Blog: Sheridan Expressway

Driving from New York City to Massachusetts this weekend, I was struck, as I always am, by the crazy tangle of expressways and parkways in the Bronx. There are five major north-south roads (the Henry Hudson, the Thruway which becomes the Major Deegan, the Bronx River Parkway, the Hutchinson, and 95), all parallel, most slicing right through the heart of residential neighborhoods, plus a plethora of small connecting roads (how many people know which 2 roads are connected by the Mosholu Parkway)?

Every time I drive through there I think we really shouldn't have so many damn parkways. Besides, parks are for people, not cars. Sustainable South Bronx, a great organization with a pretty yet extremely hard to use Web site, and several other organizations advocate removing the least-used of the Moses roads, the Sheridan Expressway, elevating the Bruckner so that it ceases to be the enormous barrier between neighborhoods that it is today, and building a ramp at Leggett Avenue which is surely a good idea though I don't know the traffic patterns there very well personally.

I can't find much detail on this plan beyond this testimony at a public hearing, but I'll post some if I can find it.

Update: here's the DOT's plan for the Bruckner/Sheridan area, which involves keeping the Sheridan. I just realized that I've never actually seen a DOT plan outside the context of a community group pushing an alternative. But this might be because I only go to their site when I'm reading about a community fighting them. I supposed I should read their site more.