MTR 275, Solving Co-Op City Traffic Woes: Highway Expansion or Transport Alternatives in the Bronx?

Mobilizing the Region
Issue 275 June 26, 2000

Solving Co-Op City Traffic Woes: Highway Expansion or Transport Alternatives in the Bronx?

Originally planned solely around the automobile, Co-Op City is a community now strangled by congestion. Traveling by car, the 27,000 residents of the high-rise complex must use one of two local streets, or the Hutchinson River Parkway and New England Thruway ramps to access the rest of the Bronx. As a consequence, traffic on the two highways and in the complex has become gridlocked around the surrounding on-off ramps.

The New York State DOT has been designated the lead agency in solving this problem. Two recent public meetings suggest that their strategy will centrally rely on accommodating increased traffic rather than ameliorating land use problems and increasing transit and pedestrian alternatives to reduce car trips.

- Not So Stealth Expansion On the Hutch -

In early May, NYS DOT unveiled its preferred alternative for the expanded proposal to reconstruct the Hutchinson River Parkway between its interchange with the Bruckner Expressway and the city line. Their proposal includes construction of a well thought-out Class 1 bicycle and pedestrian path from Lafayette Avenue to Westchester County. However, its centerpiece is an added car lane for over 80% of the highway in each direction .

Within the project area, only two stretches, one between East Tremont Avenue and Wilkinson Avenue, the other between the Einstein Loop and City Island Road, escapes an additional entrance, exit or auxiliary lane. The project would take place within the existing right-of-way, but would also eliminate much of the natural area on either side of the parkway, technically a city park.

This plan must go through an environmental review process due to be completed by fall 2001.

- DOT Warned Against Auto Only Mall -

An advisory committee meeting this week launched the NYS DOT study of the New England Thruway at Co-Op City. Funded by an $800,000 grant secured by State Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman, the study is charged with identifying a host of short-term and long-term solutions to traffic in Co-Op City. The work, expected to be completed within the next five months, will "supplement" the MIS on the Cross-Bronx and Major Deegan Expressways. (Both the Cross-Bronx and NE Thruway are part of I-95.)

At the hearing, a DOT project manager explained that $1 million secured by Congressman Eliot Engel in TEA-21 was available to implement short-term suggestions like adjusting stoplight timing and re-striping streets. He went on to say that funds for longer term projects - projected to be additional on/off ramps or a more dramatic widening the Thruway - might be found by the agency. But a Metropolitan Transit Authority representative promoted a different tact.

The MTA rep argued that the main cause of traffic back-ups on the highways around Co-Op City is the almost complete auto-dependence of the 800,000 square foot Bay Plaza Shopping Center within the complex, built in the 1990's. The developer did not provide sidewalks in the shopping center, forcing residents to cross busy streets and parking lots, and refused to let NYCTransit buses stop there until JC Penny - one of the anchor stores - made it a provision of their lease. Other Co-Op City public transit, such as New York Bus express buses, has not been allowed in the center at all.

Vital and growing commercial districts such as 6^th Avenue in Chelsea show the potential for highly successful transit-based shopping where frequent, reliable service is available. As the Co-op city traffic grid-lock is a result of poor commercial and transit planning, the last agency that should be charged with finding a solution is one with highway widening on the brain.