Sam Schwartz Engineering headquarters is decorated with traffic signs. He tells jokes, half smiling, as if he can hear the drumroll in the background. His eyes, bright blue and boyish, shine above a toothy grin. His coffee mug commemorates the Williamsburg Bridge’s centennial with the image of a tiny cartoon span atop a tiny cartoon cake. (He helped plan a battery- and hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered trolley system there in 2012 the prime minister now wants to extend it.) He wears a heather blue suit, crisscrossed with widely spaced bands of color. When I meet Schwartz at his Chelsea headquarters in January, the man better known as “Gridlock Sam,” on behalf of the term he helped coin in 1980, has just returned from a month-long part-vacation, part-work trip to Aruba. Borrowing key Schwartz elements, the bill promises to raise $1.35 billion per year in new revenue and $12.5 billion in bonds, much-needed money that will go to the repair and expansion of New York City’s fast-failing transit infrastructure. In late March, legislation modeled after his ideas was introduced into the New York State Assembly. For decades, Schwartz has been sketching what’s now known as the “Move NY Fair Plan” aimed at mitigating traffic congestion and improving transportation. Looking around, it’s no wonder that this office serves as the neural center of a revolutionary plan to change the way New York City moves. The conference rooms bear the names “Change” and “Progress.” Repurposed bicycle wheels serve as light fixtures. Traffic signs plaster the reception area, including the famous “DON’T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE,” which made its debut on New York City streets in 1982, when founder Sam Schwartz was traffic commissioner. ![]() Lined up like turtle shells along the top shelf, they’re one of many visible signs of the company’s pro-city, pro-movement ethos. The front closet in the New York City offices of Sam Schwartz Engineering is full of bike helmets. Become a free or sustaining member to read unlimited articles, webinars and ebooks. This is your first of three free stories this month.
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