Crowded roadways, impatient drivers, and sluggish cars. These things make up the urban nightmare known as traffic. Surviving jammed intersections and rush hour are viewed as rites of passage in most major cities. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region has been known as the worst American city for traffic but the New York-Newark area now claims the top spot with nearly 495,000 hours as the total time stuck in traffic, according to a report by Texas A&M University.
It’s not surprising that the Big Apple is number one in congested roads, based on return-to-work rollouts and post-pandemic travel trends as the city reopens. Coincidentally, traffic is a sign of a healthy economy and an active population. However, the payoff comes with risks to the environment and road safety. So how can cities ease road congestion to make city living more sustainable?
Let’s look at the Empire State for inspiration. New York is finding ways to alleviate the vehicular mayhem post-pandemic. One way is to introduce a congestion pricing program in which tolls will collect a fee from drivers entering certain sections of Manhattan, usually during peak hours. In this case, toll roads take on a dual purpose: to raise revenue and control traffic via sensors and detection tools. The upside is that fewer cars results in decreased air pollution. The downside is that residents and tourists may feel penalized for driving a vehicle or feel financially whipped by another fee.
The pricing program is currently a proposal under review but if approved, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) could gain $15 billion in revenue. The money will be a critical source of funding for the MTA’s $51.5 billion capital campaign to update its aging transit infrastructure.
A top priority is to sway riders back to the trains and buses. The Covid shutdown rocked ridership to historic lows, cutting deep financial losses to the MTA. The agency estimates it lost $125 million per week due to the pandemic in 2020. The average subway ridership on a weekday dropped to 2 million in 2020 from 5.49 million in 2019. The MTA announced that it reached 2.5 million riders on June 25–a milestone since the pandemic. While the agency can rejoice over this victory, it still must find ways to incentivize riders or continue facing massive revenue losses.
What is promising is the launch of the MTA’s contactless fare payment program, OMNY, across approximately 5,000 buses and 472 subway stations. Riders in New York can now create personalized transit accounts to see ride history, check balances and add money for fares. OMNY also allows riders to use credit and debit cards, as well as mobile devices, at the bus or turnstile as a method of payment. Previously, a rider needed to purchase or add value to a separate fare card, adding extra time to one’s journey. This latest breakthrough shows mobility as a lynchpin in persuading people back to public transit. As of June 2021, the new system recorded an astonishing 100 million taps.
Most global transit leaders believe Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) are ideal paths forward. A recent study of 135 global transportation industry respondents found that “more than half the respondents highlighted MaaS or MOD solutions to be considered from a global perspective and that interoperability should be simplified to allow integration of different stakeholders and promote roaming for end-users.” Simply put for this context on cities, municipalities should leverage their transportation assets to create a seamless ecosystem for all riders which operates and interacts with other modes of travel.
With the passage of Biden’s infrastructure bill, New York and the MTA can expect billions of dollars to revitalize its transit system. Of course, the investment is necessary but even with this large cash infusion, public agencies must take the lead in transit integration. By rethinking modes of transport as a unified passenger mobility system, cities will possess a holistic view of their transportation infrastructure, traffic trends, and predictive capabilities—a view that will better prepare them to rebalance the roads.