Tag: congestionpricing

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Photo of a plaque on a blue wall with square, gray paving stones below. The text engraved on the plaque is: "City of New York Department of Plant and Structures, Transmitter House for Radio Station WNYC, F.H. La Guardia - Mayor, F.J.H. Kracke - Commissioner, 1936, Constructed by Works Progress Administration.
Plaque at the old WNYC Transmitter House – Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

NYC Congestion Pricing Data is being published by the MTA. Sadly, there have been many reports of government data becoming unacceptable over the last couple weeks. So, it’s nice to see a new dataset available. Go forth and visualize!

We took a trip to Greenpoint on Saturday. I say “a trip” because it involved a ride on the G train (running in two parts this weekend, even more exciting!), which makes it feel farther away than it really is. We took a walk around WNYC Transmitter Park. The old, WPA-constructed transmitter house is still there, but there are no vestiges of the old towers.

It was a successful trip, we returned with a very affordable ($6!) Bob James/David Sanborn record I’d been looking for (courtesy of Captured Record Shop), a Bodega Kitties mystery box (from myplasticheart), and an apple fritter the size of my head (from Moe’s Doughs).

After a couple weeks off, our regular jam session was back on. None of us have been practicing, but despite the rust, we didn’t sound too bad. It did serve as a reminder to try to pick up that bass a few times during the week though.

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Time series line graph. The y-axis is the number of entries into Manhattan's Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ), labels have a minimum of 0 and maximum of 5,000. The x-axis represents the Time of Day, the labels start with 0 and increase to the right, with a maximum of 21. There are two shaded areas in the morning and evening time. There are also two dotted, vertical lines at 5AM and 9PM. A single blue line plots the number of vehicles per 10 minute increment. Two red arrows point out distinct changes in the number of vehicles just before 5AM and at 9PM.
Congestion Relief Zone Entries by Time of Day (emphasis mine). Credit: MTA

Details about the the number of vehicles entering the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) are available on the MTA’s Metrics Page and New York State’s Open Data site. I can’t wait to see the sorts of interesting data visualizations people will create with this data.

In The most detailed view of NYC traffic (so far), the MTA Data Analytics team describes how this data is collected, and points out some of the emerging patterns. One of those patterns is very clear in the chart above with notable spikes before and after peak pricing time.

I can understand that some people will enter the CRZ a little earlier or later to reduce their toll. However, it’s interesting how steep the spikes are, especially in the evening. Are there people lined up just before 9PM, waiting to cross into the zone? I also wonder if people are speeding to get in under that wire at 4:59AM.

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Screen capture of a video depicting a blue, compact SUV on a Manhattan street sporting a large sign with the text "NEW YORKERS WON! CONGESTION PRICING". A man is standing in the moon roof with outstretched arms.
Screen capture from a Streetfilms montage celebrating NYC Congestion Pricing.

At the stroke of midnight on an icy Sunday, New York City congestion pricing began. I never thought I’d see the day. Let’s hope it sticks!

I finished posting photos from our trip to Japan. Looking at them makes me want to go back.

This Switchable Desktop Power Outlet project is one I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It was simple enough that I wasn’t sure if it warranted a write-up. However, I learned a few lessons–why not.

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It’s week 26, so we’re halfway through this year’s weeknotes!

The first Presidential debate was this week. I knew how it was going to go down, so I avoided it. Unfortunately, my intuition was correct and Trump just spewed his lies. Predictably, the hand wringing started immediately. Although, I was a little taken aback by the about of attention the NY Times gave to Biden’s performance while spilling little ink over Trump’s unchecked bullshit eruption. Heather Cox Richardson has a great write-up, as usual.

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Photo of the team USA Sail GP F50 preparing to race in New York Harbor. Lower Manhattan's skyline is in the background.
Team USA prepares to race at Sail GP in New York City.

The big event this week was Sail GP. I was lucky to get a look behind the scenes before the races on Saturday. These boats and crews are very impressive.

In other news, it’s hazy, hot & humid this week. Usually, we try to keep the A/C off until at least July. However, I couldn’t take it anymore on Saturday and flipped the switch. Might have to adjust expectations in the future. Perhaps “we try to keep the A/C off until at least June” will be the reality going forward.

Also spotted a white squirrel in Prospect Park. Apparently people have been seeing these for years in the park, but it was a first for me.

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