Borough President Helen Marshall has a plan for the future of public transportation in Queens and she has established the following top priorities regardless of the outcome of the battle over Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s questionable congestion pricing scheme:
1. Reopen strategic Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stations in Queens. Mayor Michael Bloomberg mentioned only the LIRR Elmhurst and Corona stations as ones that might be reopened.
2. Increase LIRR stop frequency at Main Street Flushing and Woodside as immediate measures.
3. Add tandem articulated buses on main thoroughfares such as Queens and Northern Boulevards wherever possible.
4. Lengthen subway platforms to accommodate additional subway cars.
5. Bring new Traffic Enforcement Agents to major transportation hubs including Main Street in Flushing, Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue in Jamaica and at the Queensborough Bridge.
6. Retire non-clean-air buses.
7. Add new express bus routes to underserved areas. The mayor has only identified three potential new express bus routes from Bayside and one from College Point.
8. Add new local bus routes and buses, particularly in eastern Queens.
Marshall is putting forth her plans as outlined above because the officially appointed New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission created by Governor Eliot Spitzer contains only three members from Queens. Assemblymember Vivian Cook, Edwin Reed, CEO of the Allen Development Corporation and Gerard Romski, counsel and project executive for Arverne by the Sea.
These three Queens commission members and the other 14 appointees are charged with reviewing the mayor’s congestion pricing plan and to consider other proposals too. Then they will offer their collective recommendations to the State Legislature by January 31.
The city is slated to receive $354 million in Federal funds if a congestion pricing plan can be approved by the city and the state.
Marshall is also asking all Queens community boards to reach out to our civic organizations and then to formulate and forward each board’s recommendations for congestion mitigation to her office by September 30 for inclusion in a Queens response to the Commission.
We say “Bravo” to the Borough President and a big “Get Busy” to all the community boards. Marshall has set the clock ticking and this is your best chance to have some input in the juggernaut that is congestion pricing.
Let us all work together so that we who live in the outer boroughs do not just wind up footing the bill for slightly cleaner air in Manhattan, without any improvements in our mass transit system needs for the future!
