New Car, New State License Plate and New Fee

Nine years with the same license plate means next year I’ll either get the state’s new design or choose a specialty plate. The new bridge was one of the design choices in last month’s statewide contest and was not chosen; then again, some people would have preferred this:

Still shiny with no peeling paint, my plates were transferred to the 2017 certified preowned car I bought last week. There has never been a time when the Thruway Authority hasn’t changed me, even when my E-ZPass® tag wasn’t mounted on the car’s windshield.

Because I was on a “car diet” for the past few weeks I didn’t drive further than the next dealership to check preowned cars. Running against time as my Honda’s engine was fading, I kept the daily mileage to a limit and drove about five or six models, some a few times, to be sure I liked or disliked them.

“The driver in me honors and respects the driver in you.” Courtesy recycledartco

I enjoyed a comfortable and safe ride with the 1998 Honda Civic LX sedan for 21 years and 162,000 miles. Now to break in the new car with a road trip!

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019

On the Way to Bethel via the Tappan Zee . . .

Love blossomed following a car breakdown on the Tappan Zee Bridge en route to the 1969 music festival. Wonder how many other couples met this way during the bridge’s nearly 62 years. Photo ia from a road trip to Woodstock years ago.

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019

Art Alert: ArtsWestchester calls for Proposals

ArtsWestchester and the Thruway Authority are collaborating and seek proposals from professional artists and artist collectives in New York State to create bicycle racks for the new bridge’s landings and a mural for the underpass on the Rockland County landing.

Deadline for bicycle rack proposals is August 18. Projects/commissions must be completed and ready to install by October 22.

Deadline for mural proposals is September 13. Up to five finalists will be notified two weeks later; the winning mural will be installed by April 2020.

Here’s an opportunity to leave your artistic footprint on the bridge project!

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019

Paving the Greenery to build a Bike/Walk Path

Above is the Esposito Trail a little way in taken two summers ago. I wouldn’t have recognized it (below) had it not been for the Thruway signs to the left. Photo is courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority.

“They paved paradise . . . To put up a parking lot”

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019

Getting Nowhere: Thruway on a Friday Afternoon

I took the above photo four years ago from the roof of the TIME Hotel in Nyack when its then-general manager gave me a tour of the construction site. Traffic is no problem when you’re watching it from afar. And now . . .

“Traffic is backed up to the (Garden State) Parkway north from the Thruway,” the local traffic reporter told me via my car radio. The westbound backup continued past Exit 5 into White Plains and probably to Exit 8 and beyond. Didn’t make it to the bridge.

Impatient truck drivers used every bit of the entrance lane from Elmsford to enter an overcrowded 287. Raise rolls on the Thruway? Yes! Let truckers pay more, lots more for clogging up the lanes and causing traffic to stall as they still slow down on the new bridge’s lessened decline past the main span.

The above photo, courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority, shows traffic shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday. How many trucks can you see among the vehicles?

Thruway Authority Executive Director Matthew J. Driscoll said the agency “will continue to keep tolls as low as possible on the bridge for all motorists while providing the resources necessary to support the user-fee supported system.”

Double the tolls for trucks.

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019