Port Authority Of New York Research Articles

9/11 steel: Distributed memorialization

Steel has become the de facto material to memorialize 9/11. In this article, we show how the vast majority of steel from the World Trade Center (200,000 tons) was recycled abroad but what remained was sacralized and made into local memorials. Using newspaper reports and materials obtained from a freedom of information request, the article analyzes how dispersed memorialization honored first responders across the United States (and abroad) enlarging both the geography of trauma and responsibility to remember. We connect the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's curation, gifting, and transportation of 9/11 steel to a form of mourning with military antecedents as well as the deliberate focus on strength, masculinity, and participation in the War on Terror. Finally, we show how local memorialization democratized the process of ‘sacred steel' distribution while also tightly controlling what could be done with salvaged metal in order to make sure that relics remained communal, rather than personalized, objects.

Bayonne Bridge, USA: raising the roadway

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Bayonne Bridge crosses the entrance to the ports of Newark and Elizabeth, NJ, USA. The longest steel truss arch span in the world when it opened in 1931, the bridge was designed by Othmar Ammann. To maintain the economic vitality of the ports, the original 46 m navigational clearance needed to be raised to 65.5 m in order to accommodate mega container ships passing through the newly widened Panama Canal. Precast concrete segmental construction was used along with an innovative staged construction approach to avoid long-term bridge closures and to expedite the construction schedule. The new navigational clearance was attained in 2017 and project completion occurred in mid-2019.

Harvey Schlossberg (1936-2021).

Memorializes Harvey Schlossberg (1936-2021). Author of Psychologist With a Gun (1974), Schlossberg was the first New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer with a PhD in psychology, and a pioneer in police psychology. With the help of two other patrolmen, he developed a program that would evaluate the recruits who entered the Police Academy. He was featured in the 1999 documentary "The Sons of Sam: A Decent into Darkness" in which David Berkowitz was investigated by the NYPD and Schlossberg helped solve the crime. By 1974, Schlossberg began teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After leaving the NYPD in 1978, he served as chief Psychologist for the police department in Rye, New York (1988-1994), and for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (1990-1999). He continued to expand the Psychological Services for the NYPD and pioneered treatment for violence-prone police. Schlossberg passed away peacefully on May 21, 2021. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Application of Data-Driven Safety Analysis to Support Port Authority Investment Decisions for Converting Conventional Toll Plazas to Open-Road Tolling

Capital improvement projects have the potential to enhance safety, mobility, and environmental quality, but these projects can include considerable costs. When making investment decisions, it is important for agencies to understand the costs in relation to the potential benefits. For several years, transportation agencies have analyzed and quantified the operational and environmental impacts of proposed projects. More recently, the first edition of the Highway Safety Manual and related resources have provided agencies with the tools needed to quantify the safety impacts of proposed projects. This paper describes the use of data-driven safety analysis methods by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to quantify the direct and indirect safety benefits of the proposed conversion of conventional toll plazas to open-road tolling. The analysis estimated the direct safety benefits (i.e., change in the number of crashes) and indirect safety benefits (i.e., change in travel time, fuel costs, and emissions resulting from crashes). These changes were converted to dollars, providing an estimate of the present value benefits based on the expected service life of the enhanced toll systems. The analysis indicated the conversions could reduce crashes by more than 900 annually, including the prevention of nearly 30 injury crashes annually. Indirect safety benefits included more than 200,000 h in reduced travel time, 335,000 gal of fuel saved, and nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2 reduced annually. Over the 15-year life cycle, this would provide an estimated benefit of more than $200 million from crashes directly and $367 million in indirect benefits.

Originality Built In

The new Goethals Bridge linking New Jersey and New York is a twin cable-stayed crossing that incorporates an innovative cable-stayed anchor in its towers, which angle outward to keep melting ice off the roadway surface. The project, which has an expected service life of 100 years, also represents the first time that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has had an infrastructure project delivered via public-private partnership.

