Our Recommendations

Research recommendations:

• Assess safety and security needs in the suburban subareas modelled after the process used in New York City.
• Inventory current and developing technology that can be used to improve safety and security.
• Identify potential funding sources for system security and safety and security training.
• Conduct a gap analysis on monitoring and surveillance to deter threats and identify coordination needs for transportation system security.

Support the creation of contingency plans for disruptive events or in anticipation of major roadway or transit closures.

Expand the Safety Advisory Working Group to include security-related agencies and organizations.

Coordinate joint security exercises between transit agencies and neighboring jurisdictions via the Metropolitan Area Planning (MAP) Forum.

Encourage common crosswalk standards among NYMTC's members responsible for roadway operations.

Encourage consideration of roundabouts among NYMTC's members responsible for roadway operations.

Regional guidance programs:

• Develop a common safe streets/intersections guidebook for all jurisdictions in the planning area.
• Coordinate customer alert systems to notify of relevant events in a timely manner.
• Coordinate and enhance equitable safety-related traffic programs in the vicinity of schools

Education and training programs:

• Expand safety education programs and public awareness campaigns.
• Coordinate and enhance safety education and programs in the suburban subregions.
• Execute training for multi-agency safety and security coordination and/or develop a common guidebook.
• Expand safety and security training programs for local municipalities and communities.

Research recommendations:

• Inventory current and developing technology that can be used to improve transit access and transit asset durability and monitor asset condition.
• Assess transit services throughout the planning area to identify opportunities for increased service frequency and/or reliability.
• Assess transit service coordination needs across jurisdictional lines and evaluate intermodal connections.
• Inventory freight facilities and services throughout the planning area and integrate the results of the freight-related land use inventory.
• Inventory potential funding sources for transit operations and improved transit accessibility.
• Identify potential funding sources for integration of freight modes.

Develop a transit access plan for the entire planning area and perform a benchmarking exercise of transit systems across the country for transit access, service frequency, and service reliability.

Develop a comprehensive freight integration strategy.

Publish an annual report on accessible pedestrian signals.

Survey pedestrian ramps to enhance maintenance programs and continue to provide for safe and accessible corners that are ADA compliant.

Perform a passenger data needs and sources assessment of member agencies to establish a well-coordinated system.

• Include relevant sources of "big data" and technological tools for data collection.
• Identify data sources for key system interfaces.

Develop the Regional Freight Data Program.

Aggressively propose relevant projects for federal discretionary programs and related state-level programs.

Identify priority multi-agency system preservation projects.

Identify priority multimodal corridors throughout the planning area and optimize project selection for these corridors.

Convene interagency work groups through the Transportation Coordinating Committees (TCCs) to address priority multimodal corridors.

Regional guidance programs:

• Coordinate suburban municipalities and appropriate jurisdictions to improve access to transit stops/stations.
• Develop a common transit accessibility guidebook based on universal design standards and existing policies of the members agencies.
• Fully integrate transit mapping/trip planning resources and enhance integration of suburban services into regional public information portals.

Transit access programs:

• Increase transit access through micromobility and shared mobility.
• Enhance fare and service integration between suburban transit providers and MTA services.
• Expand the availability of real time information at transit stations and stops.
• Improve public communication on transit service status and service changes.
• Improve transit facility accessibility for all regardless of disability status.

Transit service enhancement programs:

• Reduce commute times and improve transit speeds in low- and moderate-income communities underserved by transit.
• Expand the availability of shared-use mobility services, including bike share, carshare, and rideshare that support safe, affordable, and sustainable travel choices.

Freight access program:

• Improve truck access to industrial areas, marine terminals, and airports.

Research recommendations:

• Identify core markets, emerging markets, activity centers, and underserved communities using the Coordinated Development Emphasis Areas (CDEAs), socioeconomic and demographic forecasts, and Title VI/Environmental Justice assessment to develop multimodal plans for the identified areas.
• Identify the most efficient ways to serve emerging markets and underserved communities, particularly those in areas of low-density development where fixed-route bus service may not be effective.
• Benchmark techniques to address fare issues for lower income riders and seniors across all transit services.
• Assess the distribution of bicycle lanes, bicycle facilities, and bike sharing opportunities throughout the NYMTC planning area in terms of equity.
• Assess late night/overnight travel needs.

Continue to address congested links and bottlenecks identified by the congestion management process (CMP) through multimodal planning studies.

Develop or update transit service plans for each suburban system in the planning area given forecasts of future demand.

Develop a comprehensive freight strategy for the multi-state metropolitan region.

Encourage sharing of data to better manage truck movements throughout the region.

Use the CDEAs as a targeting mechanism for a continuing program of community planning activities that:

• Encourage development in centers and downtowns to reinforce walkable, aesthetically pleasing, and transit-accessible environments.
• Encourage consideration of local transportation issues in comprehensive/master planning and community visioning processes.
• Make walking safer and more convenient through safety and streetscape improvements.
• Support downtown development/redevelopment.
• Encourage walkability, Complete Streets, and remote parking in targeted centers.
• Complete and distribute MTA First Mile/Last Mile Station Access Toolkit.

