In response to public concern about the lack of information on the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project, Cuomo administration officials have begun reaching out to the Lower Hudson Valley community, responding to questions about the project’s many unknowns. The state has started doing extensive media work, hosting community meetings, and talking with Rockland and Westchester residents. Governor Cuomo has also announced the launch of a Tappan Zee hotline, a website about the project, and the hiring of former News 12 anchor Brian Conybeare as Special Advisor for the Tappan Zee Bridge.

These much-needed moves towards transparency could be crucial in ensuring a healthier public process, and Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay is right to hope that the recent meetings are “not just a formality and the beginning of a more meaningful dialogue.”

Part of that meaningful dialogue must include an honest assessment and calculation of transit in the project, which was discussed during a Journal-News Editorial Spotlight session yesterday and, subsequently, was a main subject in that paper’s editorial on the bridge today. With the broad gap between the state’s multibillion dollar cost estimates for transit and the going rate for North American bus rapid transit systems, there’s a real opportunity for citizens, transit advocates, and New York State to work together to develop the transit system that Lower Hudson Valley residents so clearly desire.

The state has time and money to reach out to the community—it must leverage those resources, as it did during the original study process, to plan a corridor with transit, one that will help the Lower Hudson Valley’s economy and improve its residents’ quality of life.