Long-Term Transportation Planning Post-Pandemic on So. Tier Close Up

The Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study is continuing its mission of drawing up transportation plan through 2045 although some of the focus has changed with the event of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BMTS director Jennifer Yonkoski is the guest on the weekly, local public affairs program, Southern Tier Close Up talking about the Moving Our Future Forward Transportation Plan.

The BMTS is again soliciting public input on the most important issues concerning anything that moves people.  Yonkoski says they look at everything; car, mass transit, walking, bicycling and the infrastructure that supports transportation.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus, Yonkoski says some priorities and practices have apparently changed.  Among the shifts: fewer people traveling to work, a move she says may actually continue and expand as companies have found they can operate with their employees working from home.  Yonkoski says there is also a trend of different recreational use of roadways with large recreational vehicles being turned to by families to take vacations while staying inside a sort of home on wheels.

Information from he transportation plan is used when the federal government identifies construction and other transportation projects and programs to fund.

More information on the plan can be found at https://bmtsmovingforward.com and the BMTS Facebook page.  People who don't have internet can request a printed survey by calling the BMTS at (607) 778-2443.

People can take the survey by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BMTSLongRangePlan

Southern Tier Close Up is heard Saturdays at 12:04 p.m. following ABC News on News Radio 1290 WNBF.