Convene interagency work groups through the TCCs to identify and address priority multimodal corridors; including exploring technological options.

Convene the designated recipients of federal transit funding to explore the costs and benefits of joint procurement for transit equipment.

Bring together relevant agencies and private sector interests through the Multi-State Freight Working Group to address identified opportunities for freight network modernization.

Complete Streets programs:

• Apply Complete Streets design principles that accommodate all users of the transportation network.
• Improve the bus network by installing bus priority treatments such as bus lanes, traffic signal prioritization, and camera enforcement.
• Expand the bicycle lane network and improve bike access to bridges.
• Strive to make sidewalks, pedestrian spaces, and transit stops and stations accessible.

Transit access programs:

• Integrate the OMNY fare system with suburban bus systems and ferry services throughout the NYMTC planning area.
• Expand transit fare media purchase locations.

Shared Mobility program:

• Expand the availability of shared-use mobility services, including bike share, carshare, and rideshare that support safe, affordable, and sustainable travel choices.

Research recommendations:

• Investigate opportunities for better integrating shared mobility and micromobility in the transportation system.
• Research technological options for greater freight integration.
• Explore technologies related to environmental stewardship.
• Consider incentives for alternative fuel vehicles/electric vehicle ownership.

Engage in multimodal planning studies to address congested links identified through the CMP.

Use the results of the inventory of freight-related land uses to identify opportunities for rail freight and intermodal capacity expansion.

Continue convening relevant agencies and private sector interests through the Multi-State Freight Working Group to improve the efficiency of freight delivery.

Develop multi-agency approaches for benchmarking and sharing vehicle specification information for public fleet procurement.

Encourage suburban municipalities to adopt Complete Streets policies to accommodate transit, walking, and biking to reduce vehicle congestion and associated emissions.

Develop and adopt environmental stewardship guidelines for project selection.

• Employ bioswales where practical in watershed areas

Community planning program:

• Include alternatives to single occupant vehicles (SOV) trips in the program of community planning activities.

Commuting alternatives program:

• Enhance and coordinate employer commuting programs throughout the NYMTC planning area.
• Enhance outreach to major employers, the business community, hospitals, colleges, and other institutions to encourage alternatives to SOV travel.
• Continue and enhance model programs for use at developments such as office parks, medical facilities, and college campuses that includes emerging and innovative transportation services such as shared mobility and micromobility.

Public messaging and marketing programs:

• Undertake initiatives that encourage use of public transit; encourage seniors to sign up for reduced fare transit services.
• Enhance the public visibility of the 511NY service and its various components.

Vehicular emissions program to reduce emissions from publicly and privately owned vehicle fleets:

• Purchase either hybrid or all-electric vehicles and ferries that run with cleaner engines in transit life-cycle replacement programs.
• Continue and expand a program of information sharing for local municipal vehicle fleets, through existing Clean Cities programs where feasible.
• Support accelerated retirement of pre-Tier 4 diesel engines in the legacy fleet and replace with cleaner alternatives such as trucks running on renewable diesel or alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas and EV.
• Increase access and availability of electric vehicle charging stations and other alternative fuels to support clean freight goals.
• Encourage the use of cargo bicycles for commercial purposes.

Innovative materials program:

• Test permeable pavement and concrete; install green infrastructure on streets.
• Share information on tests of permeable surfaces among NYMTC's members responsible for roadways.

Research recommendations:

• Inventory all areas included in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Rebuild by Design Program and the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program and related community imperatives and transportation-related proposals.
• Inventory specific technologies related to system protection and fortification.
• Inventory/benchmark resiliency and adaptation practices for all sectors.
• Inventory relevant funding programs at all levels to include programs, sources, and private sector options relevant to system protection and fortification.
• Identify resources and funding sources for continuing risk analyses.

Support the development of detailed transportation contingency plans.

Revisit the FHWA risk analysis and monitor risk on an on-going basis as part of the enhanced planning process.

Coordinate transit agencies and jurisdictions in developing procedures and plans to respond to emergency events.

Support multi-agency planning and design efforts for coastal protection systems.

Develop an enhanced resiliency planning process through the MAP Forum and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Smart Regions Collaborative.

• Explore improved travel options and redundancies through the newly established working group.

  • Promote modal redundancy.
  • Use information from the CMP and socioeconomic and demographic forecasts to inform the working group's exploration of travel options and redundancies.
  • Explore specific technologies related to travel options and redundancies.

Share risk analysis results with local municipalities throughout the planning area.

Establish a working group of NYMTC's member agencies to review and enhance emergency and long-term responses to climate impacts.

Enhance project funding mechanisms for system protection and fortification through project selection by the TCCs.

Enhance project funding mechanisms for travel options and redundancies through project selection by the TCCs that is based on the working group's exploration.