC’s Department of Transportation Traffic Command Centre. There are three guys watching everything what happens. They know how many cars are waiting at a red light, or how fast – or slow – it’s taking vehicles to get 10 blocks. Based on the situation, they can make a traffic light turn red or green, speed up or slow down the timing of the NYC traffic light, re-route traffic, or send police officers.

In late July, a 6-month pilot was launched to see if NYC traffic can be reduced or avoided altogether by combining data from sensors, E-ZPass, and cameras to anticipate congestion, deal with sudden traffic from accidents, and then re-route the traffic to keep vehicles moving.  The system can also be used to justify adjusting NYC parking and driving regulations.

There are 3,600 wireless traffic lights and plans are underway to convert all 12,400 NYC traffic lights. The entire watchdog system cost NYC $1 million plus $600,000 in Federal funding.

Read the full article from The Globe and Mail.

Protected Bicycle Lane on NYC's 9th Avenue

So I’m waiting to walk across 2nd Avenue at 56th Street this past Saturday afternoon at the left-hand lane, which is on the east side of the street, when a cyclist — not wearing a helmet — careens past me with a frightened look covering his face. He’s in a newly painted NYC bicycle lane and a NYC taxi is trying to pull over to let out a passenger. Chaos ensues.

Painted Bicycle Lane on NYC's East 90th Street

Turns out that NYC DOT (Department of Transportation) has just painted bicycle lanes on 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue from 34th – 59th Streets. These NYC bicycle lanes are being treated as regular lanes, though, unlike the other bicycle lanes which are protected from moving cars and NYC taxis by a lane dedicated to parked vehicles. These photographs show the difference between a ‘protected’ and a ‘painted’ bicycle lane. Obviously, a protected bicycle lane shield cyclists from moving vehicles and doors opening into them, plus dedicates that lane solely to cyclists. A painted bicycle lane, on the other hand, means that vehicles can use that lane along with cyclists and many vehicles see a painted lane as an opportunity to double-park or stop to pick up and let off passengers.

Painted Bicycle Lane on NYC's 9th Ave

Why all these new NYC bicycle lanes? According to CBS2 News, Joshua Benson, Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs for the NYC DOT, says that where bicycle lanes have been installed, they’re seeing 10% of the traffic coming from bicycle users. NYC has added 250 miles of bicycle-only lanes in the past four years and these bicycle lanes are popping up all over NYC, which means you need to be extra careful if you’re doing any NYC driving.

And there’s still a whole lot of confusion out there if bicyclists are supposed to follow pedestrian or vehicle traffic rules.

NYC Midtown in Motion real-time information

There’s a new sheriff in midtown, and it’s called ‘Midtown in Motion’. A $1.2 million grant from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal HighwayAdministration has given NYC the ability to change NYC traffic signals in real-time based on what’s happening on the street. If you’ve done any driving in NYC, you know how bad the traffic can be.

Mayor Bloomberg launched the program on July 18, 2011, and it’s part of Bloomberg’s plan to reduce NYC traffic and improve pedestrian safety.

Using video cameras, E-ZPass readers, and sensors, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) can see traffic jams and congestion that might have happened because of an accident, construction, weather, special events, or any random event that happens only in NYC. Using the data, the DOT can anticipate a traffic problem and change the traffic signals to avoid the congestion.

This is great for drivers and pedestrians alike in the 100-square block area in midtown Manhattan. It’s surely going to improve NYC traffic and it’s a win for driving in NYC.