NEW: Trains, brains and automobiles: Town task force on transportation asks for input from YOU
Monday, June 4, 2012
by Christine Yeres
Last Saturday afternoon, NCNOW asked passers-by in Chappqua and Millwood what ideas they might have to improve transportation in New Castle. See their comments in “Read more…” The Transportation Task Force of the town’s Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) is holding an open forum to discuss how to do better with trains, traffic, parking, biking, walking, jitneys and more on Monday, June 4 in the assembly room of town hall at 7:30 p.m..
Metro North
“What can we have to say about this train service? If you take the right train you can get a seat.”
“I bought a Prius, which is pretty compact and gets me a front-row parking space at the train station. I love it.”
“Train service isn’t bad.”
Train Station Parking
“Commuter parking? It seems to work. I doubt jitneys will ever go over big here.”
“There’s too big an area right in front of the train station that causes too many people to hang around for pick up in the evening and allows people to make big U-turns to get out onto South Greeley instead of going through to Washington Avenue.”
“It should be the easiest thing in the world to create a ride-share website so that people can share rides to the train—and home again—right from your own neighborhood.”
Traffic
“Add ‘parking’ to this, because if parking is difficult, traffic will be buzzing around to find parking.”
“If I know I can find parking, I’ll handle the traffic.”
“The new lot behind the stores on South Greeley is great. I never realized what a wretched eyesore the old one was until now.”
“I hate the one-way Lower King Street deal. Isn’t there a way to let us out of there other than by going all the way to the train station?”
School Busing
“The buses must run to schools every day, but the cars don’t have to. Can we do something to cut down on parents driving kids to school?”
“It would be very hard for me to put my child on a bus that will take him 45 minutes to get to school when I can save him that time or let him sleep by driving him to school.”
“There should be YouTube Khan Academy videos playing on the bus each morning so kids can use the time to learn something.”
“Put monitors on the bus so the children can watch the news or something fun. Trivia games or their teachers reading books. Something that makes them want to be on the bus with their friends.”
Pedestrian Traffic
“Over the last month, the contractor responsible for the 120 bridge returned to pave several of the crosswalks with brick. This is supposed to make motorists and pedestrians more aware of each other. I’m not sure it does that, but it does look very nice.”
“Gedney is a big resource to the whole town. It’s very important to have a sidewalk connecting it to nearby Millwood.”
“I’d like to see a sidewalk go in along Bedford Road to the condos at Old Farm Lake. I thought we had money set aside for that. What’s happening?”
“The town and school boards, the PTA and their committees should all hold walking meetings on the high school track. Walk and talk.”
“The town had plans to open the trailway between Chappaqua Crossing and North Greeley Avenue, in downtown Chappaqua. It followed a sewer line from Mt. Kisco, and runs along the railroad tracks, behind the high school. What every happened to the idea? Students—and regular people—could walk to town safely.”
Bicycling
“The sidewalk on 120 (Quaker Road) is great for walking, but cyclists wouldn’t be welcome on it—and we can’t bike on Quaker Road. Or on Bedford Road. Maybe adults cycling in packs, but I certainly wouldn’t let my children bike around town.”
Jitney Service
“The town ran a jitney service from Gedney to the Chappaqua train station parking lot, but it wasn’t used much and they discontinued it.”
“I want the use of my own, personal car. The jitney thing won’t work. It’s un-American.”
Join the Transportation Task Force members tonight at town hall. If you can’t make it, email task force and SAB member Dick Goldsmith with your ideas at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The sidewalk on Route 120 was a great idea. Now how about along route 117? The sidewalk there stops at the end of Pleasantville and resumes in Mount Kisco. If it ran along 117, folks could walk to the train without being afraid of being mowed down by a tractor trailer!
We need a sidewalk extension from ‘up town’ to at least the Congregational Church. It would serve the Chappaqua Commons, Green Lane, Brevoort, Pauling, Orchard Ridge etc, and provide safe walking for the children on an otherwise virtually un-walkable road (Bedford)
The outer sidewalk around the building housing Great Stuff and other businesses needs to be eliminated so that the traffic which backs up trying to turn right and proceed up King Street can flow without interruption. There is an inner sidewalk and with some work it can be reconfigured to accommodate pedestrian needs. That will then allow traffic to move without having to stop. As it is now, the cars going toward Rite Aid that have not moved far enough to the left block traffic trying to go up King Street & everything behind that comes to a halt….backing up South Greeley as well as those coming down the bridge to merge.
part of the talk during the chappaqua crossing project review was to connect reader’s digest with the downtown by means of the path you mention. it’s there. it’s overgrown, but it’s there.
People don’t want a jitney. We tried it. Hospital workers at NWH are only using one becasue they have to while the hospital builds its parking garage. No one will participate voluntarily
Can’t the task force tell us what’s on THEIR minds first? What changes would THEY make? Night meetings are really hard for me.
Please work on the traffic pattern at the train station. How can we regularize the free-for-all at pick up times in the evening?
I would love to see Chappaqua become more pedestrian friendly. We need more crosswalks, more sidewalks, and more curb cutouts where they are supposed to be. Cars do NOT yield to pedestrians and in general do not observe pedestrian laws. If we could increase safe foot traffic in Chappaqua then motor traffic would decrease. The sidewalks are in disrepair and the crosswalks often do not make logical sense (particularly at the end of King Street). I would love to see more sidewalks on 117, Quaker, Douglas, and from the library to the train station by town hall. This would encourage more residents to walk to the train, and to down town. Some projects may be more complicated than others due to private property. However the town could easily extend the sidewalk from the library to the Washington Avenue train station exit. That is all town property and would allow people who live within walking distance to the train station the ability to walk to the train safely.
Down town areas that are successful are pedestrian friendly and have ample parking (thereby being motor friendly as well). In addition a lot of the pedestrian areas have poison ivy that is beginning to take over. The sidewalk along Quaker is lovely and is in great shape, but the poison ivy makes it less attractive to walk on during the summer months.
To: What’s the town proposing? Our minds are a blank slate waiting to be filled in. We have no predetermined ideas. The reason my email address was given out is so that you can submit your ideas even if you can’t make it to the meeting.
Would love a sidewalk running from millwood shopping center to downtown chappaqua along rte 120.
The area out in front of the train station at pickup time is generally chaotic—a complete free for all. That really needs to change.
