Nassau County’s Nassau Hub major investment study is well underway. If some of the options it is considering translate into action, the undertaking could prove to be one of the more interesting and ambitious "smart growth" or "new urbanist" ventures underway in the region.

The main idea of the Nassau Hub is to densify land uses in central Nassau County and develop a much more intensive mass transit system to serve them than presently exists. Central Nassau today features major shopping, cultural, workplace, open space and sports attractions but they do not sit together well and most are difficult to reach or travel between except by car.

Mass transit concepts identified by the study so far include LIRR extensions into the hub area from both the Hempstead Branch and the Main Line, as well as the mapping of new intra-hub transit rights of way that could be used by any of a variety of transit technologies, from local buses to light rail.

The study has begun mapping land use changes that envision major in-fill projects in the eastern side of the hub area, especially around Museum Row, Roosevelt Field and Roosevelt Raceway, Charles Lindberg Boulevard and the Nassau Colesium. The ultimate intensity of such development would depend on how extensive a mass transit network is planned.

County officials stress that options presented so far are at a conceptual stage and that the study will continue for some time before the range of options is narrowed down.

A major factor in the undertaking’s favor is County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Suozzi is not only very interested in the development themes guiding the study, but is also personally involved in the study’s work, scope and proceedings to a degree that is very unusual in this region. That will serve the effort well and provide it with strong momentum as long as he remains in office. The problem is to set the process in motion to such a degree that it wins wide support and carries on thereafter. Winning land use changes from the town governments whose territory makes up the hub will be a particular challenge.

One near-term transit option that may lend itself well to Suozzi’s time as county executive, and is probably well suited to Nassau’s density, is bus rapid transit — the establishment of faster-than-traffic bus service with dedicated rights of ways, traffic queue jumps and other methods.

Bus rapid transit in the Nassau Hub might also dovetail well with the NY State DOT’s plan to run rapid buses on Long Island’s highways. The Tri-State Campaign has urged NYSDOT to test such a service using the HOV lanes on the Long Island Expressway. NYSDOT’s draft long range plan for Long Island foresees extensive bus rapid transit service, but would built a huge network of HOV lanes and expanded highways to accommodate them (the LITP plan). The concept should be tested in practice before DOT begins any big paving projects. A service that uses the L.I.E. HOV lanes and bus rapid transit improvements within the Nassau Hub would be a strong candidate for such a trial. State involvement could also help pay for improvements in Nassau, where transit funding is a persistent problem.

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