Ben Fried

Urgency is mounting in Albany to pass a bus lane enforcement bill, as the end of the legislative session draws near and the launch date of rapid bus service on the East Side of Manhattan approaches.

Via Gothamist, here's a story that nicely encapsulates why parking placards should be completely abolished. On Monday, a Boogiedowner reader caught Bronx Assembly member Vanessa Gibson parking in the bike lane on the Grand Concourse, NYPD-issued placard on the dash for all to see. When the Bronx News Network asked Gibson to explain herself, she offered this apology:

We have yet to get an official reply from the state Assembly about why bus lane cameras were not included in their budget proposal last week, but the excuse that's floating around is that camera enforcement just costs too darn much. That's what Assembly member Jim Brennan said in a constituent letter, and one reader reports getting a similar message from Assembly member Denny Farrell's office. (The powerful Farrell chairs the ways and means committee, which held the only vote on the Assembly's bus cam-free budget resolution before it reached the full floor.)

Thanks to reader Geck for sending along this email from Brooklyn Assembly member Jim Brennan, who was replying to a question about the rejection of bus lane cameras in the Assembly's draft budget. The district that Brennan represents doesn't include any bus lanes, existing or proposed. That didn't stop him from offering this excuse:

Chances to improve service on New York City's dedicated bus lanes appeared to narrow yesterday, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Democratic conference rejected bus lane enforcement cameras in the chamber's draft budget. Camera enforcement is one of the linchpins in the city's strategy to put the "rapid" in Bus Rapid Transit. Without it, bus riders will remain stymied by traffic, even on Select Bus Service routes.

Sheldon Silver's office just announced the outlines of the Assembly's budget resolution. On a day when transit riders saw subway and bus cuts start to loom a whole lot closer, the speaker and his conference have piled on. Here's the final line item under "Metropolitan Transportation Authority" in the summary of the Assembly's budget [PDF]:

Faced with a budget gap of nearly $800 million, the MTA Board voted to approve a slate of service cuts this afternoon that will affect millions of New Yorkers. The cuts are slated to start taking effect in June. Unless elected officials intervene to close the MTA's deficit, subway and bus riders will have to contend with less frequent service, more transfers, longer walks to the bus, and worse crowding on platforms and trains.

The New York State Senate has proposed diluting the bus lane enforcement provisions in the governor's draft budget, a maneuver that threatens the effectiveness of new corridors in the city's fledgling rapid bus network.

New York City high school students met with MTA Chair Jay Walder yesterday afternoon for a much-anticipated discussion of how to continue the MTA's student fare program. The meeting itself was closed to the media, but at a press conference that followed, both parties described their face-to-face as more of a strategy session than a confrontation.

When the state of New York announced in December that it would slice $143 million from the MTA operating budget, it may have seemed like a belt-tightening measure for lean times. But the truth of the matter -- which often goes unstated, unreported, and unappreciated -- is more insidious.