A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.
Winners
NJ Assemblyman Troy Singleton — Singleton wrote a Letter to the Editor calling for the “outdated” physical design of Route 130, New Jersey’s most dangerous road for pedestrians, to be changed in order to “allow all road users to reach their destinations safely.”
NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg — On his weekly radio appearance, Mayor Bloomberg said that not including transit on the new Tappan Zee Bridge “is a terrible mistake, I don’t care what it costs. Mass transit is our future.”
CT State Rep. David Scribner — Scribner voted against a bill that would establish tolls to help pay for the misguided expansion of Route 11 because the likelihood that tolls would pay for the entirety of the $1.4 billion project was slim, and would put too much of Connecticut’s Special Transportation Fund at risk, threatening funding for rail projects and badly needed bridge repairs.
Suffolk County Legislators Al Krupski and Tom Muratore — Krupski, a Democrat, and Muratore, a Republican, joined Independent Jay Schneiderman at a press conference yesterday to show their tri-partisan support for a resolution that would help expand bus service to Sunday’s and later in the evenings in Suffolk County.
Losers
Areas without NYC Bike Share stations – Not losers, but certainly losing out. There’s a great deal of excitement in New York City around next month’s Citi Bike launch, but some parts of the city won’t benefit during the initial launch, or at all.
As crazy as Mayor Mikey can make me sometimes, as tired I get of his Daddy know best attitude, he makes some incredibly important comments from time to time. He has a far better mind then our governor. And rich as he is, I’m guessing he’s a lot more honest.
Many years ago there was a massive public works project that was supposed to take 5 tears to build and had a reasonable sounding cost estimate, which was also large for that time. It ended up taking around 18 years to complete, and finally cost over 15 times the original estimate. Was it worth it? you tell me. Its been in service for around 130 years. Still wondering if it was worth it? Its the Brooklyn Bridge. Any questions?
Saying the new TZ Bridge could be “retro fitted” for mass transit later is a lie, because it will never cost less than it would if built into the original structure. And just looking at the cost does not take into the economic boom that would take place in Rockland and Orange counties by having direct train service to Manhattan.