Wednesday Headlines: Mobile False Narrative Edition
The state Capitol does irony like no other.
If you were traveling on State Street or South Swan in Albany yesterday, you probably noticed a mobile billboard parked up the block from the Capitol touting Gov. Hochul’s insurance reform proposal. It came courtesy of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, but the medium here is interesting.
In the process of claiming that staged crashes are the cause of New York’s high auto insurance premiums, they invited motorists to leer at advertising while driving.
A 2015 National Center For Transportation Systems Productivity And Management study found that digital billboards were correlated with an increase in crash rates.
Fraud is bad, but so is distracted driving in one of the most frustratingly designed cities in New York. Then again, danger does go hand in hand with the insurance proposal’s impact on crash victims, as Streetsblog NYC has been chronicling.
In other news:
- The Socialists are coming! Progressive groups are descending on Albany to demand that lawmakers raise income taxes on the wealthy. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won’t be among them, but taxing the rich is still part of his platform. (The New York Post)
- State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins doesn’t plan to water down the state’s climate law. (City & State)
- The Long Island Rail Road is returning to regular service after this week’s blizzard and cleanup on neighborhood streets are underway. (Newsday, News 12 Long Island)
- Ulster County Area Transit will begin a daytime Sunday bus route in Downtown Kingston. (The Times Herald-Record)
- A man who cheated death in the subway and is suing the MTA, but has every intention of taking the train in the future. (The New York Times)
- Syracuse is asking residents to help plan what’s next for toxic land around I-81 and I-690. (The Syracuse Post-Standard)
- There is nothing wrong with an old man reminding his kids to pee before they get in the damn car — and Gov. Hochul agrees! (NY Post)
- A proposal to charge drivers a $25 registration fee at the DMV to fund upstate transit is still getting the cold shoulder from the governor. (WXXI)
- Gateway Tunnel construction should resume if snow can be removed in time. (amNewYork)
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