Local-Motion

Two days, two truck incursions on the Northern State Parkway. Two bridge hits. Two incidents that inconvenienced morning rush hour motorists -- and created dangerous road conditions. The New York State Department of Transportation said these incidents -- trucks and tractor-trailers illegally entering Long Island parkways, then striking parkway bridges -- happen about five times each month. These happen with resultant delays as officials figure out how to remove the trucks, which are often badly damaged and almost certainly oversized, and these often leave a lot of damage in their wake. Officials said that there is ample signage warning drivers that trucks are not allowed on the parkways -- but said these signs are often ignored. So, what can be done? Well, a reader dropped us an e-mail with a simple suggestion: How about placing one of those MAXIMUM HEIGHT clearance pole units with chains hanging down at each entrance to the parkways? You know, the kind of contraption they have at the entrances to parking garages . . . This way, the reader wrote, drivers would know long before they actually got onto the parkway that they lacked sufficient clearance. Hmmmm. Now, that's an idea. A simple, basic fix. No word yet from NYSDOT officials on what they think about it.

Considering the incident just last week when an arriving Continental flight at Newark-Liberty passed over -- and came within 300 feet of -- a Continental flight that had taxied onto the runway, we certainly understand why Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to install the newest generation of ground surveillance radar at Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia. Now. After all, the FAA has the three major metro-area airports near the bottom of its installation list. Yet the trio are consistently among the worst-performing airports in the nation -- the bottom three, in fact, amongst the 32 major airports in the U.S. Still, the FAA said the installations will be done by 2010. And they said that is soon enough, since so-called near-misses -- actually, near-collisions -- are down this year at the three airports. They're right. While Schumer argued Sunday that installation of the new technology is imperative because the three airports are too busy and too important to the U.S. economy not to get the newest technology sooner than other airports, the bottom line is there are more pressing concerns that the FAA needs to act on -- immediately, that is -- when it comes to Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia. First and foremost among them, to open up previously restricted airspace in the metro area, to get more controllers on the job to better handle the crush of flights with greater safety, to get more ground crew and staff working at these airports to move passengers quicker and more safely and to figure out a way to expand these airports as much as possible as soon as possible. Not to mention to find other regional airports -- i.e., Stewart, Westchester, Teteboro, Long Island-MacArthur and perhaps even Gabreski in Westhampton -- to handle additional regional flights to take the burden off the Big Three. To make Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia better able to really serve New York. All that said, politicians like Schumer should use the new proposed radar surveillance system as a bargaining tool for the safety implementations we really need now. Trade off allowing the implementation of the ground radar system to go ahead as scheduled by the FAA in return for upgrading the rest of the system now. Because there are safety and air traffic-management systems that are needed. And right now the three major metro-area airports are not getting the relief they are desperate for -- the systems metro-area air travellers need now.

The hazards of riding a bicycle in Manhattan were hammered home this week as two cyclists -- one 63 years old, the other 72 -- were killed in freak accidents just one day and a few blocks apart. David Smith, 63, was killed on Dec. 5 in a bizarre accident on 6th Avenue near 36th Street. Then, Franco Scorcia, 72, was killed in a collision with a charter bus on West 40th Street and Broadway. The accident that killed Smith was most-disconcerting for cyclists. According to New York City Police Smith struck a car door being opened into traffic, was knocked off his bike -- and then was run over by a passing truck. It turned out, police said, that the driver who opened the door that knocked Smith from his bike was issued three summonses in the incident: One for blocking a fire hydrant, one for blocking the bicycle lane and one for opening the car door "unsafely into traffic." All of which means, in reality, that Smith was forced out of the safety of the bicycle lane -- only to have the move lead to his death. Of course, the crash that killed Scorcia also well-illustrated the danger. That accident happened at 5:52 p.m. -- and, apparently, the bus driver never saw Scorcia, despite the neon lights on Broadway. There were no charges brought in the case. There have been great strides made in making roads safer for bike-riders over the course of the past decade -- first and foremost among them, designated bike lanes. Still, incidents like these have to make you wonder if more can be done. And, not just in New York City. In other bike-riding environs, as well. How about a concrete safety barrier -- or some sort of guardrail -- between the travel lane for cars and the bike lane? This would provide a measure of security and prevent any driver from blocking a bike lane, therefore creating a potentially life-threatening situation for a bike-rider. It would also protect drivers from bikers who might suddenly duck into traffic, therefore reducing accidents. Such measures have not been implemented, for the most part, because they're not considered cost-effective solutions by engineers. Tell that to the families of Smith and Scorcia.

Here's some news, New York City Transit subway riders: Trains are on time! How's that, you ask? Well, after a week in which there were service disruptions causing delays to the D, E, F, N, R, V and No. 7 trains -- to name a few -- the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued an on-line "Service Alert" just before 9 a.m. Thursday. It read: "All service running normally." You know things are bad when you have to issue an alert like that. Of course, it didn't take long for things to get back to normal. Because at 9:15 a.m. MTA New York City Transit issued this Service Alert: Due to signal problems at the Wall Street Station, Brooklyn College-bound No. 2 and New Lots Avenue-bound No. 3 trains are running with delays at this time.

It's time for the Long Island Rail Road to take lemons and make lemonade. Because its unreliable diesel and dual-mode locomotives are a lost cause -- and it's time to find a replacement for the problem-plagued fleet before the annoyances caused by their breakdowns become a full-fledged crisis. The locomotives were custom built for the railroad, which wanted the dual-mode engines so it could run trains from diesel-only territory through to electrified areas without passengers having to switch trains. But the locomotives, built by a General Motors division that no longer exists, have been a disaster since they were first delivered eight years ago. The locomotives -- 46 of them at the time of delivery, 45 remaining in service to date -- were much heavier than expected at the time of delivery. That put excess wear and tear on tracks, track ties, structures and even the engines themselves, causing massive -- i.e., expensive -- fixes to be required for diesel lines. Worse, since then the locomotives themselves have broken down at twice the predicted rate. Which has caused frequent delays for customers on the diesel lines serviced by the railroad. The electric engines used by the LIRR break down on average every 289,237 miles they are in service. The average for the diesel fleet is 17,998 miles. For the dual-mode fleet that average drops drastically -- to an abysmal 12,425 miles. By comparison, the dual-mode fleet used by MetroNorth, a sister to the LIRR under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority family umbrella, require service every 26,849 miles. That's a drastic difference. Chances are no one will ever be made to answer for this travesty. But, certainly, riders should not have to pay for the monumental blunder that stuck the railroad with this dismal diesel fleet. It's time to turn these engines into reefs in an ocean somewhere. Or to simply sell them for scrap. It's time to get a new fleet of locomotives -- little engines that can, not could [that is, if they actually worked] -- and start making the trains run on time again. Because the current state of affairs is simply unacceptable on what is the largest commuter railroad in the nation.