Long Island civic groups have a timely opportunity to make their voices heard when it comes to the Long Island they would like to live, work and recreate in, in the 21st century.
The New York State Department of Transportation is accepting comments on its upcoming 2010-2015 Capital Program, the document that specifies the Department’s projects, programs and policies for the next five years.
Meetings have been held throughout the state to seek input on the Program. Seven of these were held with Long Island elected officials, advocates and other stakeholder groups. Last week Tri-State participated in one of these meetings with NYSDOT’s Region 10 Long Island office, where we were informed that final comments on the program are due this Wednesday, August 26.
However, moving forward, Tri-State has serious concerns over the public participation process. In addition to the unacceptably short time frame for public comment, it’s not clear how the new Capital Program relates to the existing one. Will the current program be wiped clean? Will the comments result in a Capital Program amendment?
Either way, we hope the 2010-2015 Capital Program builds upon the strengths of the 2009-2014 document. The current program supports a ‘fix-it-first’ policy that prioritizes repair of existing road and bridge infrastructure over road expansion, a Land Use Planning Initiative program which provides community planning grants and facilitates regional Smart Growth analyses, and funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects.
Tri-State will urge NYSDOT to expand these successful policies by:
- Increasing funding for traffic calming projects through SafeSeniors, the Local Safe Streets Traffic Calming Grant program, and other programs,
- Continuing to abide by a “fix-it-first” transportation policy,
- Increasing funding for the Land Use Planning Initiative.
In addition, Tri-State will encourage NYSDOT to reprioritize investment of wasteful road capacity projects that promote sprawl toward projects that support traditional downtowns and main streets. The Campaign will urge NYSDOT to dedicate funding to develop and implement the conversion of carpool lanes to High Occupancy Toll lanes on the Long Island Expressway and develop a comprehensive plan for the Long Island Truck to Rail Intermodal project at Pilgrim State.
Individuals and organizations can submit comments via email to R10-PPM@dot.state.ny.us or by fax at (631) 952-6120.
Clarification re: “The current Capital Program, available here, was supposed to run through 2014.”
Actually, the current capital plan is for 2005-2010. As the NYSDOT page linked in the post notes, the 2009-2014 capital plan was prepared “early” at the request of the Legislature (“pursuant to Chapter 384 of the New York State Laws of 2007”). The idea was that since Mayor Bloomberg had proposed that congestion pricing revenues be committed to regional transportation infrastructure improvements, some legislators wanted to have some idea of what that money was going to buy. Thus both NYSDOT and MTA were required to submit new capital programs by March 2008.