Column on highway 'miracle' is no help for commuters

The commute by car through the Lincoln Tunnel, above, and on NJ Transit trains and buses, below, hasn't gotten any easier in the year or more since these photos were taken. In the past decade, The Record has done little to dramatize highway congestion or crowded mass transit, allowing its lazy transportation reporters and columnist to steer coverage. See today's overlong Road Warrior column on a man who picks up litter near highway off-ramps. 

Standing room only on an old rail car pressed into service after Superstorm Sandy.

As especially hellish Friday night commute at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Let's hear it for Benny Gonzales, a disabled Paterson man who picks up litter near highway ramps and returns wallets and other valuables discarded by thieves, as reported today on The Record's Local front (L-1).

But this feel-good column by Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski won't do anything to improve the hellish weekday commute of tens of thousands of drivers and mass-transit users who live in North Jersey.

This month, Cichowski is celebrating his 11th year as Road Warrior columnist. He is perhaps the laziest transportation reporter The Record has ever had.

A close second would be Dan Sforza, the deputy local assignment editor who, as the transporation reporter, ignored NJ Transit's then-new fleet of defective commuter buses.

Their screeching rear brakes and noisy engines awoke people who lived on residential routes, including Queen Anne Road in Teaneck and Grand Avenue in Englewood.

When the problem was brought to Sforza's attention, he shrugged, and went back to researching stories on "highways of the future."

Fuzzy reporting

Today, Cichowski incorrectly calls the grass near ramps for Routes 19 and 80 "medians." 

He refers to Gonzalez's litter patrol and honesty as "a 21st-century miracle."

Of course, a real miracle would be Cichowski acting as an effective commuting columnist -- without committing hundreds of errors.

Front page

Page 1 today doesn't have a single hard-news story from any town, Bergen and Passaic counties or the state.

'GWB affair'

On the Opinion front, Carl Golden, a former press aide to two Republican governors, writes about the current Republican governor and what the writer refers to as "the GWB affair" and "the GWB episode."

Golden calls them "a reference to all manner of alleged or genuine misbehavior -- abuse of government power, political retribution, conflicts of interest, insider deals, personal financial gain, ethical breaches and involvement of administration staffers in campaign work" (O-1).

But as you would expect with a longtime GOP loyalist, Golden doesn't venture an opinion on Christie's involvement in the Fort Lee lane closures last September.

Golden shares this flaw with other opinion columnists for the Woodland Park daily, including Charles Stile and Mike Kelly.