I really love having the chance to talk with my NYC friend and colleague John Surico – Professor Surico actually.

Today, John joins me from his local coffee shop, so you’ll hear a bit of background chatter at times, but the conversation is – as always – enlightening.  And, I don’t mind a bit of ambient noise.

As many of my listeners know, my conversations with John are focused on his work in NYC, where he was born and raised and where he teaches, writes, and works on a great many projects, including his monthly Substack column, Streetbeat.  I’m pretty sure he doesn’t sleep.

As we reported in the past, many cycling and walking projects that were in the works – whether shovel ready, already in process, or even completed, are being shut down or even torn up. The administration in D.C. thinks bike lanes are “ugly” and a waste of money. 

Case-in-point is the already in place bike lane on Arizona Avenue which was reduced to painted lines from a separate protected lane, sparking a debate between federal policies and local transportation needs. And on it goes.

John and I talk about how congestion pricing has worked so well that, using a newly coined term, there is a space dividend – meaning things are opening up with less traffic, pollution, better safety, and the extra space created – so what can we do with that?

We begin our conversation with the snow-ma-geddon winter storm, how the new Mayor of NY handled it, and how Lyft’s much relied upon Citibike system was impacted.