Influential environmental engineer in New York who advocated for bus lanes, bridge tolls, parking limits, and opposed the Westway plan for more highways.
Brian T. Ketcham, a renowned engineer and environmentalist who advocated for mass transit and supported various measures to reduce vehicular traffic in New York City, passed away on August 21 in Manhattan at the age of 85. His son, Christopher, confirmed that his death was a result of complications from a fall.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr. Ketcham served as a New York City official and later worked as a consultant for government agencies and environmental organizations. He actively campaigned for traffic engineering improvements to protect the environment, provided evidence to support their effectiveness, and successfully implemented many of these measures.
Mr. Ketcham established a laboratory in Brooklyn to showcase the benefits of catalytic converters in reducing emissions from car tailpipes while maintaining fuel efficiency. This initiative challenged the auto industry’s resistance to federal Clean Air Act standards.
He was instrumental in convincing New York City officials to designate lanes exclusively for buses and co-founded Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to car usage.
Mr. Ketcham played a pivotal role in the grassroots movement that led to the cancellation of Westway in the 1970s. Westway was a proposed federally funded highway along Manhattan’s West Side from the Battery to 42nd Street, involving new landfill, parkland, and commercial development.
He advocated for implementing tolls on the city-owned East River and Harlem River bridges, although this proposal did not come to fruition. This idea laid the groundwork for a more recent plan to reduce traffic congestion and fund subway improvements by charging drivers up to $15 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.
Source: The NY Times
