Thursday, December 29, 2011

Five reasons why the Tappan Zee sprawl should be stopped

As I've discussed before, the Tappan Zee Bridge is a sprawl-generating machine. The sprawl created by this bridge in Orange, Rockland, Bergen and Westchester counties is bad for everyone in the area. Here are five reasons why:
  1. Sprawl puts teens, seniors, the poor and the disabled at a disadvantage.
  2. Sprawl increases the pressure for hydrofracking.
  3. Sprawl keeps Nyack, Suffern and the other towns from being Strong Towns with sustainable budgets.
  4. Sprawl adds to pollution
  5. Sprawl kills.
And if you think it's bad now, it will be hell when oil (and shale gas, and electricity) becomes really expensive. Please don't use this post to support an argument for "a new bridge with transit." The bridge we have keeps generating sprawl. Any replacement would generate at least as much sprawl, with or without "transit."

2 comments:

Helen Bushnell said...

In addition, sprawl destroys family farms.

Cap'n Transit said...

Good point, Helen! In 2010 there were still 642 farms in Orange County (PDF).