Transportation Study: Innovation Is Urged

A panel representing East End governments has come up with an "action strategy" for transportation that stresses that only by innovation will eastern Long Island escape the fate of highway traffic-clogged western Long Island. And time, says the East End Transportation Council, is short.

The council, created last year by the East End Supervisors and Mayors Association and composed largely of planners and transportation experts from the East End, notes in the report, "With a substantial portion of its land still in an undeveloped state, the region has a window of opportunity within which to forestall the transportation ills that plague the rest of the Island."

Recommendations

The report's recommendations include:

Improved Long Island Rail Road service to encourage more ridership;

Consideration of auxiliary rail services;

Better integration of existing bus service;

A pilot project of minivan or minibus service within the East End towns;

A study of the demand for additional ferries across the Sound and potential sites for terminals;

Public transportation to Mac Arthur Airport in Islip, and

Encouragement of bicycle use through the creation of additional bicycle trails.

"It is important to remember that each transportation decision made by state, county, and town can have far-reaching effects, not just on the local or regional economy, but also on the landscape, the land use patterns, and the quality of life," begins the report of the council.

The Challenge

The report notes some of the demographic and economic changes occurring on the East End. Increasing numbers of retirees and young families are moving into the region. The attraction of the area for the latter is "buttressed by a number of major professional employment centers existing within an hour's - or two - commute" and the fact that more and more businesses are being operated from private residences. Also, many formerly summer or weekend-only residents are now primarily year-round residents.

The "standard Federal, state, and county governmental response to increasing development pressure and economic activity on Long Island has been to build more highway infrastructure," the report observes.

"Therein," says the report, "lies the challenge that faces the East End. Our desire to create a more balanced network of alternative and traditional transportation modes essentially runs counter to the prevailing national, state, and county planning and funding policies."

The report analyzes the different forms of transportation and suggests strategies.

Rail Service

Rail service is "considered a vital, but seriously underused, part of the regional transportation network of the East End," the report says. It notes that the Long Island Rail Road's "primary focus is providing commuter rail service from the suburbs to Manhattan." The railroad maintains that "there is insufficient ridership to justify improvements in the nature of frequency of its present level of service to the East End communities."

The council concludes that "rail transit service could play a more significant role in reducing traffic congestion on the East End if improvements were made in the timing and nature of the service and if better intermodal connections were developed."

The report calls on the East End Supervisors and Mayors Association to apply constant pressure on the L.I.R.R. to fight station closings and demand improvements in rail service.

Further, it urges the association to seek "state and Federal funding to conduct a feasibility study of introducing light rail or alternative forms of light rail transit which would be compatible with the existing heavy rail system." This study "should explore the possibility of establishing connecting rail links between Port Jefferson and Riverhead and between Riverhead and the Hamptons."

Bus Transit

Bus transit on the East End is provided by a mix of public and private companies. However, the public and private bus transit sectors here "are not as well-integrated as they could be," the report says.

It calls for "ongoing dialogue with Suffolk County's Bus Transit Division. . . to develop better coordination" of bus lines and "more convenient connections between residential neighborhoods, employment centers, and major shopping areas [and] with other modes of transit such as train stations, taxi stands, parking lots, airports, ferry terminals."

It further suggests county support for a "pilot project using minivan or minibus service" to move tourists from bus and train stations to destinations such as marinas and restaurants. The report also encourages "the development of bus routes from central locations on the East End to MacArthur Airport in order to reduce car traffic to and from the airport."

Ferry Services

"Ferry services, whether vehicle or high-speed passenger, pose a dilemma for the East End," says the report. "They perform much the same function as public highways or bridges. . . . They are essential to the economic well-being of the region because they ease its geographic isolation. Yet, if allowed to expand without limit, they threaten both to overwhelm the capacity of the region's road network and to undermine its rural character."

The East End has "depended on local zoning and home rule powers to deal with - or prevent - the resultant traffic impacts" from ferries, the report says. "However, as the island's population continues to grow and the economic structure of the New England region evolves, we can expect continued economic and political pressure to expand existing ferry services, to create new services, and even to build bridges," warns the report.

Study Of Ferry Needs

The report notes Suffolk's 1990 report that found that both the Port Jefferson and Orient Point ferry services to Connecticut "were operating at levels exceeding projections" and that an "additional cross-sound ferry service would be needed by the year 2000" and urges it to be expanded "by undertaking unbiased baseline traffic studies and economic analysis in order to develop site-specific recommendations for locating a third cross-sound ferry terminal."

Also, the East End Supervisors and Mayors Association should research "legal and zoning methods by which local governments can control or mitigate traffic congestion and other negative impacts of existing ferry services. The goal should be to amass an unbiased, factual base of information about the region's ferry services and their impacts on local and regional traffic patterns."

The report says the existing airport network, although limited, is "functioning at a level sufficient for the present and foreseeable future."

Trails Network

Although "bicycle and pedestrian trails usually are viewed as being of lesser importance to the overall transportation network than the other modes," the report observes, this "was not always the case historically." The report tells of how the bicycle was once widely used in the U.S. and in Suffolk - with government encouragement.

"By 1894, close to one-third of Suffolk County's population had a bicycle permit. The Southold Town highway commissioner imposed a $2.50 bicycle tax which went towards maintenance of [bicycle] paths."

"Today, bicyclists are banned from most major highways, and they share an uneasy truce with motorists on local roads. However, on the East End, where the economy relies heavily on the rural landscape and its bucolic ambience, trails have the potential to regain some of their former prominence."

"Strategically located trails may reduce motor vehicle trips by tourists and summer residents to view the scenery and to access the waterfront or other parks," the report continues. "In the hamlets, the strategic location of trails may be instrumental in persuading people to leave their cars and walk or bike into the business districts, thereby reducing the congestion caused by short car hops from one business to another."

The report notes that control over the major highways is divided among Federal, state, and county transportation departments - all of which have shown a lack of "sensitivity to local concerns such as those of the East End. . . . Traffic management on state and county roads is not always in accordance with local preferences, particularly with regard to speed limits, signage, and road improvements."

The report recommends working with state and county governments on the development of rural road design standards.

Summing up the challenge the East End towns face in their efforts to improve local transportation, the report observes, "Without concerted, coordinated, and dynamic actions by the region's local governments, the transportation problems of the East End will worsen considerably in the foreseeable future. We face an uphill and politically slippery battle to forestall the tendency to build new and expanded highway capacity instead of investing in alternative transit modes."

Not Much Time

"It has become increasingly evident that there is not much time left within which to effect meaningful change in public policy, and, further, the actions required to get the job done will take enormous strength of will and fortitude to implement," the report continues.

The authors of the report include three town planners, Lisa Liquori of East Hampton Town, Robert Duffy of Southampton Town, and Valerie Scopaz, chairwoman, of Southold Town, and Van Howell, a Westhampton Beach Conservation Advisory Council member.