A new future for downtown Rochester: Removing the Inner Loop highway

After several unsuccessful TIGER applications, Rochester, NY underutilized urban Inner Loop, built in the 1960s, received 17.7 million dollars to facilitate the removal of the expressway and frontage roads and reconstruction as a parkway. A road once disparaged by the city itself as a “noose around the neck of downtown,” has been two decades in planning and will give way to a boulevard that will reconnect the city street grid, improve the business environment, and improve livability for Rochester’s residents.

A viaduct or a wall: I-81 in Syracuse

Interstate 81, known locally as “the viaduct”, slices through the middle of Syracuse in upstate New York. The aging, elevated freeway effectively forms a barrier between the city and the Syracuse University neighborhood known as the Hill. A coalition of local businesses, education, and political leaders have come together to solicit input on whether to rebuild, replace, or remove the freeway. The process could serve as a model for other communities wrestling with a similar decision.

Disagreement over the environmental impacts of the Bayonne Bridge project

Two federal agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, do not agree on the assessment of the environmental impacts of raising the Bayonne Bridge between Bayonne, NJ, and Staten Island, NY. The disagreement primarily concerns the impacts on air quality and the resulting effects on the local communities.

How Social Media Moves New York. Part 2: Recommended Social Media Policy for Transportation Providers (Rudin Center for Transportation NYU Wagner School of Public Service, 2012)

The Rudin Center for Transportation at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service has released a report that recommends social media policies for transportation providers seeking to inform, engage and motivate their customers.

Different results for New York and New Jersey transit highlight storm preparations

A new study of the preparations for and recovery from Superstorm Sandy outlines why New York City’s transit system was able to resume operations so quickly. The report from the Rudin Center for Transportation at NYU also points out the benefits of the city’s many transportation alternatives, which allowed residents other ways to get to work and other daily destinations following the storm.

Accelerated Bridge Construction offers less hassle for drivers and faster implementation for DOTs

Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques are transforming the replacement and construction of bridges across the country, and commuters are benefiting from shorter construction schedules. The central component of accelerated bridge construction is the use of prefabrication technologies which allow the production of bridge components off-site.