Lorrng Island

Down the coast and across the Sound on Long Island toll buy-in is now included in two out of four alternatives being considered in a congestion management plan for the Long Island Expressway (LIE) and other motorway standard roads. One would involve toll-buy for HOV-2 and single occupant vehicles onto HOV-3 managed lanes. Except they don’t call them HOV lanes – apparently the politically correct term there is “exclusive bus lanes that would also allow HOV3+” (Maybe the Trucking Association would go along with “Exclusive car lanes that also allow trucks.” Gawd, you’ve got to be linguistically innovative these days to be a transp planner in Noo York!) Another alternative provides for the conversion of the Northern State Parkway to HOT 2+ between the Sagtikos Parkway and connections to the LIE. That means the Northern State would be free for HOV2 and allow toll buy-in by single occupant vehicles.

One option developed earlier was described as follows: Value Pricing (1) Tolls based on distance and time of day ($0.15 per mile assumed during peak hours) (2) *All expressways and parkways, including Sunrise Highway between Rte. 109 in Babylon and the Shinnecock Canal (3)* New technology (no toll barrier)

That didn’t make it very far!

Anti-road hysteria remains at a high pitch in the New York/nNJ metro area. Any proposal to increase road capacity anywhere for any reason is subjected to virulent attack by transit lobbies such as the Tri-State Transp Campaign, which want all passenger and freight improvements to be rail, and will abide no new capacity for motorized vehicles. The Long Is proposals only involve small additions of lanes, but that is enough to arouse the ire of the TSTC– which has zero regard for matters of efficiency in freight or for personal preference in passenger mode choices.

This dogmatic antagonism to extra road lanes makes it extremely difficult to introduce managed lanes, because it demands a conversion of an existing unrestricted lane.