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New Commuter Trends Identified
By CAREN HALBFINGER AND CARA MATTHEWS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: March 6, 2003)
Most Westchester
commuters work in their home county - a whopping 62.9 percent -
while only 28.5 percent of Putnam residents stay within their county's
boundaries, new data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau
shows.
For those who do cross county lines for work, Westchester is the No. 1 employment
center for Putnam residents, while New York City is the job mecca for Westchester
commuters. The data cover workers 16 and older who do not work at home. Ricky
Feuerman and Cherie Ingraham, a married couple who live in Southeast, are part
of the majority of Putnam residents who earn a living outside that county.
Workers who head outside Putnam's 267 square miles number 34,446, an increase
of about 10 percent since 1990. Feuerman and Ingraham work in the women's apparel
division of a midtown Manhattan clothing manufacturer. "I won't say that
(the commute's) not difficult at times, especially as it gets toward the end
of the week," said Feuerman, 61. "But I wouldn't change it for the
world because I love living in the country."
While transit advocates said the census figures show the need for more mass
transit and van pools to coax commuters out of their cars, county officials
suggested that other creative solutions are needed.
"There should be more bus transportation, van pools and rail investments
to move people from one suburban area to another,'' said Kate Slevin, spokeswoman
for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a transit advocacy group. "Most
of the transportation focuses on bringing people downtown, and while most people
do work downtown, a lot of the reverse commuters and suburban workers need to
be given transportation options, too.''
But Westchester's transportation commissioner, Larry Salley, shied away from
the thought of adding bus service. The county raised the Bee-Line bus fare
this week from $1.40 to $1.75, for the first time since 1996, and is maintaining
existing routes. "Vanpools and telecommuting - those are things that probably
will get a much greater look," Salley said. "The numbers still don't
support a mass transportation system. You need concentrated masses to run a
mass transit system. Resources are very limited." Plenty of area commuters
continue to travel alone in their own cars, as anyone who has tried to get
anywhere in a hurry during the morning or evening rush hour knows. That's why
there are millions of dollars in road improvement projects in the works throughout
Westchester.
Bob Dennison, the state Department of Transportation's regional director for
the Hudson Valley, said the commuting patterns revealed in the census data
supported the state's spending on improvements to the Cross-Westchester Expressway,
the Hutchinson River Parkway and Interstate 684. "It wasn't a surprise
to us," he said. "We're glad that we got it right. It validates our
commitment to the I-287 corridor and the Hutch, which we expect to execute
over the next several years."
John Lynch, director of planning and development for Putnam, also anticipated
that the "heavy out-commute" from Putnam would continue. "It's
a fact of life that Putnam County has been and probably will continue into
the foreseeable future, to be a bedroom community of New York City," he
said. "Overall, that southerly trend toward New York City and White Plains
is probably still the dominant factor."
Based
in part on past census statistics, Putnam has added extra commuter
parking lots in recent years, Lynch said. The Putnam Area Rapid
Transit bus system is coordinated with train schedules, he said.
Westchester's Bee-Line system runs buses into lower Putnam to take
commuters to the Croton Falls train station and to White Plains.
As most planners and transportation experts are aware, many people are commuting
longer and farther because of Westchester's housing costs. The percentage of
Dutchess residents who commute to Westchester rose by 32.2 percent from 1990
to 2000, to 14,903. Among them is Maggie Thompson, confidential secretary to
Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano.
Thompson, who was born and raised in Yonkers, moved to Unionvale in Dutchess
nine years ago. There, she has 5 1/2 acres and an 1,800-square-foot house on
a cul-de-sac that she bought 12 years ago for $150,000. The trip takes her
75 to 90 minutes each way. "We tried to stay in Westchester, but we couldn't
afford a house in this area," Thompson said. "At the county, there's
20 of us I can think of off the top of my head who come from Dutchess. The
wintertime commute is terrible, but the rest of the time, it's beautiful. If
I had a more normal commute, I would definitely van pool."
At the same time, more Westchester commuters are also traveling elsewhere to
work. Fairfield County had the greatest gain in Westchester workers from 1990
to 2000, up 3,299 to 18,191, a 22 percent increase.
Drew Puntingham, a credit analyst who lives in Hawthorne, drives a MetroPool
van pool with four other Westchester commuters to Danbury, Conn., and has been
doing so for 20 years, since the company he works for relocated from Manhattan.
Although it's a 45-minute ride, Puntingham travels against the flow, heading
north on the Saw Mill River Parkway to I-684 and into Connecticut. He finds
the vanpool a convenient and cost-effective way to commute. "We watch
the bumper-to-bumper cars going down every morning," he said, "and
thank God we're not on that side."
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