Dear Editor:
Four years ago this is how I started my day: I walked to the bus stop on Boulevard East and 47th Street in Weehawken, got on a bus and arrived at my office on 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan in 35 minutes, door to door.
In 2001, this is how I start my day: I walk to the bus stop on Boulevard East and 47th Street in Weehawken, get on a bus, heading to my office at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The only difference is that now the commute takes an hour.
If the developments to the north of Weehawken, in West New York, North Bergen and Edgewater have already created this type of traffic on Boulevard East headed for the Lincoln Tunnel, how long will a commute from Weehawken to Manhattan take when 8,000 new commuters come to town each day to work in the office towers that the Weehawken Planning Board has approved or when the 3,500 new residents move in to the Township? Why didn’t the Township require any comprehensive traffic studies before approving this mega-development and instead accept a poorly executed study done by the developer? Isn’t that irresponsible? Maybe traffic does not mattter to Township employees, like Richard Turner and Chuck Barone, who can avoid rush-hour traffic and even walk to work, but what about the many residents who commute out of Weehawken each day?
In 2005 will we begin our days going to a bus stop in Weehawken and spending two hours to commute to Manhattan? This seems to be what the future will hold thanks to Richard Turner and the Weehawken Planning Board.
Tom Kralik