Damn Bayside Drivers . . . Damn Government Employees!

A new survey shows some surprising details about car use in the city:

It’s a common enough thought among city drivers inching through traffic: Everyone around me came from the suburbs, making my life miserable. But it’s wrong, because more than half the drivers who crowd into Manhattan each workday come from the five boroughs.

That is only one fact about traffic in New York City that may surprise some people. For example, 35 percent of government workers drive to work, many because they have free parking. Also, one in five drivers entering the busiest parts of Manhattan are only passing through, on their way somewhere else.

Then again, maybe it’s not all that surprising:

When plotted on a map, the data make a striking picture, showing that some of the densest concentrations of auto commuters are from the outer fringes of Queens and Brooklyn, where access to subways is limited.

“The concentration of auto commuters is in areas that don’t have direct subway service,” Mr. Schaller said. “So the travel time advantage of driving is greater than it is in the rest of the city.”

Fulton Street Station Passages Retained; MTA Board Members To Lose Headline-Grabbing Objections

The MTA decides to build a fully functional Fulton Street station and the public loses one of the more arcane debates over transportation infrastructure to come in some time:

It appears that subway riders can now look forward to both an architecturally ambitious station and an underground connection to the E train when the center opens in October 2009.

It also appears that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is ready to spend some of its own money to make up the difference between the $847 million in federal funds that have been committed to the project and its current estimated cost of $888 million.

The transit center was originally proposed as part of the revival of Lower Manhattan after 9/11. It was to straighten out as much as possible the spaghetti plate of subway lines — A, C, E, J, M, Z, R, W, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — converging around Fulton Street. Many of these stations are currently connected, but the passageways between them are constricted and confusing.

At the heart of the center, at is was unveiled in 2004, was a new glass-clad entrance building, or headhouse, at Broadway and Fulton Street, topped by a glass dome not unlike a seashell in shape with a skylight that would scoop daylight down to the station below.

In the months and years since, the plan’s scope was repeatedly cut back because of budget constraints. Some changes, like the elimination of a subbasement, went unquestioned.

But in November, a minor revolt on the authority’s board greeted the proposed elimination of a passageway planned between the R and W lines and the E train terminus at the World Trade Center. Several members cast it as an either-or issue, pitting the form of the headhouse against the function of the passageway.

“We are not building cathedrals here,” said one board member, Nancy Shevell Blakeman.

Back at their drawing boards in recent weeks, the authority’s planners found that they could build a relatively inexpensive connector by using a corner of what is now the temporary PATH terminal rather than a route under Church Street.

Despite threats by board members to scuttle the dome, the plans were apparently never seriously in danger of being scaled back much further than they had already been.

See also: Between Simpler Transfer Or Fancy Roof, I Want The Roof!

Underground Cell-Phone Reception Overtaken By Technology; Apparently All Of Those Unsightly Towers Are Actually Doing Something!

The question “How are you getting reception in here?” is answered:

Thanks to advancements in cell phone technology and an ever-growing number of cellular towers, New Yorkers are increasingly able to get a signal in the subways even though the system isn’t wired.

“I talk whenever I can,” said Lateik Howard, 23, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, who often uses his phone while in the Jay St. station in downtown Brooklyn. “Cell phones are a necessity now.”

“I never used it in the subway before because I didn’t think I could,” said Vincent Palange, 77, staring with surprise at his working T-Mobile phone on the 66th St. No. 1 platform. “It’s ringing!”

With stations and tunnels that get reception scattered around the city, technology experts believe several conditions are necessary to allow the previously impossible underground phone call.

“The proximity of an antenna and the depth of a station has a lot to do with it,” said Nicole Lee, an associate editor who specializes in cell phones for CNET.com. “Certainly, the closer you are to street level, the better chance you have of getting a signal, especially with a newer phone.”

A number of subway lines, particularly the 2/3 line along the upper West Side into Brooklyn and the 4/5 along the upper East Side, can support a signal from the platform, and for a short time — up to 30 seconds, the Daily News found — in train tunnels.

And if you thought Rep. Weiner couldn’t possibly find some way to grandstand in this piece, you underestimate his special ability to do so:

Many straphangers and pols have pushed for the enhanced service so riders can call 911.

“Without emergency cell service, you can’t say something if you see something,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens).

Nice work!

In Case You Forgot . . .

Governor Spitzer’s new team starts out on the right foot by sounding a fresh theme of hope and prosperity:

It is not a matter of if, but of when the city’s subway system suffers a terrorist attack, Governor Spitzer’s pick as the state’s homeland security tsar, Michael Balboni, said.

Meanwhile, the Republican state senator who is resigning to join the new Spitzer administration said “not a lot is different” in terms of subway security since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

While he praised the ramped-up security at some tunnel entryways into the city as well as a greater police presence underground, he said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has left gaping holes in the emergency preparedness of its conductors and train operators, who are responsible for initiating evacuations during emergencies. The MTA did not respond to a request for comment.

“There are some unspeakable potential threats out there,” Mr. Balboni said during a telephone interview over the weekend.

Express Trains . . . Who Needs Them?

After two students broke a non-Guinness approved record for speediest trip on the entire subway system back in August, another group enters the record book with an official time. Moral — taking express trains may not save much time after all:

With their chins held high and their bladders full, the high school buddies waltzed out of the No. 2 train at 241st St. in the Bronx and basked in the attention lavished on them by a group of nearly two dozen loved ones and reporters.

“It’s really hard to describe what it’s like to plan something for so long, and then not only to achieve it, but to break the record by such a solid margin,” gushed Bill Amarosa, 28, after his team swept through the station at 4:37 p.m.

The group of friends managed to stop at all of the system’s 468 stations in a time of 24 hours, 54 minutes and 3 seconds — beating the mark set in 1989 by nearly an hour and a half.

In August, two students blazed through the length of the subway system in slightly more than 24 hours, but their feat was not counted by Guinness because they failed to stop at every station.

. . .

Their journey began just after 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

Along the way, the six men were sustained by energy bars, McDonald’s hamburgers delivered to them by devoted friends and the unwavering support of MTA workers and fellow straphangers.

A conductor on a downtown B train announced yesterday morning: “Everybody, you should know you’re riding on the train with the guys who are trying to break the record.”