Liu: Traffic Volume May Have Heavy ‘Toll’

Queens commuter traffic volumes hit a record high in 2003, it was revealed in two traffic reports quietly issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT) last week. And one elected official is worried that Queens riders may feel the brunt of that in their wallets.
Councilmember John Liu called the rush hour volume hikes, “a mixed bag for Queens residents who suffer the brunt of the additional traffic going through our neighborhoods.”
He also warned that the rising volumes might be used as an excuse to put tolls on the Queensborough Bridge and other East River crossings.
To try and quash this possibility, which has been floated for years by politicians as a way to increase revenues, Liu called on city and state agencies to expand express bus service to Manhattan as a way to cut the skyrocketing traffic volumes.
“Unfortunately,” Liu said, “the MTA and the city continue to reduce express bus service and make it a more expensive and less attractive option.”
The study released by the DOT, “New York City Screenline Traffic Flow,” contains traffic counts of 15 of the most heavily-traveled east-west arteries connecting Queens and Nassau counties, ranging from Northern Boulevard in Douglaston to Seagirt Boulevard in the Rockaways. The counts provide a precise barometer of the overwhelming 78 percent increase of cars and trucks coming into local Queens neighborhoods over the past 20 years.
Further confirming the detailed “screenline” findings, the 2003 “Manhattan River Crossings” study showed that the number of cars and trucks on all East River bridges and tunnels had also strongly rebounded to pre-9/11 levels.
Pointing to these heavy volumes now driving over Queens’ 2,443 miles of roads, Borough President Helen Marshall declared, “These reports confirm the need for proportionately larger highway maintenance operations, such as pothole repairs and expanded programs to maintain traffic safety and congestion relief.”
Liu, who chairs the Council Transportation committee, also noted that the 2003 traffic engineering data confirmed that the newly-surging commuter volumes had reversed an 18-month traffic decline following the attacks on 9/11.
Three facilities – the Queensborough and Triborough bridges and Queens-Midtown Tunnel – carried more than 360,000 cars and trucks per day between Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. Of these, the Queensborough Bridge, which is free, has carried more vehicles than any East River crossing during the past 50 years.
While the largest commuter vehicular increase during the past decade occurred in eleven Bronx-Westchester locations (619,400 vehicles) traffic volumes between Queens-Nassau crossings (968,700) were still one-third higher.
Although motor vehicle registration sagged for the third straight year, the report still says that Queens boasts more vehicle registrations than the combined Manhattan and Brooklyn totals.
Victor Ross is a freelance writer.