Restoring Altitude: Economic Impacts of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Minimum Wage Proposal

This report analyzes the impacts of a proposed increase in the minimum wage to $19 an hour for 40,000 workers employed at airports under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. These are jobs at John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, and LaGuardia airports. The wage floor for workers providing ticketing, baggage handling, security, airplane and building cleaning, restaurant, retail, and on-plane catering services will rise to $19 an hour by 2023. An economic stimulus is projected in the communities where workers live. Their increased household spending is projected to increase economic output by over $465 million in 2023 and every year thereafter, creating 2,700 new jobs.

A framework for the optimization of terminal airspace operations in Multi-Airport Systems

Major cities like London, New York, and Tokyo are served by several airports, effectively creating a Multi-Airport System (MAS), or Metroplex. The operations of individual Metroplex airports are highly interdependent, rendering their efficient management rather difficult. This paper proposes a framework for the design of dynamic arrival and departure routes in MAS Terminal Maneuvering Areas, which fundamentally changes the operation in MAS airspaces for much improved efficiency when compared to the current situation. The framework consists of three components. The first presents a new procedure for characterizing dynamic arrival and departure routes based on the spatio-temporal distributions of flights. The second component is a novel Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model for the prioritization of the dynamic routes, which takes into account a set of quantitative and qualitative attributes important for MAS operations. The third component is a priority-based method for the positioning of terminal waypoints as well as the design of three-dimensional, conflict-free terminal routes. Such a method accounts for the AHP-derived priorities while satisfying the minimal separation and aircraft maneuverability constraints. The developed framework is applied to a case study of the New York Metroplex, using aircraft trajectories during a heavy traffic period on typical day of operation in the New York Terminal Control Area in November 2011. The proposed framework is quantitatively assessed using the AirTOp fast-time simulation model. The results suggest significant improvements of the new design over the existing one, as measured by several key performance indicators such as travel distance, travel time, fuel burn, and controller workload. The operational feasibility of the framework is further validated qualitatively by subject matter experts from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the operator of the New York Metroplex.

Moving Toward Asphalt Binder and Mixture Protocols to Minimize Fatigue Cracking on Asphalt Airfields

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) owns and operates two of the most heavily used airports in the United States. Newark Liberty International Airport (Newark) in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York handle approximately 1 million arrivals and departures each year. Although their runways witness an extreme amount of loading, the primary distress observed on them is top-down fatigue cracking with little to no rutting. Recently, the PANYNJ observed premature top-down fatigue cracking at two runways at Newark. After an evaluation of several runways at JFK and Newark, it was discovered that asphalt mixtures of similar design were resulting in varying levels of fatigue cracking performance. For a better understanding of the fatigue cracking performance of asphalt mixtures placed on airport runways in the New York and New Jersey area, a forensic study was conducted on field cores recovered from five runways maintained by PANYNJ. Asphalt binder was recovered and tested from the field cores at different depths from the pavement surface. The test results of the study showed that the Δ Tcr parameter, measured with the critical low-temperature results from a bending beam rheometer, could be used within a purchase specification to help mitigate the potential receipt of asphalt binders prone to accelerated aging and cracking. Meanwhile, the overlay tester and the semicircular bending flexibility index were found to be capable of potential implementation as quality control tests to ensure that asphalt mixtures produced for asphalt airfields in the New York and New Jersey area were not susceptible to top-down fatigue cracking.

Reflecting Absence, or How Ground Zero Was Purged of Its Material History (2001–2010)

Abstract:The development of the urban space of Ground Zero has been a long and difficult process, resulting in the removal of almost all of its material history. The material objects formerly present on the site had an important part and significant agency in the struggle between different stakeholders of Ground Zero. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Larry Silverstein, owner and leaseholder of the sixteen acres that held the Twin Towers, intended to rebuild the ten million square feet of office space that was destroyed on 9/11. This force of production asserted itself over possible modes of consumption of the space, each championed and represented by overlapping groups of people. Some wished to see the space redeveloped as a site of mourning, others as a site fit for touristic consumption, as a space for residence, or as a site representing a material past older than 9/11. It shall be argued that for these consumer groups the symbolic complexity of the site, and its potential power in political performances, was intricately connected to space and the material agency of objects remaining on Ground Zero post 2001.

