It’s been a little more than a month since several thick metal plates were placed on the main span of the Tappan Zee Bridge. They've been the culprit behind huge morning commuting problems, with many cars crossing them gingerly, creating traffic back ups on the Thruway and near entrance points in the Nyacks. And even a solution to open up five Westchester-bound lanes by adjusting the bridge’s movable center barrier hardly makes the commute bearable. Now, the plates have appeared on the the Rockland bound side, making evening commutes downright hellish.
God forbid there be a fender-bender near Exit 11 or at the Westchester tolls. And with the completion of bridge repairs many months away, commuters need relief right now.
Personally, I’ve been late for work about a dozen times. My co-workers who live in the city or in Westchester are getting slightly miffed at my unanticipated tardiness. I make up for this by working an hour or so later than I typically would. Even then, I’m not immune to traffic jams, and then I miss eating dinner with my family and sometimes I barely get to see my children off to bed.
Just think of all the tens of thousands of hours wasted worker productivity sitting on the bridge each day. Think of the wasted fuel as the vehicles stuck in traffic are getting zero miles per gallon when their engines are idling they’re not moving. Think of the appointments missed and think of the lost revenue to businesses in nearby villages and hamlets when potential visitors aren’t willing to cross the bridge and enjoy an afternoon of shopping or an evening dining out.
It was during one of those evening traffic jams that I came to this conclusion: Why doesn’t the Thruway Authority appeal to commuters' sense of thrift to help lessen the traffic burden on the bridge. And I came up with several solutions that I think are feasible, can be implemented within days, and might prove popular with weary travelers:
Take the tolls off the Bear Mountain Bridge. There are a lot of commuters, especially those in Orange County, Haverstraw, Stony Point and parts of Clarkstown that have the viable option of using the Bear Mountain Bridge. While taking this alternative route might take them some miles out of their way, dropping the tolls on the Bridge might help loosen the grip on its sister bridge to the south.
Free rides for car poolers. Convert one or two of the cash lanes to a carpooling lane and make that lane toll free. A criticism of this plan would be that some commuters would not understand that this was a car-pooling lane. This isn’t a problem. Toll collectors can charge those vehicles a toll and then wave by vehicles with two or more passengers. I’m certain that many commuters will bend to their sense of thrift and double up. Other pluses for this idea is that it lessens the traffic load for both the morning and evening commutes, saves fuel, and lessens the pollution problem in Rockland County.
Educate commuters about traffic patterns. The Thruway Authority must reach out to commuters and tell them how to avoid traffic delays. A lot of workplaces have flexible work schedules and the Thruway Authority has data to educate employees of these companies on how to avoid traffic delays by altering their work schedule. All this would take is for the Authority to create an informational Web site and to reach out to businesses in Westchester, The Bronx, Fairfield Counties and Long Island, where many commuters work.
Promote the Red and Tan/Rockland Coaches bus lines. Many commuters take the Metro North Hudson and Harlem lines to Grand Central. When I worked in Manhattan, my total commute time—under the best of conditions—was 1 hour, 20 minutes. Delayed and missed Tappan Zee Bus connections could increase this commute time an extra hour or more. In talking with friends and acquaintances about their commutes recently, 2-hour commutes into the city are again commonplace as they were six years ago before the Thruway interchanges were rebuilt. In addition, there are hundreds of commuters that drive to and park at the Tarrytown and White Plains train stations, these are cars we can take off the road. The Red and Tan lines travel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and commute times are typically a little longer (about 10-20 more minutes) by bus, but with traffic as bad as it is on the TZ, that commute may be faster for many. Again, a little advertising and perhaps a financial incentive in the form of a fare subsidy would be enough to sway commuters to take the bus.
