Motorists gritting their teeth during New York’s frenzied rush hours will need a dentist on permanent call if official projections are correct and rush hours extend for half the entire day by 2030.
That’s right, welcome to the 12-hour rush hour.
“This notion of the rush hour between 7 and 9 [a.m.] and 4 and 6 [p.m.] is an antiquated notion,” said Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall.
“People do weird and crazy things just so they can drive their cars in.”
Officials studied traffic patterns over the past 15 years to come up with the frightening estimate of a 12-hour rush hour, based on the addition of a million more residents in the next 25 years.
Those residents are expected to cram 100,000 additional cars onto already clogged roadways.
Weinshall said the city would continue to invest in roads and bridges, but the only way to deal with the deluge is by upgrading mass transit.
“We’re not going to mysteriously take all the cars and stop them,” she said. “[But] the future of the region is really expanding mass transit.”
The estimated price tag to achieve “acceptable conditions” on roads, bridges and trains is $15 billion.
Weinshall is planning to join the administration’s “lis tening tours” to sound out the needs of individual neighborhoods.
She said she expects to hear requests for more service on the one remaining artery where there’s still space – the waterways.
“I’m sure communities on Staten Island, in the Rockaways and parts of Brooklyn are going to talk about increasing ferry service,” she said.