NEW YORK – The Regional Plan Association has just issued a report opposed to the widening of Route 17 from two to three lanes in each direction from Central Valley to the Monticello area.
The regional study organization said that research makes it clear that highway widening does not necessarily solve congestion and other transportation problems.
Rachel Weinberger, RPA’s director of research strategy, said often widening exacerbates the problems they are seeking to address.
“Generally what happens in that kind of a case is when you widen that highway, people who might have gone a little bit earlier or a little bit later are now going to go at the same time when it is most congested, and so you will wind up with the same level of congestion, rather than distributing the demand across the day, which is what is currently happening with everybody converging, so you still have bumper-to-bumper,” she said.
Supporters of the widening plan say it will ease congestion, but Weinberger argues there are very few times during the week where there is bumper-to-bumper traffic.