The New York Thruway Authority has acted shamefully by not effectively addressing inevitable commuting problems, and those of us who commute across the Hudson River have paid the price monetarily, professionally, and personally. It’s time that the Authority tried some real solutions to the commuting crisis; opening up an extra lane on the TZ just wasn’t enough. These fixes can be implemented with what is the equivalent of pocket change in to a agency with a $1 billion annual budget.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Real solutions to ease Tappan Zee backups
Friday, November 21, 2008
G20 leaders refuse to shake Bush's hand
What would inspire the leaders of the Free World to be so dismissive of the sitting American President? Do they feel they were lied to? Do they believe this global recession is mostly his doing? Do they have tales to tell of Bush once he leaves office?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Fox News: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent
The former McCain/Palin staffers are already turning on Sarah Palin. Even Fox News is dumping on Palin now, claiming that the vice presidential candidate thought Africa was a country and not a continent. I'm told that the dirt on Palin is going to be dished out day by day by the Republican Party as they make her the scapegoat of McCain's landslide loss.
To me, it looks like Palin isn't even qualified to be a school teacher, let alone the Vice President of the United States.
Monday, November 3, 2008
My Entry in The HuffPost Election Forecast Contest
As you see, I'm predicting a big night for Obama and the Democrats. A REALLY BIG NIGHT! I mean, we're talking about a landslide of historic proportions. I'm even figuring that Obama is going to shock us all by winning Georgia.
Electoral vote:
382 Obama Electoral Votes
156 McCain Electoral Votes
Popular vote:
52.0 Obama Popular Vote Percentage
46.0 McCain Popular Vote Percentage
Senate breakdown
59 Democratic Senate seats
39 Republican Senate seats
2 Independent seats
House breakdown:
258 Democratic House seats
177 Republican House seats
Minnesota Senate (contest tie-breaker):
Franken: 45.5
Coleman: 44.5
Barkley: 10
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Despair and Hope in Florida
Today I spent four hours working at a phone bank in Nyack, NY. It's not the first time I've phone banked, but it was probably the most unusual and saddest series of phone calls that I have ever made. My first several pages of calls went out to Clearwater. Nearly all the people on my list vote at the same polling locations, so I was basically blanketing a part of a neighborhood.
The first call I made was to a disconnected number, and so was the second. I got a few answering machines, and then another disconnected number. It was quite a while before I talked to a live person, and what she told me broke my heart.
She listened to my scripted sales pitch and then told me that she had already voted, but she kept me on the phone. She asked me how to phone banking was going.
"I've gotten a lot of disconnected numbers," I told her.
She asked me where I had been calling. I told her that all my phone calls were in her area.
"Well that makes sense," she said. "On this block alone, we've got seven houses that were foreclosed in the past six months. I would bet there's more on the next block."
"These were good people that lost their homes. I don't think any of those I know still live in the area. I hope they've registered to vote where they're at now."
She thanked me for making phone calls for Barack Obama and with that, we ended the call.
After a few more disconnected numbers and some more answering machines. I also talked to two undecided voters who were leaning toward Obama only because they were afraid for the economy under a McCain administration. I also talked to few hostile voters, which I was well prepared for. But about a quarter of the numbers I called were disconnected lines.
The next page of numbers was near a college campus, so most of the names were of voters between 18-22 years old. None of these young people had voted, but they intended to do so on Nov. 4. My small sampling tells me that young voters turned out in low numbers in early voting not because of a lack of interest, but because of general procrastination, busy schedules, and other campus activities. But every young voter I talked to seemed enthusiastic about voting for Barack Obama on Nov. 4.
The last live person that I talked to was another middle-aged woman in St. Petersburg. I do think I got through seven words of my pitch when I heard what sounded like weeping on the other end of the line.
"I'll vote for Barack Obama, but it's too late for me. My ex-husband stopped paying child support a long time back, I lost my job in June and my unemployment checks are ending soon. If a supermarket has a cashier's job open, there will be fifty people before me waiting for an application.
"I got my second notice from the mortgage company. The cupboard is bare, I missed my November payment. I've got nowhere to go and no family or friends to turn to."
I didn't know what to say to her, but "I am so sorry."
And then she pulled herself together and said, "I did nothing to deserve this. I feel that there is no hope for me. Change cannot come soon enough. Nobody is bailing me out. I don't know where I'll be come December, I don't know where my children will go to school. I'm voting for Obama because I believe that he can best help those that will follow me."
I thanked her for her time and she thanked me back. As we were saying goodbye, she said, "promise me that you'll make more of these calls, I think what you're doing is so very patriotic."
