progress it’s an interesting word which
can be defined in a number of different
ways it can refer to movement through
space like a car on a highway it can
also describe our collective advancement
as a society across the arc of time
under both definitions what ultimately
constitutes progress is often a matter
of perspective perspective is also
important when considering the things
that impede our progress like traffic
one of the challenges we face today at a
time of rapid technological change and
growth is how we move physically from
place to place this afternoon I’d like
to talk a little bit about
transportation through the lens of two
fascinating historical figures who may
help us understand how we got where we
are and where we’re headed anyone has
ever spent any time on Long Island is
probably familiar with Robert Moses if
not his smiling face at least his name
or his work throughout much of the early
early 20th century Robert Moses was one
of the most influential figures in all
of New York state presiding over several
municipal agencies which planned and
constructed major public works projects
that shaped the growth of the region his
epic biography by Robert Caro is
entitled the power broker and during
this period
Moses was clearly that Robert Moses was
a progressive planner he saw government
as a vehicle for change and he
positioned himself to conceptualize and
construct the infrastructure that would
drive that change he built beautiful
parks filled with soaring monuments that
we continued to utilize and appreciate
today he was also a man of his time and
his vision for the future was full of
men in suits probably wearing hats
driving swiftly on open roads and
streamlined automobiles it was a
compelling vision but one which left
little room for alternative perspectives
and he was relentless in his pursuit of
it provisions for public mass transit
were conspicuously absent from the Moses
master plan and established communities
that were in the path of his concrete
freeways were either bulldoze or
unceremoniously subdivided ironically
for
who travelled everywhere by car Moses
never learned to drive and never held a
driver’s license here he is with Walt
Disney and Henry Ford not driving one of
the few major projects that Moses was
enabled to complete was known as the
lower Manhattan exchange or Lomax
it was a huge multi-lane highway that
was intended to speed traffic across the
city which might have been great for
some for a while it also would have
drastically changed and probably
destroyed such historic neighborhoods as
Soho Little Italy and Greenwich Village
the low mix project was brought to a
screeching halt to largely to the
efforts of this unlikely figure in 1952
Jane Jacobs was a mother of three who
held no academic degrees and was a
freelance writer living in New York City
it was around this time that she began
to find her voice and gain prominence as
a grassroots organizer pushing back
against projects such as Lomax
which were being pursued by the city in
the name of urban renewal she
effectively articulated the feeling held
by many that these efforts were tearing
at the vibrancy and diverse culture of
the communities in their path eventually
she would formulate many of her
criticisms of these types of projects
into a book entitled the death and life
of great American cities which is now
one of the most influential guides to
urban planning she isn’t considered to
be one of the founders of the historic
preservation movement and the
inspiration for the New Urbanism
planning model which seeks to reassert
traditional neighborhood design
principles you can see she and Moses
also differed in their preferred form of
transportation from our current and
hyperlocal perspective it’s probably
easier to view Jane Jacobs
sympathetically and see Robert Moses as
he is now often portrayed blindly
ambitious and a bit of a bully in
fairness however though it’s important
to note that Jane Jacobs is also
considered by many to be the godmother
of NIMBYism
or not in my backyard syndrome her
legacy applied to our current way of
life may be evidence in what some have
termed the balkanization of Long Island
where everything is decided at the local
level at the cost of a collective
planning effort that connects across
communities which of course makes it
difficult to move forward from
which brings us back to gridlock traffic
is an annoyance that most of us here can
readily relate to of course the impact
of traffic on our life today is not just
about traffic the impact of
transportation is not just about traffic
it’s also a key influencer in the
protection of our environment
geopolitical stability public health and
safety social justice and quality of
life in the communities where we live
work and play
to address these challenges we need to
look ahead new technologies like zero
emission electric vehicles web-enabled
mobility solutions an innovative
public-private partnerships hold real
promise to be transformative we can also
turn our gaze backward and remember how
we lived and traveled before automobiles
were the sole focus of our
transportation planning when luxurious
ferries and frequent train service with
a primary conduit for a summer trip to
the Hamptons we can rethink our car
centric development patterns and
encourage walkable Hamlet centers with
opportunities for safe biking and
Recreation invest in viable public
transit systems that are more than just
an option of last resort we can focus
less on what traffic engineers referred
to as throughput or maximizing the flow
of vehicles over a given period of time
and more on developing a transportation
network an infrastructure which works
within the context of the community
enhances connectivity and improves our
quality of life in order to overcome our
president gridlock we must be able to
come together to do big bold things
construct new paradigms embrace change
look ahead to the opportunities that
innovation and technology bring but at
the same time we must always be mindful
of the way we lived in the past how we
got here and why that would represent
real progress thank you [Applause]
