Public transportation and less congestion is the key to economic success in any city. NYC has the best public transportation system in the country and it must remain affordable while also keeping it up-to-date. The next Public Advocate must be someone who understands the problems every community faces and offers real solutions to those problems. As Public Advocate I will fight for: More local & express bus lines in all five boroughs; a new train line on the North Shore of Staten Island; ferry lines from the southern most point of Queens & the northern most point of the Bronx & Queens; new park and ride facilities, including bike lane access and storage facilities, in all boroughs; updated, more reliable trains for the city’s busiest lines. Every borough’s needs are different when they come to transportation. As Public Advocate I would start a traffic & transportation task force in every borough, made up of city officials, engineers, civic leaders, Community Board member’s and others to brainstorm traffic and transportation problems in their community and work towards solving those problems. I will always fight fare and toll increases & offer other ways to raise revenue, as I have during my campaign, such as increasing advertising in subway stations (Adopt a Subway program).

2. The backbone of my campaign and my desire to serve as New York City’s Public Advocate is my vision for how this unique elected position – the only position in America that represents the people against the government – can operate as an example of democracy in action. The City Charter specifies in section 24g, “The public advocate shall establish procedures for receiving and processing complaints, responding to complaints, conducting investigations, and reporting findings, and shall inform the public about such procedures.” Whether you’re a bicyclist or a straphanger, the Public Advocate’s office should be a mechanism for you to air your grievances and have them addressed by city government. I would hold public conferences/town hall meetings throughout the five boroughs to allow residents to give feedback about obstacles they face in transportation. I would recruit, train and supervise hundreds of volunteers (assistant Public Advocates) to participate in weekly intakes at housing developments and senior centers, to reach people who may be less forthcoming about their problems, and understand the most basic lapses in government services and city infrastructure.

Our City should be a place where it is convenient and safe to ride a bike and walk, where mass transit is affordable, reliable and available to all.

Instead of taking money out of our mass transit system, we must put politics aside and realize that since everyone benefits from an improved mass transit system, everyone should help pay. Capital spending and maintenance of infrastructure is a high priority given the failure to keep the City’s infrastructure up to date and growing.

The Public Advocate should fight for the creation of a citywide Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. BRT is an extremely efficient and relatively cheap way to expand our mass transit system, costing only $10 million per mile compared to the $1 to $2 billion per mile for the Second Avenue Subway. It has worked well in other cities -- and the City’s BX12 line in the Bronx, our first BRT line, has been a major success, increasing ridership and decreasing travel time.

We must also work with the City and stakeholders to improve conditions on sidewalks, starting in the neediest areas and expand and improve bike paths. It’s also time we develop a regional transit pass – a long-delayed proposal that, if implemented, would be a great step toward uniting our disparate transportation system.

New York City’s comprehensive and affordable mass transit is the lifeblood of this city, and also what makes us one of the greenest cities in the nation. We cannot let fares increase and service decrease. I am open to Speaker Silver’s proposal for tolls on the East and Harlem River bridges – the proposal was both fair and reasonable as the tolls would be fixed to the rate of a subway fare and the funds used to preserve bus lines and subway lines facing cut backs. I also support other funding measures, such as a payroll tax and car registration fees. In addition I recently called on newly nominated MTA Chairman Jim Walder to pledge to institute a Subway Riders’ Bill of Rights to ensure that New Yorkers have access to clean, affordable, on-time public transit throughout the five boroughs. Ensuring trains and platforms are clean and secure, and basic information services are provided in formats that all transit users can understand must become top priorities for the MTA. As Public Advocate, I will work with fellow elected officials, transportation advocates, and good government groups to ensure that the MTA is being responsive to riders’ needs, and held accountable when it is not, so that people across our City have access to affordable, convenient, and clean public transportation.

New York has one of the most admirable mass transit systems in the world, which helps make us energy efficient, but we must invest in our infrastructure. Additionally, we must help New Yorkers walk, ride bikes, and commute without needing to use automobiles.
Transit riders already pay the highest burden of riders in any system in the country. Simply raising fares on riders while ignoring long-term needs can not continue. We need to take a serious look at the MTA's finances and identify cost-cutting measures like selling or leasing some of their prime real estate holdings. At the same time, there's no question that we need to fund long-term investment from a variety of places, including from automobile drivers and those who live outside New York City. That’s a prime reason that I supported congestion pricing when it came before the City Council and given the MTA's fiscal situation, that proposal should be revisited.
As Public Advocate, I’ll also push to implement bus rapid transit in areas where the subway can’t provide adequate service, and the City should subsidize ferry service and integrate ferries into the transit system with a universal farecard. And we need sustainable land use policies that situate growth in mixed use areas, with easy access to mass transportation.