The paper, finished prior to Governor Pataki's cancellation of NY State DOT's big project to build a reversible HOV lane on the Cross-Westchester Expressway, looks at a range of transportation strategies worthy of further development. They include incentive tolling, optimizing roadway efficiency by converting general traffic lanes to HOV and bus lanes and development of "queue bypasses" and other means to speed preferred traffic through bottlenecks. NYS DOT should implement tests of some of these relatively inexpensive transportation demand management and transit priority strategies in the near future.

But the MOVE report also identifies as candidates for further investigation of HOV lane construction the NY State Thruway, I-684, Palisades Parkway, Taconic State Parkway and Route 9. Clearly, the impetus to push these projects has been greatly reduced by the Cross-Westchester HOV's demise. But the paper says other Mid-Hudson HOV lanes should be considered "even if no MOVE actions are implemented on the NYS Thruway or Cross-Westchester Expressway," and says the projects described have stand-alone benefits.

Highest ranked (in terms of vehicle miles traveled reduction payoff) corridors are I-95, the Thruway south of the Cross-Westchester Expressway and segments of Routes 9A and 100 north of the Bronx. These would be relatively inexpensive because the recommendations are for the poorly named "take-away lane" treatment -- conversion of an existing traffic lane to HOV -- possibly combined with incentive pricing, or for peak-period shoulder bus lanes.

More worrisome to many are more costly proposals for HOV lane construction on the Hudson Valley's historic parkways. Environmental and historic preservation advocates are already fighting the addition of wide shoulder lanes to the Palisades Parkway. Shoulder design is in discussion now by the Palisades Park Commission and NY DOT. Median or other added HOV lanes would be even more controversial. The MOVE study says less "physically intensive" options for the Parkway would be "take-away" HOV lanes or bus queue bypasses on the shoulders. Another major concern of Hudson Valley transportation reformers is that any widening of I-684 will compete directly with Metro-North's Harlem Valley commuter rail line.

The report's pricing analysis is largely dismissive of economic signals' ability to influence travel behavior. The paper says a $2.50 additional charge per trip on mid-Hudson highways would yield a 3% reduction in drive-alone traffic, which the report implies is inadequate. It says that because reducing tolls for multiple occupant cars is easier politically than imposing additional tolls on solo drivers, the former pricing strategy should be pursued in combination with HOV facility construction.