Your weekly guide to heroic and villainous actions in tri-state transportation and development.
Winners
Suffolk County Legislature—This week, the Suffolk County Legislature, led by Legislator Jay Schneiderman, tabled a potential fare hike for paratransit riders, who could have seen a $1 increase.
Hoboken, New Jersey—The City of Hoboken, which has been a leader in progressive transportation policy, has won a $5,000 grant to install on-street bike corrals.
Former New Jersey Governors Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean—The two former governors have mounted serious objections to American Dream Meadowlands, a megamall project in northern New Jersey. Why? “We’re not in a position to handle the amount of traffic it would generate,” said Governor Byrne.
Connecticut students—A group of fifth-graders at Tuttle School in East Haven has reportedly spurred ConnDOT to reconsider plans to replace a 19th century bridge in East Haven. After their hard work, bridge restoration, in lieu of bridge replacement, is back on the table.
Losers
Future New Jersey taxpayers—In the New Jersey Senate, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would sign the state up to borrow almost 80% of its transportation funding next year, off-loading today’s transportation needs onto tomorrow’s taxpayers.
Astoria anti-pedestrian plaza partisans—A few business owners in Astoria, out of touch with the economy-boosting impacts of pedestrian plazas, have voiced opposition to a proposed pedestrian plaza, citing misplaced fears that lost parking spaces could cost them business.
New loser; LIRR. It is starting a project to doubletrack to Ronkonkoma. It will take many times longer then it should to complete. It will go way over a budget that is already much bigger then it should need to be for about 12 miles of double tracking.
Also, LIRR announced that it finished tunneling for ESA ahead of schedule, which somehow seems to be the reason the project just got a few more years tacked on to it (plus up to a few $billion more down the tube).
If they never add a 3rd track on the main line between Bellrose and Hicksville, a 2nd track on the Ronkonkoma line won’t matter.
Once East Side Access is finished, the LIRR won’t be able to move any more trains west bound in the morning rush on the main line than they do now. Hickville (to Bellrose) will be the new bottle neck, not getting into the Penn Station tunnels anymore.
In today’s political climate of NIMBY-sim, there is something to be said for incrementalisn. Maybe it is a smart strategy for the LIRR to tackle one controversial project at a time.
[…] to balance the books on the backs of the disabled,” said Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who has been integral in the fight for SCAT […]