Rumbling at the Rumble Strip Rally
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- October
- 6
Thanks to all the riders who came for yesterday’s Rumble Strip Rally and Protest Ride along Route 100 in Yorktown. There were about 40 of us out there letting the state DOT know that it’s time for them to fix the serious safety problem the agency created by installing the rumble strips on a stretch of road that is arguably the best known
four miles for cyclists in all of Westchester.
The rally generated a goodly amount of press coverage. Here’s The Journal News story
As I reviewed my file of documents gathered over the previous six months, I was impressed by how the state Department of Transportation has fought to keep this issue from the public eye. The state refused to disclose many documents when I first made a Freedom of Information request this spring. And even the emails from DOT regional engineer Michael J. McBride, which finally released under order by the DOT’s general counsel, were heavily redacted.
For example, in one McBride email, dated Oct. 1, McBride states that three DOT employees were injured, including himself. But for some reason, the state redacted who that email was sent to.
Another email sent on March 26, is apparently written by McBride. But both the sender and recipient’s name are blacked out, as are the subject of the email and discussion of issues involving the rumble strips. In this email, McBride states, “I predicted this type of complaint.†But the state doesn’t want us to know the nature of that complaint, which was most likely spelled out in the blacked out section on the same email.
Then there was the Jan. 12, 2007 email which appears to be written by McBride. The sender and recipient lines are blacked out as is the subject line. It leaves me wondering what the DOT is hiding.
Also, due to the weather Sunday morning, we had to cancel the six multi-level rides
and pizza tailgater. My apologies to those who showed up looking for pizza. I had to make the call at 10.30 whether to move forward with the food. It was still raining. We were still going to have the rally but I had no idea how many would show up in the rain. I didn’t see all that much fun eating pizza in the rain. So I canceled the pizza order. At the rally, I suggested that we hold a protest ride each month until they pave in the rumble strips. I know riding in the late fall and winter isn’t at the top of everyone’s list. But I think it would be a good thing to keep the pressure on, in a low-key kind of way.
Photos by Kaven Full
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 1:28 PM by David McKay Wilson. 
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I think there is a real question here about the accountability of a New York State government agency. It seems very clear that there were mistakes made by McBride and others that cost the taxpayers a great deal of money. Regardless of whether or not the money is found to fix the mistakes, the people who made them should be held accountable so that this sort of thing does not happen in the future. The state DOT should not be some intractable force immune to oversight by elected officials and the public.