A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in Tri-State transportation news.
Winners
NY Senator Charles Schumer — Senator Schumer is rightly qualifying his support for the Tappan Zee Bridge TIFIA loan on the unveiling of a financing plan by the New York State Thruway Authority.
Connecticut State Rep. Roland Lemar — Representative Lemar introduced a bill that would permit municipalities with populations of at least 48,000 to install red light cameras and is also championing a vulnerable users bill in the General Assembly.
Putnam County, NY — The semi-rural county has assembled an advisory board that will come up with ways to improve mobility options for seniors, veterans and others who don’t drive.
Losers
New York City Councilmembers James Vacca and Peter Vallone — It’s been just over a year since Vacca and Vallone held a hearing to address pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities, and despite strong declarations like “There will be laws arising out of this” and “Driving in our city is a privilege, not a right,” Vallone opposed a pedestrian plaza in Queens and proposed a bill to get free parking for motorcycles, while Vacca focused his efforts not on motorists, who killed 136 pedestrians in 2012, but instead on on delivery cyclists, who killed zero.
CT State Senator John Kissel — Senator Kissel introduced a bill that would allow single-occupancy vehicles to drive in Connecticut’s High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes during the afternoon rush hour. A smarter idea would be to encourage the conversion of HOV lanes to High-Occupancy Tolling (HOT) lanes.
The financial plan will be impossible until there is a construction plan, Bridges with no footings are a challenge, committees for decoration, transit on the tenth of never, other design details will affect price as well. Weather, legal challenges, legislative actions, a new governor=all will cause massive cost overruns. Tunnels are a known commodity, being built all over the world rapidly and efficiently, with all necessary services including rail and air scrubbing. Lets stop the bridges and build the Tappan Long Island Tunnel now.
[…] light cameras: Various bills (including HB5554, introduced by street safety champion Rep. Roland Lemar) would allow municipalities to use red-light cameras to enforce the law, improve safety and free up […]
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[…] fare hikes would seriously impact the disabled, students and the working poor. State Representative Roland Lemar (D-New Haven) and New Haven transportation director Jim Travers also testified against the fare […]