ETC adoption, time-of-travel choice, and comprehensive policies to enhance time-of-day pricing: a stated preference investigation

The main objective of this paper is to gain insight into the interconnections between the decision to use electronic toll collection, the choice of time-of-travel, and comprehensive policies that enhance the effectiveness of time-of-day pricing. This is an important topic of research because of pricing’s potential role in transportation demand management. To this effect, the paper estimates discrete choice models using stated preference data collected from users of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) facilities in the New York City metropolitan area. The paper discusses descriptive analysis, analyzes the results of the models estimated, and identifies policy implications. The research concludes that the choices of payment method and time-of-travel are interconnected, and that the effectiveness of time-of-day pricing could be significantly enhanced through the use of measures that reduce crossing times for the alternatives that produce the least congestion, combined with initiatives that increase time of arrival flexibility.

Regulating Intercity Bus Stops in New York City

The intercity bus industry has grown significantly in recent years and has become an increasingly popular option for people traveling to and from New York City. Hundreds of intercity buses depart from New York City streets daily. Although these buses provide a useful, low-cost transportation option for New Yorkers, the fact that the buses were legally able to stop in any “No Standing” zone led to disruption to the local traffic network through increased sidewalk and street congestion. The New York State Legislature passed a law in August 2012 allowing the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) to implement a permit system for intercity bus operators. The New York City DOT has developed a rule that requires intercity bus operators to apply online for a permit from the New York City DOT before the operators can make on-street stops in the city. Bus operators must submit detailed operating information to the New York City DOT, in addition to a permit fee based on the weekly number of arrivals and departures at the proposed stop. The permit-approval process includes the New York City DOT evaluation based on public health and safety criteria and consultation with local community boards and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where appropriate. Following an application period, police will be able to enforce the law against intercity buses not carrying permits or not properly utilizing their assigned stop, and thereby the city can manage this industry within the constraints of federal and state laws.

Overview of the Draft Roadway Access Management Guidelines for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

This paper provides an overview of the efforts by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (port authority) to develop and implement roadway access management guidelines for its airports and ports. The paper first summarizes the process used, including extensive intra-agency coordination, to develop and refine roadway access management guidelines tailored for port authority facilities. The paper then provides an overview of the draft guidelines recommended for each primary guidance area (e.g., traffic signal spacing and unsignalized driveway spacing). In many cases, the guidelines formalize the practices already used so that access management may be applied more consistently. The draft guidelines are under review by management in the port authority's Engineering and Architecture Design Division. Administrative aspects, such as the variance procedure and language related to intra-agency coordination, are a primary focus. The guidelines include an access classification system with associated design criteria tailored to the specific functions of the agency's roadway facilities.

Forecast of Airport Ground Access Mode Choice with the Incremental Logit Model

As factors affecting airport passengers' and other travelers' transportation choices constantly change, the probability of choosing a particular mode also changes. For example, an increase in highway congestion would tend to shift auto travelers to public transport, or an increase in transit fare would make auto traveling more attractive. Although current modal share of airport ground access can be easily determined from passenger's revealed preference surveys, any forecast on mode choice is difficult because characteristics of individual travelers vary. This paper attempts to forecast airport ground access and egress trips at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) with the incremental logit or pivot point model. The model is developed by using modal share data from a revealed preference survey conducted by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK. The resulting model predicts how changes in highway travel time due to traffic congestion, increases in transit fare to the airport, and changes in waiting and transfer time in the AirTrain system may affect the mode choice of air passengers and employees traveling to and from the airport.

