Photos: Calling on congress for transportation funding
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
“Highest volume here at Crossgates,” says Carm Basile, chief executive officer for the Capital District Transportation and president of the New York Public Transit Association last Thursday morning at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, describing passengers who ride buses to and from the mall. CDTA has proposed a transit center at Crossgates for the new bus rapid transit line it hopes to install over the next five years. CDTA held the Stand Up 4 Transportation rally to urge Congress to renew funding for the federal transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which expires at the end of May. Basile went on to say that CDTA has over 17 million riders so far this year.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
A purple bus for CDTA’s purple route is parked at Crossgates Mall Thursday for the Stand Up 4 Transportation rally, calling on congress to renew MAP-21. Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said, “You can go from Albany to Schenectady in 20 minutes riding on a CDTA bus.”
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Stating some facts, Nadine Lemmon, the New York and Federal Policy Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which covers the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan Region, gave some figures about using buses instead of driving to work. She went on to say that New York has the “highest mortality rate with bikers and people walking along the side of the road being hit.”