At the celebration for the opening of the new $873 million Kosciuszko Bridge, New York Governor Cuomo flaunted how an increased number of lanes would speed up traffic by 65 percent.
Data compiled in September — the first full month of operation since the bridge’s second-span opened — reveals no improvement for drivers going from Queens to Brooklyn during rush hour and an average three mile per hour reduction in speeds for drivers headed to Queens, according to a study by independent consultant INRIX, first reported by the Wall St. Journal.
‘We got it done’: Maloney and Cuomo close the book on the Kosciuszko Bridge replacement https://t.co/QyUEuPuelr pic.twitter.com/oB7BTq1QMB
— QNS (@QNS) August 29, 2019
Approximately 163,000 vehicles cross the Kosciuszko Bridge daily. The bridge now features nine lanes, an increase from the six lanes of the deteriorating former bridge, and is the most expensive single-contract public works project in New York state history.
When confronted yesterday why the increase in lanes hasn’t reduced congestion Cuomo deflected while attempting to speak Italian.
Data show that the new Kosciuszko Bridge isn’t faster than the old one. (https://t.co/p5zwHl7sDD). @NYGovCuomo disagrees, in Italian. pic.twitter.com/5uW1F3KjDc
— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) October 14, 2019
The state Dept. of Transportation discredited the study according to NY1:
The state Department of Transportation (DOT) calls the study inaccurate and says the Journal is using unreliable data. The DOT numbers show speeds have increased significantly, an average of 77 percent in the eastbound lanes, and 51 percent in the westbound lanes.
This new bridge is not as steep as the old one. Some drivers tell us that has eased congestion because it’s easier for some vehicles, especially trucks, to get over the bridge without the incline.
I call BS. I drive on it all the time, and it’s markedly improved.
Common sense would have predicted this. You could build one million lanes in this site but it doesn’t make any difference if at either end you have six lanes going in and six lanes going out.
It’s called the law of common sense.
I worked on the construction of both bridges, and i said from day 1, no matter how many lanes the new bridges have, the highway, aka BQE is only 3 lanes and not being expanded, so how to you expect it to be better than before, thats nonsense. But hey, what do you expect from government bureaucracy, especially in this state.