Reappointment Is Truly A Blow To Mass Transit
Last June, one of the biggest transit stories was the defeat of a major transportation bill in Albany. The bill called for the installation of bus-mounted cameras to deter cars from using bus-only lanes. The main culprit behind the defeat of the bill was New York State Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman David Gantt.
Many transit advocates & bloggers including myself lashed out at the defeat of this bill & the typical anti-nyc transit attitude showcased by Mr. Gantt. The media even joined in as the New York Times called for New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to remove Mr. Gantt as the committee’s chairmanship. So you can only imagine how we all felt when Sheldon announced that he was reappointing David Gantt as Transportation Committee Chairman. Ben Fried of Streetsblog has more in this report:
On Thursday, Sheldon Silver re-appointed Rochester’s David Gantt to chair the Assembly Transportation Committee. Gantt is the chairman who engineered the defeat of bus lane enforcement cameras last June, when six co-sponsors of the bill wound up voting against it in his committee. With the city’s bus rapid transit plans relying on bus-mounted cameras to help keep BRT lanes free of auto traffic, the committee vote dealt a big setback to New York City bus riders.
Click here for the complete report.
Moves like this are exactly why so many consider politics to be the phoniest thing in existence. Sometimes you have to wonder why do so many of us fight for better mass transit when our so called “leaders” are more concerned with making choices to try & defeat us? There is no legitimate reason for this man to be reappointed for the chairmanship when he clearly lacks an unbiased mind towards the mass transit needs of our state, especially the downstate region.
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