can be defined in a number of different
ways it can refer to movement through
space like a car on a highway it can
also describe our collective advancement
as a society across the arc of time
under both definitions what ultimately
constitutes progress is often a matter
of perspective perspective is also
important when considering the things
that impede our progress like traffic
one of the challenges we face today at a
time of rapid technological change and
growth is how we move physically from
place to place this afternoon I’d like
to talk a little bit about
transportation through the lens of two
fascinating historical figures who may
help us understand how we got where we
are and where we’re headed anyone has
ever spent any time on Long Island is
probably familiar with Robert Moses if
not his smiling face at least his name
or his work throughout much of the early
early 20th century Robert Moses was one
of the most influential figures in all
of New York state presiding over several
municipal agencies which planned and
constructed major public works projects
that shaped the growth of the region his
epic biography by Robert Caro is
entitled the power broker and during
this period
Moses was clearly that Robert Moses was
a progressive planner he saw government
as a vehicle for change and he
positioned himself to conceptualize and
construct the infrastructure that would
drive that change he built beautiful
parks filled with soaring monuments that
we continued to utilize and appreciate
today he was also a man of his time and
his vision for the future was full of
men in suits probably wearing hats
driving swiftly on open roads and
streamlined automobiles it was a
compelling vision but one which left
little room for alternative perspectives
and he was relentless in his pursuit of
it provisions for public mass transit
were conspicuously absent from the Moses
master plan and established communities
that were in the path of his concrete
freeways were either bulldoze or
unceremoniously subdivided ironically
for
who travelled everywhere by car Moses
never learned to drive and never held a
driver’s license here he is with Walt
Disney and Henry Ford not driving one of
the few major projects that Moses was
enabled to complete was known as the
lower Manhattan exchange or Lomax
it was a huge multi-lane highway that
was intended to speed traffic across the
city which might have been great for
some for a while it also would have
drastically changed and probably
destroyed such historic neighborhoods as
Soho Little Italy and Greenwich Village
the low mix project was brought to a
screeching halt to largely to the
efforts of this unlikely figure in 1952
Jane Jacobs was a mother of three who
held no academic degrees and was a
freelance writer living in New York City
it was around this time that she began
to find her voice and gain prominence as
a grassroots organizer pushing back
against projects such as Lomax
which were being pursued by the city in
the name of urban renewal she
effectively articulated the feeling held
by many that these efforts were tearing
at the vibrancy and diverse culture of
the communities in their path eventually
she would formulate many of her
criticisms of these types of projects
into a book entitled the death and life
of great American cities which is now
one of the most influential guides to
urban planning she isn’t considered to
be one of the founders of the historic
preservation movement and the
inspiration for the New Urbanism
planning model which seeks to reassert
traditional neighborhood design
principles you can see she and Moses
also differed in their preferred form of
transportation from our current and
hyperlocal perspective it’s probably
easier to view Jane Jacobs
sympathetically and see Robert Moses as
he is now often portrayed blindly
ambitious and a bit of a bully in
fairness however though it’s important
to note that Jane Jacobs is also
considered by many to be the godmother
of NIMBYism
or not in my backyard syndrome her
legacy applied to our current way of
life may be evidence in what some have
termed the balkanization of Long Island
where everything is decided at the local
level at the cost of a collective
planning effort that connects across
communities which of course makes it
difficult to move forward from
which brings us back to gridlock traffic
is an annoyance that most of us here can
readily relate to of course the impact
of traffic on our life today is not just
about traffic the impact of
transportation is not just about traffic
it’s also a key influencer in the
protection of our environment
geopolitical stability public health and
safety social justice and quality of
life in the communities where we live
work and play
to address these challenges we need to
look ahead new technologies like zero
emission electric vehicles web-enabled
mobility solutions an innovative
public-private partnerships hold real
promise to be transformative we can also
turn our gaze backward and remember how
we lived and traveled before automobiles
were the sole focus of our
transportation planning when luxurious
ferries and frequent train service with
a primary conduit for a summer trip to
the Hamptons we can rethink our car
centric development patterns and
encourage walkable Hamlet centers with
opportunities for safe biking and
Recreation invest in viable public
transit systems that are more than just
an option of last resort we can focus
less on what traffic engineers referred
to as throughput or maximizing the flow
of vehicles over a given period of time
and more on developing a transportation
network an infrastructure which works
within the context of the community
enhances connectivity and improves our
quality of life in order to overcome our
president gridlock we must be able to
come together to do big bold things
construct new paradigms embrace change
look ahead to the opportunities that
innovation and technology bring but at
the same time we must always be mindful
of the way we lived in the past how we
got here and why that would represent
real progress thank you [Applause]
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