[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibZpFACZHgg[/youtube]
Local elected officials on both sides of the Tappan Zee Bridge are speaking up for transit after Governor Cuomo’s announcement that the bridge replacement project is moving forward without plans for bus rapid transit or commuter rail. Over the ten-year study period, NYSDOT held multiple meetings with local and state elected officials to solicit feedback and share updates on the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor project. Representing communities frustrated with traffic congestion, limited transit, and dwindling economic growth, key officials saw the potential for mass transit to spur an economically robust and solid corridor. But without transit, many worry these concerns will not be addressed.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said on YNN’s Capital Tonight that “My concern is that they’re going to replace a 1955 bridge with another 1955 bridge, and that won’t do anything to solve the problem. Bus rapid transit, or mass transit, has got to be a part of this new bridge to alleviate some of the concerns that everyone has in this region.”
“If we’re going to fix the problem, fix the problem. Don’t spend $5 or $6 billion… and end up with the same exact problem the minute the bridge opens.” Astorino called for both rail and bus rapid transit, which he noted meant “dedicated lanes on the bridge, and then off the bridge — otherwise, you’re going to have buses full of commuters that are just stuck in traffic.”
As MTR noted this morning, a cross-corridor BRT system is projected to carry 50,000 daily bus riders, addressing issues of traffic congestion and lost economic productivity. Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef expressed his concerns with the plan in the Journal News saying, “You can’t just throw a bridge down there and say we’ll build the rest of it later.”
The strong support for transit by the Republican county executives is evidence of the broad consensus that has been reached over the life of the project study, which makes it all the more surprising that the decade-long process has to start afresh. The project changes have caught many off guard. Drew Fixell, Mayor of Tarrytown, told the Journal News, “This really was surprising. All of a sudden, everything changed.”
Video: Capital Tonight.
The tracks for commuter rail can also be used for light rail type operation. Rather than bus rapid transit go for a frequent (every 15 minute) service that connects with the local bus network. People are willing to transfer to rail for the trunk portion of the ride more than they are to transfer to bus.Done right this can be the way to connect Westchester to Stewart airport.
A one seat ride is clearly optimal for commuters to maximize use of the new structure. Bus Rapid Transit, when deployed effectively, seems to be the most cost effective and operationally efficient way to move forward with the new structure. The key to it’s success would be the ingress to and egress from the new structure as commuters would be reticent to use the service if buses move rapidly over the river only to be stuck in traffic before entering and after leaving the structure.
Ideas that require a two or even a three seat ride should be carefully scrutinized. Commuters dispise changing vehicles and aggressively seek alternatives to doing so. The most current example is the large number of Port Jervis customers who have successfully secured alternatives to Metro North’s system of riding a train to Harriman, a bus to Jersey, and another train to the final destination while work progresses to restore the one seat ride to which they had become accustomed.
I also believe that it is unwise to not study building a full rail component, one that is capable of transit as well as rail freight in the future. Also, there must be bicycle and pedestrian components to the replacement span immediately, not off in the distant future, or they will never be provided. Freight rail service at this point has to go all the way north to Selkirk, which is ludicrous. If you add freight rail, you won’t need billions more to build a Cross Harbor tunnel in NYC, which still does not solve the rail bottleneck in the Northeast corridor, in fact, it would only serve Long Island. I really hope we don’t end up with another same-old-story bridge with no features for mass transit, freight rail and bicycle/pedestrian access. We need a vision for the future of the entire region.
I would hope that we seriously consider using steel and concrete produced in the USA, or even better, in NY State, as well as hiring US-based contractors to build the new structure.
@Denis – It seems to me like you are missing the point of the article. The point is that there has been a decade-long visioning process that solicited the input of thousands of people. The vision they came up with involves BRT (and not rail).
I prefer rail, but I didn’t attend the meetings and would give some deference to the voice of thousands of people. I think the point is that Gov. Cuomo shouldn’t scrap the existing plans and substitute his own vision. This caution applies equally to other community members too.