By Brian Bohl
Complaining about Long Island traffic is about as productive as disparaging the weather forecast: a fruitless exercise.
Sure, it seems as though no one has a job in the area when you’re on the road. Being stuck in a backed-up, monster traffic jam on the Southern State at 2 p.m. in the eastbound lane has invoked countless thoughts of “Where are all these people going?”
The obvious solution is for the masses to simply take mass transportation, where electric trains theoretically simplify commutes, alleviate the volume of traffic on the roads and give people an alternative to paying ever increasing gas prices.
Of course, Long Island is a fascinating place, where the MTA and public officials think the best way to encourage more people to keep the cars at home and take the train would be to…raise fares by nearly 4 percent. But that is actually good news. The MTA originally wanted a 6.5 percent increase, but decided it’s the holiday season and we all deserve a break.
Long Island will never have the wide-open roads of a sparsely populated state, though relief could be forthcoming if a proposed 16-mile tunnel from Long Island to Westchester is ever completed. The $10 billion proposal would be privately financed and could spare drivers hundreds of hours of gridlock.
At the very least, the tunnel plan offers an ambitious proposal to actually address the problems of record traffic congestion. Instead of the idle political speeches about making traffic a priority, the two three-lane tunnels that would be built under the Long Island Sound would be a concrete step in actually opening up alternative routes.
One tunnel isn’t going to make driving into midtown a breeze or open up the George Washington Bridge for a leisurely Sunday drive. It still would be a step in the right direction, and it would be built by a private company selling public work bonds. It would give Long Islanders a direct path to Westchester (specifically Rye) without needing to go over the Throgs Neck or Whitestone Bridges.
A drive through Queens and the Bronx could be avoided with this tunnel that would start at the northern end of the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway. A conclusive environmental study still needs to be completed. Meanwhile, preliminary planning shows that residential neighborhoods won’t be impacted by the construction, thereby eliminating concerns about eminent domain.
“This is very doable from an economic standpoint and from an engineering standpoint, with minimal environmental impacts and with enormous environmental benefits in terms of air quality,” said former Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin to The New York Times. Halpin is also working with the developers. “The question is, do we really have the political will to do something about the traffic congestion that is choking the region?”
History shows relying on public transportation on Long Island doesn’t ensure a great savings even as gas prices might hit $4 a gallon in the near future. Besides, outside of circuitous bus patterns, most of the area’s mass transit is geared towards east-west travel, not north-south. The proposed tunnel-built 100 feet underground- would be both a practical and symbolic move.
Leaving the area would be easier and make drives to Westchester more convenient for people visiting relatives or going to entertainment events, like golf tournaments and other leisurely activities. It also would represent a new era where the serious traffic problems are being addressed. Combined with the fact that it would be the first fully privately built tunnel in North America ensures that his proposal deserves at least serious consideration, ultimately leading to its implementation.
Brian Bohl is a senior print journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].