Your weekly guide to heroic and villainous actions in tri-state transportation and development.
Winners
New York State Senator Jack Martins (R-Mineola)—Senator Martins, echoing New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald’s commitment to safer streets, penned an op-ed urging the implementation of pedestrian safety infrastructure on the deadly Hempstead Turnpike.
Connecticut AARP—AARP testified in support of vulnerable users legislation that is working its way through the Connecticut legislature. The bill, which would create enhanced penalties for careless drivers that harm pedestrians and cyclists, would also retrain offenders.
New Jersey bike shares—The borough of Red Bank, along with Meadowlink, recently applied for grant money that would help fund the Jersey Shore’s first bike share program. Elsewhere in the state, bike shares have appeared in small towns and at college campuses, and more could be coming soon.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone—The County Executive called the idea that we can add cars to our roads and grow our economy ‘patently absurd’ at last week’s Smart Growth Working Group meeting, hosted by Vision Long Island. It sounds like Suffolk’s new County Executive will use his post to advance the smart growth philosophy he championed as Babylon’s Town Supervisor.
Nicole Gelinas—The Manhattan Institute fellow and City Journal contributing editor urged Governor Cuomo to include bus lanes in the Tappan Zee replacement plan. Support for transit on the Tappan Zee also emerged across the region when the Hartford Courant came out in its favor.
Streetsblog—Noah Kazis, Ben Fried, Brad Aaron, and the crew at Streetsblog are doing a great job fact checking the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA). After NYSTA circulated a misleading press release about transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, Streetsblog put out a comprehensive point-by-point refutation within a day.
Losers
New York State Thruway Authority—Despite Streetsblog’s efforts, the flood of misinformation about the Tappan Zee project continued this week. The aforementioned New York State Thruway Authority press release declared that “the new bridge will support mass transit including bus rapid transit and commuter rail,” but didn’t substantiate this questionable claim. And every indication is that the assertions will not be documented until after the comment period, if ever. The Thruway Authority release also indicates that Westchester and Rockland Counties would be solely responsible for implementing transit, when, for the past 10 years, the state has been involved in all transit discussions. No big transportation project in our region gets done without state support.
New York City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Upper East Side)—Councilwoman Lappin introduced a bill that would raise the fine for riding an electric bike in New York City to $1,000. Streetsblog points out that this is double the usual $500 fine that is given to drivers who kill pedestrians (that is, if there’s any penalty at all). While ensuring that all users abide by the rules of the road is important, Lappin should also focus on more pressing safety concerns.
Route 11 supporters—A recent opinion piece held up the failure to complete Connecticut’s long-debated Route 11 extension project as a “classic case of Washington overreach.” The author provided the misguided impression that federal environmental regulations have unduly delayed construction on the $1 billion boondoggle. On Monday, Connecticut’s Joint Transportation Committee will debate a bill that would use tolls to pay for the extension, but it remains unproven that tolling would even generate enough revenue to actually pay for the project.
