Muni-car surge belies gasbag Blasio’s boast
The city’s fleet of vehicles is at another record high — even as Mayor de Blasio boasts of how his administration is leading the nation in cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Records show that the fleet, which includes everything from passenger cars to garbage trucks to police cars, has grown to 31,159.
That’s an increase of 5,304, or 21 percent, from the 25,855 in the final year of the Bloomberg administration in 2013.
In fact, more vehicles have been added to the fleet every year that de Blasio has been in office.
Transportation advocates say the increase runs counter to de Blasio’s goal of reducing emissions in the city 80 percent by 2050.
“New York City is leading the way when it comes to fighting climate change by tackling our largest emissions source — buildings,” the mayor said last April, in another environmental initiative.
Critics say that doesn’t align with the ever-growing fleet, which Bloomberg managed to cut by about 4,000 in his final few years.
“It’s really disappointing the fleet has grown under Mayor de Blasio,” said Eric McClure, executive director of StreetsPAC.
“For a mayor who is verbally committed to addressing climate change, his actions are unfortunately not bearing out his words.”
And while the city is adding hybrids and electric vehicles, gas consumption keeps going up.
Between last July 1 and Oct. 31, the fleet consumed 10,012,707 gallons of gasoline, compared with 9,843,858 during the same period a year earlier.
At the same time, city workers used less biodiesel fuel, which is more climate-friendly.
They pumped 4,871,357 gallons of biodiesel during the fourmonth period in 2018, versus 4,987,531 gallons in 2017.
Marco Conner, interim executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said “it’s become clear” that de Blasio’s vision to make New York streets safer and greener “flies in the face” of his own administration’s dependency on cars.
City officials attributed much of increase in the fleet to the addition of police cars, sanitation trucks and snow-removal vehicles — not traditional passenger cars. They also boasted that a record 62 percent of the city’s fleet is hybrid or alternative fuel.
“The de Blasio administration is committed to doing our part to reduce emissions, and we’re leading the way as the city with the largest green fleet across the nation,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Marcy Miranda. “We’re also committed to becoming the safest city fleet and have seen a decline in the number of preventable collisions.”