UnClogging Our Roads

Supervisor Feiner's recent post on his blog, from a Tarrytown resident, was bemoaning the difficulty of driving on the Saw Mill River Parkway at night due to the lack of lighting on the parkway, faded dotted lane dividers, no reflectors and the side curbs were not painted. These are all valid concerns that haven't just materialized overnight. 


ABG's concern, however, is why a Tarrytown resident would seek remediation from the Town of Greenburgh supervisor instead of his own village or county representatives? As is Feiner's hallmark of posturing on issues that are of no consequence to him, he is continuing to pursue this issue even though it is outside of his jurisdiction, purvey, responsibility and ability to solve these problems - if it is determined to be a problem.  ABG believes that since there is no part of the Saw Mill River Parkway in the unincorporated Town of Greenburgh, that the supervisor should have deferred the letter-writer to his respective village's mayor and gracefully bowed out from the issue. It may simply be that all these issues are on the county's repair calendar. 


A recent USAToday article entitled Communities Work to Unclog Roads, discusses what is being done to reduce traffic congestion in Atlanta, GA. The gist of the story is not about increasing the capacity of streets, but reducing the amount of vehicles on them. They discuss car-sharing. At ABG, we've tried to coordinate with colleagues from Nyack as we drive to our office. Not only was the coordinating of schedules incredibly difficult just to start, but if one of us had to change their schedule at the end of the day to stay longer than planned, or even the need to leave early, etc., made coordination so difficult, we stopped it. The article also cites Microsoft  for providing a bus for their employees. That's great if you have that many employees and they are situated close enough to participate.


High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, in which single-occupant vehicles pay a toll to use certain lanes of the highway are seeing an increase, according to Jack Finn, the Senior V.P. and National Director of Toll Services for an engineering and construction firm based in Kansas City, Mo. Here in Greenburgh, I think most of us realize that charging for services provided for by taxes may be illegal - i.e. The Paul's idea to charge $300 per year for backyard garbage pickup. Beyond that, what happens once everyone realizes they can purchase space in an open lane? Obviously, they will. Then that lane will become congested and the previously free although congested lanes will still be free and now be moving. You've solved nothing.


Another interesting twist is the use of GPS navigation systems to avoid a jam. The problem here is that while you may be alerted of an issue up ahead, there may not be a convenient place for you to exit, allow you to continue to your location or will cause another jam traffic at the exit due to everyone's GPS notification. All of this brings me to the dilemma Greenburgh residents suffer at each rush hour. And, you've solved nothing.


Proposals have been made to Super-Size the Tappan Zee bridge, add separate bus-only roadways alongside the I-287 corridor, using imminent domain to remove all necessary homes and properties to construct an elevated bus roadway. Assuming this all moves forward, we will see buses exit onto Rt 119 alongside I-287 Exit 5 every five (5) minutes. You won't need to worry about pollution as these are electric buses. No air conditioning at your home due to a brown out? They were given priority power access to charge all the buses. So, hop on a bus to Nyack or Port Chester and chill.


The traffic increase due to the construction, added buses, etc., do nothing to alleviate the existing congested roadways. Yet we see approvals by the Greenburgh Town Board for Avalon Green 2 on Taxter Road off of Rt 119, a doubling in size with new additional condominiums. We'll see another increase with the approval by the Greenburgh Town Board for new condominiums at the old Union Carbide site near the Tarrytown lakes, with the requisite increase to the already congested daily traffic. And where will these people be driving to? Some will disburse north and to other points. But most will hop onto the Saw Mill River Parkway or down Rt 9A to I-287. Once there, traffic will bog down even more. Why isn't the supervisor dealing with this? Because it is a real issue for constituents! He's learned to stay away from and not discuss anything that he has control over.


Between the increase in construction and overdevelopment throughout the Town, the County and the State's own increased developmental plans are adding to the slow death of our beloved communities. Flooding, traffic, rising taxes (87% this year - thank you Paul), people fleeing the area, businesses closing daily, what fertilizer you can use, revaluation and of course consolidation, all points to one fact. The time for a change is now. It's time for Supervisor Feiner to retire. If he won't voluntarily resign, we'll have to make the decision for him come this November.