The Community Action Network, a citizens group in

The Community Action Network, a citizens group in East Greenbush, New York, has been vigorously advocating adoption of a new urban master plan that would calm traffic on the Columbia Turnpike (Route 9 and 20) southeast of Albany. Traffic engineer Walter Kulash of Orlando, Florida, and Fraser Associates of Rensselaer, NY, worked on a plan, paid for by the Capital District Transportation Committee and the Town, that called for installing landscaped medians, planting large trees, establishing bike lanes, and lowering the speed limit — measures that the citizens group believes would help turn a “dangerous raceway” into a “people-friendly Main Street.” The Town Board tabled the plan in August, to the group’s dismay. The group pointed out that the neighboring City of Rensselaer, eager to create a boulevard and accommodate pedestrians, is working on its own plan, and that the neighboring Town of Schodack “will also be implementing traffic-calming, town-building ideas in their plan to create a new town center.” Since all three Republican candidates for supervisor and Town Board positions in East Greenbush support the Columbia Turnpike master plan, the issue is not over, said Jeanne Casatelli, a member of the citizens group.