By Mid-Hudson News Network

HIGHLAND, N.Y. — If traffic on the five bridge crossings over the Hudson River operated by the New York Bridge Authority is any indication of the state of the economy, it remains sluggish.

Traffic declined overall by over one percent in 2011 compared to 2010.

Only traffic on the Bear Mountain Bridge rose, by just under 1.5 percent.

Traffic on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, the largest carrier of commercial traffic — the largest money maker — fell by 1.5 percent.

Traffic on both the Kingston-Rhinecliff and Rip Van Winkle bridges was off 1.4 percent

There was some growth in traffic early in 2012, said Bridge Authority Chief of Staff John Bellucci.

“The numbers did improve from this January to last January, but bear in mind that the weather has been pretty good and last January we had five snowstorms,” Bellucci said. “There are a lot of mitigating factors in these numbers, but what we are seeing now is hopefully a little bit of an uptrend.”

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