Your weekly guide to heroic and villainous actions in tri-state transportation and development.
Winners
Riverkeeper—New York State’s water safety and environmental watchdog voiced its opposition to the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). Chief among their concerns was the absence of transit on the bridge. The DEIS “does not adequately address resulting traffic congestion as a contributor to pollution,” said the group.
USDOT—the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has proposed new criteria for its New Starts and Small Starts programs that include “social equity.” They also promise faster project delivery. This should be good news for our transit-rich region.
Metro-North and PATH—in 2011, Metro-North’s New Haven line got a record 38.2 million people to work and PATH moved an all-time high of 76.6 million. We’re glad to see that so many tri-staters are taking public transit. State legislatures should take note.
Newsday editorial board—the Long Island Rail Road lost the “America’s busiest commuter rail” title to Metro-North, and Newsday took notice. The paper’s editorial board called attention to LIRR’s overcrowded facilities at Jamaica and Penn Station, advocated for a second track to Ronkonkoma and better intra-island service, and urged station communities to pursue transit-oriented development.
Losers
Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce—the MRCC’s president objected to TSTC’s position that Triple Five Worldwide, the company behind a megamall in the Meadowlands, should fund public transit to the development. Apparently, he thinks that taxpayers should pay for train and bus improvements instead.
NYPD—the New York City Police Department has repeatedly mishandled the death of Matthew Lefevre. Last October, the cyclist died after being hit by a truck, but the police department “withheld details of the crash from the victim’s family and failed to gather evidence at the scene.” Now, the Brooklyn DA is investigating. Streetsblog reports that this is standard procedure for any fatality.
Authors of the Tappan Zee DEIS—the Tappan Zee replacement plan DEIS was released earlier this week, and TSTC’s preliminary review showed that it was wholly inadequate. The DEIS does not study a full range of alternatives or include bus rapid transit (BRT). The proposal does nothing to resolve the congestion issues or pollution concerns that plague the Lower Hudson Valley, and clearly goes against the state’s Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Priority Act. To learn more about the Tappan Zee project and the area’s transportation future, visit www.brtonthebridge.org.