Progress and Pollution: Port Cities Prepare for the Panama Canal Expansion

Early in the planning of the Panama Canal, Navy Commander Thomas Oliver Selfridge, Jr., wrote that “advantageous as an interoceanic canal would be to the commercial welfare of the whole world, it is doubly so for the necessities of American interests.”1 And indeed, since the Canal opened in 1914, it has been the main conduit for ocean-going ships carrying trade worldwide. Today the United States ranks number one in tons of cargo passing through the Canal (China ranks number two).2 In 2011 nearly 13,000 ocean-going cargo ships made the passage.3 Starting in the late 1950s (and expanding rapidly thereafter), internationally traded goods started being shipped in large metal containers, making it possible to load and unload cargo by machine instead of by hand and spurring the manufacture of larger ships.4 “Panamax” ships were designed to be just small enough to squeeze through the locks of the Canal.5 Today, even larger ships—called “post-Panamax” because they are too large to fit through the Canal6—make up 16% of the world’s container fleet but account for nearly half the fleet’s cargo capacity.7 To allow these larger ships to transit the Canal and increase its ability to handle higher volumes of ships, Panama is building a third set of locks, with construction expected to be finished in 2015.7 The Panama Canal expansion has sparked the competitive imagination of East Coast and Gulf Coast (EC/GC) port authorities, who hope to capture some of the 70% of U.S. imports currently controlled by West Coast (WC) ports.8 Ports typically make their revenues through leases with shipping lines, wharfage fees, and tariffs. So the more containers a port handles, the more money it can make. Experts at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) call the Panama Canal expansion a likely “game changer” for U.S. trade, potentially redistributing the market share of each coast’s ports, as well as opening up new import and export markets for agricultural and other products along inland waterways.7 Some have estimated that container volumes at EC/GC ports could more than double from 2012 to 2029.7 But with this growth come questions about what major initiatives to expand cargo capacity could mean for public health in these port cities.

Pay to drive in my bus lane: A stated choice analysis for the proposed Lincoln Tunnel HOT lane into Manhattan

This paper presents the findings from a stated choice (SC) analysis conducted in the context of proposed changes to the lane system in use for the Lincoln Tunnel crossing into Manhattan. Currently, the approach road (NJ 495) to the Lincoln Tunnel has six lanes, with three in each direction. During the weekday morning peak period, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) operates a 2.5 miles exclusive bus lane (XBL) for traffic bound for Manhattan. The PANYNJ is considering creating, from existing lanes, a second XBL with the option for passenger vehicles to use it in return for an additional toll, in effect turning it into a high occupancy toll (HOT) lane. Such an approach to increase capacity and reduce congestion is unique nationally and this study looks at drivers' choices between using standard lanes, paying extra to drive on a HOT lane (the new XBL lane), switch to earlier or later departure times, or change their mode of travel. The analysis shows significant differences in the valuation of travel time savings between different population groups and also different departure time periods. The models also reveal a reluctance to change to other crossings, accept changes in departure time or switch to alternative modes.

Anticipating Climate Change

When engineers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey assessed the possible effects of climate change on the region’s most critical transportation infrastructure, they made some surprising discoveries. In some cases, recent infrastructure upgrades that had been undertaken for other reasons conferred the unexpected benefit of increasing the infrastructure’s resilience; in other cases, additional actions will be required.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Criterion Pollutant and Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has adopted a policy to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by the year 2050. For this project, E. H. Pechan & Associates, Inc., and Southern Research Institute developed 2006, 2007, and 2008 calendar year GHG and criteria pollutant emission inventories for PANYNJ facilities and operations, including the emissions of its tenants (e.g., airlines and shippers) and patrons [e.g., airport passengers and Port Authority TransHudson (PATH) riders]. In addition, the consulting team developed and implemented systems that allow for annual tracking and reporting of GHG emissions. PANYNJ manages and maintains the bridges, tunnels, bus terminals, airports, PATH commuter rail system, and marine terminals that are critical to the metropolitan New York and New Jersey region's trade and transportation capabilities. Major facilities owned, managed, operated, or maintained by PANYNJ include John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia Airports; the George Washington Bridge; the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels; Port Newark and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal; the Port Authority Bus Terminal; and the 16-acre World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. This paper describes the methods used to develop consistent GHG and criterion pollutant emission estimates for a diverse set of source types and how these methods have been updated as new information and new protocols have emerged.

