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RE: (erielack) Ramsey, Mahwah NIMBY

> Your point is well taken. On Long Island, just about 
> everything is oriented
> toward NY City, mostly by virtue of geography, which 
> constrains LI-after
> all, it is an island-and limits sprawl as well as access. 
> Jersey has the
> advantage(??) of being between NY and various other 
> places-mostly Philly,
> but others as well-and can orient its "suburbanness" in 
> several directions;
> it's also considerably larger than LI. Thus, there are more 
> places to go,
> with many of them not requiring, or not accessible to, rail 
> service.

Exactly the points I was trying to make!



> if that's true, you'd think the powers that be would want to 
> reduce the
> resulting congestion from all those car trips by encouraging 
> those who can,
> to use some other means of transport besides the highways. 

Oh they've tried.  But NJ commuters have been quite resistant to all
attempts.  When Rt 287 was widened to 3 lanes between Morristown and
Bridgewater, they made the 3rd lane HOV.  There were many cheaters and I saw
people pulled over by the state troopers daily.  Still, the congestion in
the remaining lanes was so bad and the HOV so under used that it has since
been dropped.  A similar situation existed on Rt 80 as well.  The real
problem is that essentially all mass transit in Northern NJ is oriented to
NYC.  For me to get to work via mass transit, I have to drive 7 miles to
Morristown, take the train to Hoboken, then the PATH to Newark, then NJT to
Raritan, then somehow get the mile or so to work.  Why would I put myself
through that when it's a 35 min shot right down 287?  As you said, NJ is
more spread out and so there isn't enough critical mass going from point A
to point B, except perhaps where point B is Newark or Jersey City to make
for an efficient transit oriented commute on this side of the Hudson.



> But apparently
> not if the station parking lot is in their neighborhood. When 
> I grew up in
> Queens, we were two blocks from a LIRR station, which had 
> limited parking
> due to geographic constraints. This pushed many commuters 
> into the local
> streets for parking, so during the usual rush periods, it was 
> quite busy. We
> all survived, and nobody got whacked by any vehicles that I 
> can remember.

When I worked in the Financial District, I would take the train from
Delawanna or Lyndhurst.  Street parking was the rule rather than the
exception.
 

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