NEW YORK STATE Governor ends Cross Westchester HOV

NEW YORK STATE

Governor ends Cross Westchester HOV

Gov George Pataki ordered his state DOT to give up its proposed central reversible high occupancy vehicle lane on the Cross-Westchester Expwy (I-287). It was a major victory for anti-highway groups over state transp planners, who with traffic consultants from HNTB, have been adamant through years of public hearings and studies that the project was the only feasible way to mitigate ever worsening congestion on this important east-west route north of New York City (see TRnl#19 Sept 97 p13.)

Pataki said that rather than widen the road to 3/1/3 from 3/3 as proposed by NYSDOT at a cost of $500m, the 3/3 section will be maintained and the roadway rehabilitated with efforts made to improve ramp bottlenecks, lengthen accel/decel lanes and weaving sections at a cost of about $150m. Studies showed this proposal will do little to improve traffic flows on the highway because it is way overloaded for 6-lanes. The NYSTA proposed a 3/1/1/3 section with central concurrent flow non-barriered HOT lanes, but this was rebuffed by the state DOT project team.

"The HOV Lane proposal has divided the community over how to solve its traffic problems," Pataki said. "To bring the entire community together in addressing this important issue, I have named a task force to foster a consensus on how to improve transportation, promote economic development and protect the region's environment. There is a better long-term solution for the region than the single HOV lane."

The task force will be headed by MTA Chair Virgil Conway. The Gov said the group would look at light rail, congestion pricing on the Tappan Zee Bridge, enhanced mass transit service, other roadway improvements and advanced technology to increase mobility.

Transp professionals say the task force is unlikely to achieve anything since all the options have already been exhaustively listed, examined, studied, modelled and argued over during more than 10 years of efforts to achieve political support for some action. Gov Pataki’s killing of the CWE-HOV was not unexpected. The anti-highway groups had almost total support in local government in Westchester Co. The media were also agin the DOT plan. Gannett newspapers, leading publishers in the area picked up the environmentalist line — that extra roadspace would encourage more traffic, worsen sprawl, and be unsuccessful in alleviating congestion, hinder transit, exacerbate “auto dependence” etc. Both major candidates for Westchester Co executive this fall said they were against the HOV plan. Late in the summer, the virulently anti-road Tri-State Transp Campaign launched TV spots and a major mailing that called on citizens to ask the Governor to kill the project and redirect federal funding to unspecified ‘alternatives.’ Major enviro and planning groups joined in.

These forces will be encouraged to fight more vigorously other HOV initiatives in the New York/NJ area, including proposals for HOV on the Long Island Expwy in Queens & Nassau, on the Staten Is Expwy (I-278), and I-287 in Morris and Somerset Cos NJ. And they are in full cry against Port Authority proposals to twin the Goethals bridge between NJ and Staten Island (I-278).

Observation: Interestingly the environmentalists were originally the most fervent supporters of HOV, but in recent years have become more rabidly anti-road and oppose anything which eases the life of the motorist, apparently convinced that misguided drivers must be punished for their selfish adherence to an evil machine. Despite the ineffectuality of vast expenditures on transit and its continuous decline into almost total insignificance nationwide as a transp mode (2% of trips), these groups continue to claim that somehow, against all the weight of experience and logic, that Americans can still be miraculously converted to the transit that they have so decisively rejected over the past 50 years all over the country. (Contact Tri-State Transportation Campaign 212 777-8181 www.tstc.org)