Yesterday, Governor Cuomo announced the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the fast-tracked Tappan Zee Bridge. There’s a lot of detail in the lengthy, three-volume document, but in its thousands of pages, the state never once makes an iron-clad commitment to east-west transit in Rockland and Westchester Counties, a chief demand of Lower Hudson Valley residents, planning professionals, advocates, and elected officials. Even a modest concession won by transit advocates—an administration promise to include rush hour bus lanes on the bridge structure itself—now appears to be provisional. Governor Cuomo’s press release on the subject is noncommittal (emphasis ours):
The new bridge could support the ability for express bus services to utilize the extra wide shoulders on the bridge. Use of the extra wide shoulders could occur during peak hours to reduce travel time across the bridge…
Consideration for future transit is being incorporated into the design of the project by the addition of likely transit add-on space.
In a statement released yesterday [pdf], Tri-State highlighted language in the FEIS itself [pdf] that has caused serious concern among advocates (emphasis ours):
The Replacement Bridge Alternative configuration could support the ability for express bus services to use the extra width on the bridge during peak hours. This use would have to be appropriately assessed and considered before being implemented.
Additional concerns remain about how the bridge will be paid for. The state has said that it doesn’t have any money to pay for transit in the project, but the FEIS suggests that no funds have been identified whatsoever:
The financial plan for the Replacement Bridge Alternative assumes revenue bonds among a broad range of options under consideration. However, the plan of finance would be dynamic in character and take into consideration new information as it becomes available. The level and timing of potential toll adjustments, debt structure, and balance between debt and pay-as-you-go funding remain under development.
As the public process continues, including a meeting tonight at SUNY Rockland, New York State must confirm its earlier commitment to rush hour bus lanes on the bridge structure, and must further commit to an east-west transit solution for Rockland and Westchester Counties.
1. Using shoulder lanes for transit buses is dangerous.
2. If exclusive lanes are used, rail may be as cheap as bus to build and will be cheaper to operate.
Think of the people doing the planning and making the decisions. Highway people, and a governor who is driven or flown everywhere. Have any of them ever been in a bus stuck in traffic? Or ever been real passengers on a commuter train? Or better yet, for those on the wrong side of the Hudson, had to make their way in traffic early every morning across the river to a train station, wait out in the rain, or snow or ice or heat for their train, and then, because it took them so long to get to the train, have to shove their way to a sliver of space on an overcrowded M7? Huge numbers of people work in Manhattan, and they need faster and more reliable commuter trains from more places to get there.
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