A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.
Winners
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and ConnDOT — With the help of elected officials in Washington D.C., the Connecticut Department of Transportation secured $10 million in TIGER funding for a new platform at New Haven’s State Street Station.
L train riders — The MTA is adding more L train service on nights and weekends to accommodate increased demand.
NJ Transit — The transit agency is doubling capacity on Hudson-Bergen Light Rail trains on weekday evenings in response to feedback from riders.
Losers
Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner — All five of the Democratic candidates for NYC mayor who participated in Tuesday’s debate said they don’t support tolls on East River bridges.
The lunatic who drove the perimeter of Manhattan in 24 minutes — The idiotic driver of a BMW Z4 who goes by the online alias “AfroDuck” drove around the island of Manhattan at an average speed of 66 mph (and ran a red light along the way), but claims nobody else was endangered.
Residents of Dwasline Road in Clifton, NJ — Residents of the rural road, where a pedestrian was killed in 2003, have staunchly opposed adding sidewalks for fear that “such a project could… disfigure private property.”
Installing sidewalks in response to drivers killing pedestrians just reinforces the idea that “roads are for cars” and all other road users should be pushed out of the way.
Moreover, in most municipalities, maintenance and repairs of sidewalks is the responsibility of the property owners, not the government. Why should the people who live on that road bear the cost of safety, rather than the drivers who are making it unsafe?
Other traffic calming measures should be examined before sidewalks are installed based on little more than a traffic count.
In this day and age there is a need to provide safe means for pedestrian and for vehicle riders. This is the responsibility of the DOT.
Clifton is no longer a quaint little town without much traffic. It needs sidewalks. If the Town does not put tem in all will bear financial costs for crashes. The worst cost will be born by the pedestrians and riders who sustain grave injuries especially, those which result in loss of life.
Sidewalks will do nothing to make roads safer for cyclists. If anything, they make it easier for motorists to drive irresponsibly in a residential neighborhood, since they no longer expect pedestrians.
Other traffic calming methods, like lane narrowing, chicanes, mountable islands, etc. can make the roads safer without rewarding drivers for unsafe driving by making it easier to do so.
[…] River tolls – We were disappointed to hear all five of the candidates who participated in the final Democratic mayoral debate say […]
Dwasline Rd. in Clifton, should not be characterized as a rural road. It is clearly within a fully developed suburban setting, however where it traverses a cemetery, it’s condition is relatively unimproved, lacking curbs and sidewalks.