Behavioral investigation on the factors that determine adoption of an electronic toll collection system: Freight carriers

The objective of this paper is to discuss the insight gained into the attitudinal factors that explain freight carriers’ decisions to use electronic toll collection (ETC). The paper uses the freight carrier survey data collected for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The qualitative analysis of the data identifies the potential reasons and factors that determined users’ and nonusers’ different responses towards ETC. In addition, a discrete choice modeling process was undertaken to quantify the relationship between the decision to use ETC and the explanatory variables. The modeling results indicate that freight carriers’ ETC choice depends on: the frequency of passing through the PANYNJ facilities, awareness of the ETC features, and business attributes such as company size, origins and destinations of deliveries, the business type, and the commodity types transported. Several important interaction terms were also explored. The paper also undertakes a comparative analysis to identify commonalities and differences between the behavior of freight users, and the behavior of passenger car users identified in a companion paper. This analysis reveals: (1) the importance of awareness campaigns to let potential facility users know the key features of the ETC system; (2) that the intensity of the potential use is a major motivating factor to embrace ETC; (3) that different users seek/value different aspects of ETC; and (4) that there are important user segments that, for reasons not entirely understood, are reluctant to embrace ETC. Since the intensity of use is not a variable that could be influenced by policy measures–as it is determined by the market dominance of the carrier–the best way to increase the market share of ETC is with the use of awareness campaigns aimed at the industry segments, e.g., independent owner operators, that are reluctant to use this important technology.

The impacts of time of day pricing on car user behavior: findings from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s initiative

This paper discusses the key findings from a research project that assessed the impacts of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Time of Day Pricing Initiative on the behavior of passenger car users. The survey data, comprised of 505 observations, show that 7.4% of passenger trips changed behavior because of the time of day pricing initiative, and that demand is inelastic to tolls with elasticities in the range of −0.11 to −0.24. Passenger car users who changed behavior responded to time of day pricing by implementing multidimensional strategies (3.23 different behavioral changes per user on average), involving behavioral responses such as changes in facility usage, changes in time of travel, changes in the payment type, and changes in mode/occupancy. The most frequently cited behavioral response was to shift mode, either to transit or carpool, and maintain the original time of travel (done in 2.55% of trips), instead of changing time of travel and maintaining the use of the passenger car (0.69% of trips). This reluctance to change travel schedules is undoubtedly a reflection of the limited time of travel flexibility that, on average, was estimated to be 20.4 and 12.3 min for early and late arrival for work-related trips. This, in turn, suggests the need for comprehensive policies, possibly involving incentives or regulations to foster employers’ participation in staggered/flexible work hour programs. Such approaches, combined with time of day pricing, are likely to be more effective in balancing car traffic during the day. Other behavioral responses of significance were reduce the number of trips made during the weekday peak-hours (1.65%), and switching to EZ-Pass to take advantage of the toll discounts (0.81%).

Governing the tap: special district governance and the new local politics of water

More than ever, Americans rely on independent special districts to provide public services. The special district--which can be as small as a low-budget mosquito abatement district or as vast as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey--has become the most common form of local governance in the United States. In Governing the Tap, Megan Mullin examines the consequences of specialization and the fragmentation of policymaking authority through the lens of local drinking-water policy. Directly comparing specific conservation, land use, and contracting policies enacted by different forms of local government, Mullin investigates the capacity of special districts to engage in responsive and collaborative decision making that promotes sustainable use of water resources. She concludes that the effect of specialization is conditional on the structure of institutions and the severity of the policy problem, with specialization offering the most benefit on policy problems that are least severe. Mullin presents a political theory of specialized governance that is relevant to any of the variety of functions special districts perform. Governing the Tap offers not only the first study of how the new decentralized politics of water is taking shape in American communities, but also new and important findings about the influence of institutional structures on local policymaking.