I am responding to your request for comments on the never-ending saga of mass transit and the new Tappan Zee Bridge. As someone who grew up and worked in New York City for many years, I know full well the benefits of mass transit. Suffice it to say that New York City would not be what it is today without the foresight to build a mass-transit system and other infrastructure all those years ago.
However, I remain skeptical about the need for a mass-transit system from Rockland to Westchester and perhaps beyond. The suburbs are an automobile-centric society. We drive everywhere and the vast majority of us suburbanites like the flexibility and convenience just that way, traffic jams and rising gas prices notwithstanding. Most of us who partake of mass transit do it because we usually have no other choice.
I commuted to Manhattan for many years via Metro-North. In the early 1980s, even when the rail cars were cold in the winter and hot in the summer, it sure beat driving into Manhattan. There was just no reasonable or practical alternative to the railroad. While I do not ride the Westchester Bee Line buses, I suspect that most of those who do ride them do so also because they do not have a good alternative.
I have commented to many people over the years that while we would not think twice about walking five to 10 blocks in Manhattan we are genuinely frustrated when we cannot find a parking space in the first row by the supermarket entrance. And, yes, I fall into that same shameful mindset many times.
What I have not read about and, for all that I know does not exist, is a study asking those Rockland commuters who cross the Tappan Zee Bridge every day as to whether they would actually give up their autos for a bus or train ride. It would appear to me that in order to achieve realistic results to such a study a route with specific stops would need to be offered to the commuters. For instance, if the bus or train went down the I-287 corridor where would it stop and how would the riders then get to their offices up the hills in the office parks?
When leaving Grand Central terminal, in addition to walking, there are numerous subway lines and bus routes to carry the commuter to his final destination. I find it hard to imagine that a similar network could be developed in Westchester that would duplicate that system.
Of course, I have not addressed the additional billions of dollars that it would cost in construction to enable the several mass-transit alternatives much less the many millions of annual dollars to support its operation. Preserving our environment is very important but a blank check to construct a mass-transit system whose ridership is unknown is not the answer.
Until we can spell out a definitive mass-transit system that we can then use to determine whether or not it would actually be used and, if so, by how many people, we need to proceed immediately to get going on a new Tappan Zee Bridge before it falls into the water one day.
Jerry Gershner is the owner of Gershner Realty Services in Ossining.
