Summit on Island transportation at CSI

Staten Island Advance
Wednesday, March 17, 2004

The future of transportation on Staten Island and the government's strategies for dealing with the borough's persistent traffic woes will be outlined Friday at a summit of transportation agencies, academics, experts and community representatives convened by a public affairs project at the College of Staten Island.

From a new bridge to replace the Goethals to a railway/express bus station in a Staten Island Expressway median to revised truck routes to parking restrictions near intersections to increased bus and rail service, a series of moderated panels will lay out what solutions are in the works for the Island and the economic realities that they face.

City Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall will speak at the conference, which is not charged with reaching any particular conclusion, but the conference's organizers -- academics in the Staten Island Project at CSI/CUNY -- hope that by bringing together the different groups, the conference will provide a dynamic illustration of where the Island stands.

$30 FEE FOR PUBLIC

The organizers say the conference, which the public may attend for a $30 fee, is intended "to provide a forum where information can be provided to the people of Staten Island and to the planners and to the policymakers and to the politicians about what's happening in the area of mass transit and traffic on Staten Island," according to Michael Kress.

Kress, CSI vice president for technology systems and a Staten Island Project member, will moderate a panel on national and local finance for transportation projects.

The list of panelists, in the works for months, includes representatives from the state Department of Transportation, which manages highways; the Port Authority, which operates the Island's three New Jersey bridges, and the MTA's New York City Transit, which operates borough express and local buses and Staten Island Railway system.

Island elected officials also have been invited to attend.

Peter King, a planning supervisor for the state Department of Transportation, welcomed the chance to discuss plans with other organizations, saying the DOT was "looking to develop strong working partnerships with other transportation agencies."

King said he would discuss plans to extend the High Occupancy Vehicle lane on the Expressway to Slosson Avenue and to implement the Intelligent Transportation System, which includes a camera and message sign network. King also said he would discuss the possibility of linking the Staten Island Railway with city express buses at a station built into the expressway median in Grasmere, an idea put forward in a 2002 Major Investment Study.

"It looks like it has a lot of promise," King said.

Many other topics to be discussed have been in the works for years, such as the Port Authority's plans for Goethals modernization, the restarting of freight rail from Staten Island to New Jersey, and the expansion of New York Container Terminal. But public transportation should play a central role in many of the day's discussions.

The Staten Island Project's director, Mirella Affron, in a recent meeting with an Advance reporter, attended by several conference coordinators and moderators, said the urgency of Islanders' feelings was clearly demonstrated in a transportation poll conducted by project researchers and released last month.

The results found many Islanders thought traffic had reached critical levels and that increased mass transit was necessary if traffic were to improve.

According to conference panelist Jeffrey Zupan, senior fellow for transportation at the Regional Plan Association, growing segments of the population, such as teen-agers and seniors, would likely afford themselves with local public transit if service were expanded.

"What you've got is a large segment of the population with poor public transportation," said Zupan.

A conference attended by the right parties could bring priorities into focus, Zupan said. "I think if there are people in the room who agree that there are certain issues that they want to work on and work on some change, this is an opportunity to come together and think about that."

Dr. Affron said transportation was the first of several annual conferences the project intends to host at the college.

Representing local communities and groups affected by traffic, representatives of economic, business, environmental and disabled groups will attend to put forward the effect of transportation on their constituencies, as well as to learn the constraints placed on the agencies from whom they seek assistance.

Professors Cameron Gordon and Jonathan Peters from CSI, joined by professor Jonathan Kramer from St. Joseph's University, will outline how modern transportation projects are funded with a mix of local, regional and federal funding.

Writer Alex Marshall, author of "How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and the Roads Not Taken," will situate Staten Island in a national and historical context of transportation planning.

THOUSANDS AFFECTED

While transportation is the long-term concern of academics and planners, it is also a moment-by-moment issue for the hundreds of thousands who navigate routes on and off the Island daily.

"I think there should be more ferry service," said Alick Williams, while waiting for a boat in the St. George Ferry Terminal. Williams, who works in Concord, said he wanted to see increased local bus service between Staten Island and Brooklyn, where he lives, a service he says runs too infrequently after rush hours.

Grasmere resident Raymond Goggins also cast his vote for more reliable bus service while waiting at a ferry terminal bus stop in the cold. "Buses are never on time," he said. "They should make sure they're on schedule," he said.

Providing a driver's perspective, Verizon telephone repairman Carl Capurso said that congestion along Hylan Boulevard could be reduced if Capodanno Boulevard were extended further toward Great Kills.

"I would do it so it would go all the way down the Island," said Capurso, a New Dorp resident.

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