Nascar traffic plan questioned
   On race afternoons, some expressway entrances would be closed, shifting vehicles to local roads

Staten Island Advance - Sunday, February 26, 2006

Staten Island drivers heading toward Brooklyn would be blocked from getting onto the western half of the Staten Island Expressway during summer afternoons of NASCAR race weekends under the track developer's current proposal.

The highway entrances at Lamberts Lane, near Richmond Avenue in Graniteville, and the South Gannon Avenue, near Victory Boulevard in Willowbrook, would be shut for two hours on Saturdays and Sundays after each race.

This proposal to ease traffic on the expressway for fans leaving the races by shifting it onto neighborhood roads is included in the 83-page plan released by developer International Speedway Corp., which hopes to build an 80,000-seat race track in Bloomfield by 2010.

The transportation plan is drawing skepticism from residents, elected officials and traffic experts, so much so that ISC has already backed off from its plan to route more than 330 buses through the same areas of Graniteville and Willowbrook.

ISC's traffic blueprint was released in January and is still being revised as the company prepares for the public review, which is expected to begin in April.

The plan calls for 643 buses and 83 ferries to carry the bulk of the fans into the raceway from off-Island locations as a way to limit the number of cars on the expressways. The remaining spectators, estimated to number 25,000, will get parking passes for the site's 8,400-space lot. Upon purchasing tickets, fans have to choose their mode of transportation.

ROAD CLOSURES

Drivers leaving the Staten Island Mall and the nearby shopping strips along Richmond Avenue would be barred from the two closest entrances onto the Brooklyn-bound Staten Island Expressway, the one at Lamberts Lane and the other near the College of Staten Island.

The first available on-ramp would be at Bradley Avenue in Mariners Corners.

The plan needs state Department of Transportation approval. An agency spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

"What they're effectively doing is closing the Staten Island Expressway entrances from the West Shore Expressway to Bradley Avenue," said local traffic expert Jonathan Peters, an associate professor of finance at the College of Staten Island. Peters has been informally advising ISC on borough traffic conditions and criticized its newest plan.

ISC estimates 10,500 Islanders would attend each race, using that figure to bolster its argument that the track would draw local fans and keep them off the roads during speedway events. But Peters countered that the developer is ignoring Islanders who aren't attending races.

"Their assumption is Staten Islanders are not doing anything else. My assumption is they're going to the mall or they're going to wherever they're going to go," Peters said. "Their idea is to re-optimize the road network to serve the track, but the question is, what are the other needs of the roads?"

Graniteville resident Melissa Dalton was appalled by ISC's plan.

"The traffic is very high over here. I think this is going to make matters even worse," she said. "In the summertime, it's going to be a nightmare."

ISC shrugged off the impact of the closures, and claimed it will design a satisfactory alternative for non-race traffic, though its latest plan fails to outline other routes.

"For a couple hours, you're going to have local access routes. There's going to have to be studies on those," said Michael Printup, project manager for the track. "You have to look at how you expedite all this traffic. You have to go back to (the fact that) it's still a working plan."

UNCERTAIN BUS ROUTE

While Printup downplayed the potential burden of the expressway closures, he admitted the plan to redirect more than 330 buses onto narrow, local roads in Graniteville was "a fatal error."

As it stands, the buses would be transporting fans along Fahy Avenue, around Father Macris Park and onto Lamberts and Christopher lanes before merging onto the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway toward the Bayonne Bridge.

After Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) chastised the proposal, ISC opted to revise it.

"That's going to change. Our traffic people are working on it. We know there's a big concern," Printup said. But when pressed, he could not specify an alternative.

"Our goal wasn't to impact neighborhoods. Our goal is to come up with the most comprehensive traffic plan that is satisfactory," he said.

Oddo, whose district would house the track, sent a scathing letter to Printup last month, charging ISC to immediately change its bus proposal and reduce the number of on-site parking spots.

"I have more patience about the proposal than my constituents. I will become a very public 'no' if they continue to throw at me the same old traffic slop," Oddo said.

The residential area adjacent to the expressway already bears the brunt of heavy traffic and constant highway noise. So residents were shocked to learn about ISC's potential plan to route buses past their homes.

"This is like a highway already here," said Janet Montoya, who has loved on Fahy Avenue for 10 years. "Half the time, you can't even pull out of your driveway. I just hope NASCAR doesn't come here."

MAJOR CONCERN

The closures and bus route are perhaps the most glaring red flags in ISC's plan, and they're emblematic of the overall roadblock the track developer has to overcome to get its raceway approved by the City Council.

Islanders don't need NASCAR to force them to think about road congestion; It's already one of the most pressing quality-of-life concerns for residents and politicians. Seventy percent of Staten Islanders counted traffic as one of their top five problems, according to a 2005 survey conducted by the independent Citizens of NYC and Baruch College.

So it's no surprise that the proposed track has triggered fears, anger and frustration.

The fiercest opponents, who formed Staten Island Citizens Against the Track, make a lot of noise about traffic. At SCAT's meeting last week, the 43 members in attendance slammed ISC's latest plan and reiterated their belief that the borough cannot sustain any more traffic.

But that's fear-mongering if you ask members of the Staten Island NASCAR Hopefuls, a group founded to support the track. Members dismiss transit concerns because Islanders would only be dealing with the extra raceway traffic three weekends a year.

It's still unclear what the roads will look like on Fridays, when qualifying laps would be held to determine race line-ups. Printup estimates 10,000 to 15,000 fans would attend qualifying events, buy ISC has yet to provide a plan for getting them into the track.

OTHER CLOSURES

The 83-page plan also calls for more benign road closures in and around the track property both before and after the races. For example, drivers won't be able to get off the westbound Staten Island Expressway onto Goethals Road North at Western Avenue prior to races.

Also, northbound traffic on the West Shore Expressway will be blocked from exiting at Glen Street. But ISC plans to build a ramp which will connect Glen Street to the northbound West Shore Expressway at the interchange of the Staten Island and West Shore expressways. That ramp will be open year-round.

Printup was hesitant to say the Island presents the most complicated traffic solution ISC has faced in its dozen existing tracks across the nation. He did, however, acknowledge the challenge in building a raceway on Staten Island.

"There's no question, it's different. It's different because of four bridges coming onto one 471,000-populated island," he said.

Peters remained skeptical. "How much more can you put into the road network?" he asked. "I don't blame ISC for these problems, but they are entering into a situation where the transportation system is already frail. If you add extra load, we need more infrastructure."

By Stephanie Slepian and Sally Goldenberg
Reprinted here with permission from the

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