State to push more heavy trucks onto rural roads

Aurora, NY - April, 2010

2008:

“For far too long, people living throughout the Finger Lakes in Onondaga, Cayuga and Tompkins counties have been suffering, trying to get big rigs off the back roads winding through the region,” said Governor Paterson. “Residents have rightfully voiced concerns about trucks spilling garbage into lakes and watersheds. People also have expressed concern that the large trucks are damaging roads and houses, emitting fumes, creating noise and making it dangerous to walk or ride bikes on the roadways. I am pleased to announce that I have directed the New York State Department of Transportation to develop a new regulatory policy aimed at keeping large trucks off the Main Streets of Central New York and on the Interstate System, where they should be.”

“These state regulations are something that the people of Skaneateles and the Finger Lakes area have sought for a very long time. There is finally light at the end of the (garbage truck) tunnel,” said Senator Schumer. “Governor Paterson, to his credit, has seen that state regulations are the way to go to get trucks – whether they be public or private, from New York City or elsewhere – off our community roads and onto the highways where they belong.”

 2011:

The state Thruway Authority on Wednesday proposed a 45 percent increase in tolls for most trucks on the superhighway to help bail out the financially strapped agency.

The authority’s board voted Wednesday to allow executive director Thomas Madison to “proceed with necessary actions” to implement the toll hike, which would apply to trucks with three or more axles.

Everyone is safer when big trucks stick to divided highways, which is one of the reasons we have a Thruway in the first place.  We believe the increase in heavy truck traffic on the Finger Lakes' rural roads has been the direct result of Thruway toll increases.  Its long past time to fire Howard Milstein, disband the Thruway Authority and remove all tolls.  A toll-free Thruway will make Upstate safer while slowing the disintegration of the Empire State's economy.