MTR 38, Highway Widening Plans Proceeding in New York

Mobilizing the Region
Issue 38 June 9, 1995

Highway Widening Plans Proceeding in New York

If NY DOT Region 8 has trouble bringing itself to invest in bicycling and walking infrastructure, it's more than enthusiastic about spending vast sums to expand the region's highways. The DOT's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Cross-Westchester Expressway high-occupancy vehicle lanes addition project was released last week. Unsurprisingly, the report clearly supports the agency's long-held desire to add new high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to the highway, perhaps as a first step toward a regional HOV lane construction program. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign's initial response to the document will be reported here next week. The DEIS is available at town halls and local libraries in Clarkstown, Orangetown, Greenburgh, White Plains, Harrison and Rye. Or call DOT at 914- 431-5750.

In a related development, NY DOT is reportedly close to an agreement with Nassau County towns that had been blocking the plan to extend the widening of the Long Island Expressway for new HOV lanes. The agreement would require the DOT to install specially-designed sound barriers, shift the course of the roadway in several places and phase construction work to minimize disruptions to local routes. The plan envisions the new lanes being extended to Queens by 2001. In a Newsday report, New York Transportation Commissioner John Daly said he believed "HOV lanes will work." Yet a DOT study recently found that use of the LIE HOV lanes in Suffolk County was lagging below projections, and the DOT is already under pressure there to relax already minimal standards on use of the lanes.