Gene Russianoff is staff attorney and chief spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, a New York City-based public transport advocacy group that focuses primarily on subway and bus services run by New York City Transit. [1] At the same time, Russianoff has also served as a government reform advocate for NYPIRG. [2] [3]
Russianoff was raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, [4] and is a graduate of Brooklyn College and Harvard Law School. He has worked for New York Public Interest Research Group (Straphangers Campaign's parent organization) since his graduation from Harvard Law in 1978. In 1983, he was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.
Gene Russianoff has advocated for subway commuters since about 1980. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. [5]
Since 2002, he has promoted in coalition bus rapid transit for New York City. BRT—whose current New York City version is called Select Bus Service—gives buses priority, resulting in greater speeds and reliability at much lower cost than new subway lines. To further awareness of the need to provide better bus service in New York City, Russianoff and Transportation Alternatives annually bestow "uncovered" Pokey and Schleppie Awards to the slowest and least reliable bus routes in New York City. The 2013 "winners" were the M42 and M50. They were clocked at 3.4 miles per hour (5.5 km/h), a rate described as slower than a lumbering elephant or a wooden row boat. [6] [7]
As a government reformer in 1988, he lobbied successfully in coalition for New York City's campaign finance law, now a model for Campaign finance in the United States [8]
Over two decades, Russianoff helped win major improvements in the law. For example, the law now provides greater incentives for city candidates to seek small contributions from city residents; and also limits contributions from individuals doing business with city government. However, his coalition is still seeking greater restrictions on influence peddling by "bundlers." [9]
Russianoff's work also helped result in the creation of the New York City's Independent Budget Office, which provides non-partisan financial information on budget matters. [10] and the annual mailing of several million multi-lingual Voter Guides at city election time. [11]
The multilingual voter guides and a new City conflicts of interest code [12] were ratified by the voters in 1988 as part of a package of reforms proposed by a charter revision commission that year. In the following year, the IBO [13] was included in the 1989 proposed charter revisions and ratified by the voters. In February 1988, New York City enacted a campaign finance law. [14]
Currently, he co-chairs the NYC Transparency Working Group. [15]
Since he developed Parkinson's Disease in his mid-50s, he has spent time lobbying for alternatives to Access-A-Ride, an M.T.A. service he claims is "lousier than the subways and buses.” [16]
Russianoff was awarded the 1994 Public Service Achievement Award by the National Board of Common Cause given to those "who by force of imagination, initiative and perseverance has made an outstanding contribution to the public interest." He was a Charles H. Revson Fellow at Columbia University in 1983. [17] In 2010, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Brooklyn College Alumni Association. [18]
New York 1 News named Russianoff a "New Yorker of the Year" in 1997 for his successful coalition work to win unlimited-ride MetroCards. [19]
The New York City Transit Authority is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 8 million trips.
The Franklin Avenue Shuttle is a New York City Subway shuttle service operating in Brooklyn. The shuttle service uses the BMT Franklin Avenue Line exclusively. The north terminus is Franklin Avenue, with a transfer available to the IND Fulton Street Line. The south terminus is Prospect Park, with a transfer available to the BMT Brighton Line. NYCT Rapid Transit Operations refer to it internally as the S or FS. Like the other two shuttles, the 42nd Street Shuttle in Manhattan and the Rockaway Park Shuttle in Queens, its route bullet is colored dark gray on route signs, station signs, rolling stock, and the official subway map.
The C Eighth Avenue Local is a 19-mile-long (31 km) rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is blue since it uses the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Midtown Manhattan.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in North America, serving 12 counties in Downstate New York, along with two counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, and over 850,000 vehicles on its seven toll bridges and two tunnels per weekday.
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway system, it forms the B Division of the modern New York City Subway.
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Straphanger may mean:
The New York Transit Museum is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is located in the decommissioned Court Street subway station in Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. There is a smaller satellite Museum Annex in Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. The museum is a self-supporting division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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The Straphangers Campaign is a New York City-based transit interest group that advocates on behalf of riders of public transport. The organization is part of the NYPIRG.
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The B44 is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, running mostly along Nostrand Avenue, as well as northbound on Rogers Avenue or New York Avenue and Bedford Avenue, between Sheepshead Bay and Williamsburg. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B44 bus route, operated by the New York City Transit Authority.
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The Campaign for New York's Future is a coalition of civic, business, environmental, labor, community and public health organizations that supports the goals and strategic direction of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability proposal, PlaNYC 2030.
Select Bus Service is a brand used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Regional Bus Operations for limited-stop bus routes with some bus rapid transit features in New York City. The first SBS route was implemented in 2008 to improve speed and reliability on long, busy corridors.
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. As of February 2018, MTA Regional Bus Operations runs 234 local routes, 71 express routes, and 20 Select Bus Service routes. Its fleet of 5,840 buses is the largest municipal bus fleet in the United States and operates 24/7. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 730,924,600, or about 2,309,600 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) is a non-profit advocacy and policy organization dedicated to reducing car and truck dependency and promoting a "more balanced, environmentally sound and equitable transportation network" in downstate New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. TSTC's methods include political and media advocacy including a self-published blog, original research and analysis, litigation, and community organizing.
The Q58 and Q58 Limited are bus routes that constitute a public transit line operating primarily in Queens, New York City, with its southern terminal on the border with Brooklyn. The Q58 is operated by the MTA New York City Transit Authority. Its precursor was a streetcar line that began operation in November 1899. and was known variously as the Flushing–Ridgewood Line, the Corona Avenue Line, and the Fresh Pond Road Line. The route became a bus line in 1949.
The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in 1924 to control city-owned and operated public transportation service within the New York City Transit System. The agency oversaw the construction and operation of the municipal Independent Subway System (IND), which was constructed shortly after the Board was chartered. The BOT later presided over the major transfers of public transit from private control to municipal control that took place in the 1940s, including the unification of the New York City Subway in 1940. In 1953, the Board was dissolved and replaced by the state-operated New York City Transit Authority, now part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).