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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 10, 2014:

This letter from Steven Gould, a Ridgeway resident, was received by WPCNR today and delivers an analysis of what traffic is now in the French American School of New York proposed development area and projects its real impact, in their opinion, if FASNY’s campus is built.

In my opinion, here is what will result from their Traffic Management  Plan intended to mitigate traffic should FASNY build their campus:

• 50% mandatory busing participation by all their students equates to 45 buses, each carrying 10 students to school, 450 student ridership
• 21 buses for the Lower School in the AM peak – queuing space required on campus is 651 feet
• 24 buses for the Upper School in the AM peak – queuing space required on campus is 744 feet
• 500 students remaining for transport by private car – 50 self-drive + 450 driven to school in the AM peak
• 1.3 students average per car equates to 396 vehicle trips in the AM peak
• Teachers and Staff arrival in the AM peak – 138
• Total vehicle trips already exceeds the 530 cap allowance in the AM peak hour in this model

Let’s look at what the physical impact of this FASNY traffic in the AM peak hour means to the neighborhood roadways carrying FASNY students teachers and staff to the campus each day:

• Average car length is 16 feet.  With two car lengths as a safe driving buffer on the road you are at  nearly 5 miles of cars traveling to the campus each morning.
• Average bus length is 38 feet.  With two bus lengths as a safe driving buffer on the road, you are at nearly 1 mile of buses traveling to the campus each morning.

With 6 miles of vehicular traffic driving to FASNY’s new North Street entrance along with all the current traffic of White Plains students traveling to WPHS, Ridgeway School, Memorial Methodist Nursery, YWCA, Ridgeway Alliance Nursery, the intersections at Ridgeway and North, Rosedale and North, Bryant and North, Mamaroneck Avenue and Ridgeway cannot handle the volume. 

The newly proposed 140 foot left hand turning lane from North Street into The FASNY campus cannot handle this volume of cars and buses.  Tweaking the timing of traffic signals will not solve this problem.

If you allow FASNY their Special Permit to build, and years from now when the school opens, it is revealed to all that the 530 cap was  indeed and in fact aspirational, what will your answer be then…more buses! 

If you cannot see that allowing this development to move forward will eviscerate The Gedney Farms neighborhood which is currently protected by our zoning code and The Comprehensive Plan, then please consider that the traffic it will generate cannot be mitigated. 

Your (the White Plains City Study) own traffic study confirms this.  Please let’s find another way to achieve open space in White Plains that will not ruin the character of our neighborhood and all the other neighborhoods in the south end of our city which equates to more than one third of the area of White Plains.   

Steven Gould