Syracuse - Government of New York



NYS Advisory Panel on Transportation Policy for 2025

June 30, 2004, Meeting Notes

Watertown, NY

A Report for the New York State Department of Transportation

Prepared by University Transportation Research Center

UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER

The City College of New York, New York, NY 10031

(Report No. WAT-063004)

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New York State Advisory Panel on Transportation Policy for 2025

Mission Statement

The New York State Advisory Panel on Transportation Policy for 2025, formed in 2004 by the NYSDOT and chaired by NYSDOT commissioner Joseph H. Boardman, is a 12-member committee that seeks to aid the department in gathering advice and insight from the public, transportation industry, and other stakeholders during the development of the next statewide transportation master plan. The panel plans to accomplish this by holding nine public hearings throughout New York State throughout June, July and August. The panel is comprised of individuals with government, transportation industry and business backgrounds, and will provide a forum for the presentation of testimony and discussion of New York State's transportation system needs and policy issues. Following the public hearings, the panel will review its findings and prepare a report this fall.

NYS Advisory Panel on Transportation Policy for 2025

June 30, 2004 Meeting Notes

Dulles State Office Building Auditorium, Watertown

Notes prepared by University Transportation Research Center, Region 2

Panelists: Joe Boardman, Chair, Dennis Fitzgerald, Vice Chair, Jim McGowan, Tom Tranter, Dick Garman

Guest: Senator Jim Wright, Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, and Assemblyman Darrell J. Aubertine.

BACKGROUND / FACTS

Positioning NYS

Trade, Technology and Traffic (primarily truck traffic) are factors reshaping our future and will effect how the State’s transportation system performs in five priority result areas:

• Mobility & Reliability – providing choices and predictable travel times

• Safety – reducing deaths and injuries

• Environmental Conditions – improving the environment through transportation actions

• Economic Competitiveness – the economy depends on transportation costs in New York State being competitive with our neighbors and large economic centers throughout the country and worldwide.

• Security – strengthening our ability to prevent, mitigate and recovery

There have been fundamental changes in the flow of world trade and the nature of freight (logistics – just in time deliveries) that have caused truck traffic to increase and the recent growth is expected to continue. The northeast is its own economic center contributing to travel demands as well. Congestion downstate has a financial cost upstate. Rail systems may provide some relief to highway congestion, but new policies and approaches will be needed. Without change, the impacts of trade, technology and traffic on the northeast will increase the cost of doing business, making us less competitive and lowering our quality of life. To improve our quality of life we need to win Public Trust through Environment and Energy Practices.

Metropolitan Regions

New York State’s metropolitan regions account for 93.5% of the state gross domestic product. Within the state, 87% of the population and 92% of the jobs are located in areas served by New York State’s MPOs.

Economic Facts

New York State's main industries of agriculture, finance, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade are dependent on our highway system. Ninety-two percent of the $290 billion dollars in products are shipped to and from sites in New York State annually are transported on highways. Currently, the federal government is working to approve a new six-year transportation program. New York’s share of funds from the federal government has declined by at least six percent.

POLICY ISSUES RAISED IN TESTIMONY

Written testimony submitted by meeting participants is part of the meeting record and is supplemented by this summary.

The Environment in Which Transportation Policy/Investments Are Made

Environmental Issues

Continue cooperation and coordination between DOT and DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation). This will help protect waterways, and lead to better management of roadway vegetation.

Transportation and Energy: Encourage efficient use of energy by transportation operators.

Competition for funding

Qualification of engineering firms must be based on the quality of the work, not solely on the price.

Coordination/Integration

Encourage cooperation, coordination, and integration among transportation agencies.

Funding Issues

The Mayor of Watertown and various business representatives all spoke of the need for more infrastructures funding in the region. One speaker talked about the return of infrastructure investments, and that the state should look into more funding for airways and waterways (both commercial and recreational) for this region. Another speaker decried the use of transportation specific funds for non-capital and infrastructure purposes and proposed several methods for the state to raise more transportation funds, such as raising Thruway tolls, raising the gas tax, toll of high occupancy roads, and increase bridges and roadways tolls.

The Transportation System Itself

Competition between Logistics and Commuters for Capacity

Truck traffic is increasing more rapidly compared to automobile traffic. Northern NYS transportation infrastructure is deteriorating and in need of rehabilitation. 40-50% of bridges are deficient.

Infrastructure Issues

The highway panel mentioned the large number of roads and especially the large number of aging and historic bridges in this rural area that they must attempt to keep in state of good repair. Keeping the infrastructure in a state of good repair has been difficult due to lack of good resources. According to the panel, the Consolidated Highways Improvement Programs (CHIPS) has helped local governments to cope with the increasing demands and costs of maintaining the New York state transportation infrastructure.

Modal Issues

Transit

The transit panel talked about the relative success of public transit services even in this mostly rural region and the need for more resources to support current and future services. Members of the panel talked about the differences in transit needs between local city populations and rural populations, and the general population verses the elderly and disabled populations. One member of the panel talked about need for more flexible STOA funding policies so that a smaller transit organization in a rural area such as Watertown would not have such a difficult time obtaining funding. Another speaker from a local county office of the aging talked about the usefulness and continued need for public transit among the region's elderly. The need to increase transit fleet, develop flexible routes, use of paratransit and volunteer drivers is important in rural community.

Rail Freight

The rail panel talked about the need for more infrastructures resources to be able to increase the amount of rail freight traffic in the northern state region. One member of the panel mentioned that the state in recent years had instituted good programs for rail freight that needed to be continued but that the modest funding available for them was not enough. Another member of the panel mentioned that the most pressing concern for his particular company were track upgrades to deal with heavier freight car loadings and to bring the tracks to national standards. These upgrades would help leverage New York State Railroads competition for national commercial and military traffic with other states.

Regional Airports

The speaker for air travel talked about funding issues that the three regional airports are having, as they are all currently operating at a loss. This speaker mentioned that promotion and investment in regional air travel would be beneficial from an energy standpoint, as it is the most fuel efficiency mass transit option. The need of state funds for local airports to meet minimum and new FAA regulations was raised.

Snowmobile and ATV

The snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle panel talked about access issues, safety and tourism. The riders of these vehicles generally do not use public roads, so access to parklands and private property and other rights of way is an important issue. These riders would like to be considered early in the transportation planning especially in bridges, rail, and road crossings. Build pathways for snowmobile and ATV riders to improve safety and attract tourism.

Borders Crossings

Officials from the region’s international border crossings spoke about the lack of resources for repair or replacement of bridges and expansion of other border facilities. Yearly increases in border crossing traffic combined with aging facilities and the heightened emphasis on security have heavily strained the crossings to Canada.

Physical Components (Infrastructure) versus Inter-Agency Integration (Management)

Winter weather advisory system on roadway is important in NYS northern region.

Encourage cooperation, coordination, and integration among transportation agencies and modes.

The Impacts of Transportation Investments

Economic Development, Tourism

A few of the remaining speakers talked generally about transportation issues in the region. One of them touched on how good transportation networks and infrastructure would help the tourism that is an important industry in the region. Another talked about how transportation developments can be good for economic development, and specifically mentioned the Route 11 expressway and the I-81 Fort Drum connector.

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