By Scott Brinton
As it stands locally, the plan calls for the widening of the Southern State Parkway east of the Meadowbrook Parkway by two lanes, and of the Meadowbrook Parkway north of the Southern State, also by two lanes.
Lisa Tyson, of North Bellmore, is director of the Massapequa-based, non-profit coalition, an advocacy group that takes on myriad causes. The coalition has opposed LITP2000 for nearly two years, partly because, members say, it would destroy the woodland buffers surrounding the parkways, transforming the winding, "park-like" thoroughfares into a mix of cement and steel similar to the Long Island Expressway.
Tyson would not say how much the Progressive Coalition spent on the commercials, which ran numerous times on Fox 5, CNN and Channel 12. She did say, "It's a lot," adding that the coalition received a grant from the Rauch Foundation to fund the TV spots.
Along with the ads, the coalition passed out some 30,000 leaflets that decried LITP2000, which people could sign and mail to Pataki, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney. The coalition also made hundreds of phone calls to Long Island environmental activists, urging them to speak out against the transportation plan.
The purpose of the concerted effort, Tyson said, was to apply election-season pressure on Pataki to kill LITP2000. During the last gubernatorial election, she said, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a watchdog group for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, successfully lobbied the governor to reject a major road-widening project along Route 287 in Westchester County. Tyson wants to mirror that success on Long Island.
"The governor can stop it [LITP2000] at any time," she said, noting that Pataki controls the state Department of Transportation, which is spearheading LITP2000's development and would oversee its implementation if the plan goes through.
The governor's office did not return Herald phone calls for this article, and Pataki remained silent on the issue throughout the election.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, comprising the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester counties and the mayor of New York City, was to vote on LITP2000 in October or November this year. The council's vote is decisive in that it must be unanimous for the plan to move forward.
Eileen Peters, DOT spokesperson for Long Island, said the vote is now planned for next summer. First, though, the state is to hold a third round of public hearings on LITP2000 in the spring. Hearing dates are yet to be scheduled.
Peters reiterated that state transportation department officials believe LITP2000 is the best way to eliminate much of the Island's chronic traffic congestion. "We're very much in favor of the plan," she said.
Several Island-wide groups, such as the Automobile Association of America, support LITP2000. The crux of the plan is what the state calls a "new transit system" for Long Island that would depend on "Rapid Commute Vehicles" -- sleek, 24-passenger buses that have not yet been tested. The RCV's would ferry commuters to and from park-and-rides along major thoroughfares.
To create routes for the new buses, the state would add high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to roads throughout the Island, including the Southern State and Meadowbrook parkways.
Tyson said that would mean the parkways -- including those surrounding North Merrick, North Bellmore and East Meadow -- would have to be widened and straightened to make way for the RCV lanes. She also said historic stone bridges would have to be razed, and new bridges with higher underpasses would be built to replace them. As a result, the tree-lined buffer zones along the parkways would have to go.
In earlier interviews, Peters said the state wasn't certain the woodlands would be destroyed. She did, however, say the bridges would be redone and the parkways widened.
Tyson also said that LITP2000 would do little to reduce traffic volume across Long Island. While the state assumes people would use the Rapid Commute Vehicles, she explained, she believes they would not, because they would have no way to get to their destinations after being dropped off at the park-and-rides. So, most people would continue to drive.
Tyson believes the state should "rethink" LITP2000 to include greater mass-transit alternatives, such as light-rail trolleys and/or shuttle buses through local neighborhoods that would connect people to the Island's existing public-transportation network, in particular the Long Island Rail Road and Long Island Bus.
Tyson has attracted a set of powerful political allies in the coalition's campaign against LITP2000, including state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) and Assemblyman David McDonough (R-North Merrick) as well as a host of civic, environmental and watchdog groups, including the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
McDonough said, "The damage it [LITP2000] would do to our environment, our scenery, would far outweigh the benefit...There are plenty of mechanisms to give people more alternative forms of transportation."
McDonough noted that he and Sen. Fuschillo would, in the coming weeks, announce the creation of a shuttle bus service to and from the Merrick Long Island Rail Road station through neighborhoods north of Sunrise Highway.
Of LITP2000, Fuschillo said, "As a blueprint, I'm disappointed." He noted that according to state estimates, the plan would reduce traffic volume on Long Island roads by 50,000 vehicles out of a projected 1.3 million in 2020.
"If you're going to spend $5 billion to redo Long Island's highways and eliminate 50,000 motorists, it [LITP2000] has to be brought back to the drawing table and rethought," Fuschillo said.
