Prompted By Jimmy Van Bramer, CBS 2 Files a Decent Street Safety Story

We wrote last week how Lou Young of CBS 2 blew an opportunity to educate viewers on the merits of potential safe street improvements on the Upper West Side. In covering a press conference in Queens convened by Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Young’s colleague Andrea Grymes filed a story that does a much better job reflecting the perils posed by reckless drivers.

Grymes reports that pedestrians on 47th Avenue in Woodside, including seniors and kids at the Towers Play and Learn school, are endangered by speeding motorists looking to avoid Queens Boulevard, many of whom don’t slow down even when children are present. Van Bramer and students temporarily hoisted a DIY stop sign to draw attention to the problem, and he and locals are calling on DOT to calm traffic on the street.

This story definitely has the “little guy fights City Hall” angle, which is probably why Grymes played it straight. It would also have been useful if she had pointed out that the 108th Precinct isn’t doing much in the way of traffic enforcement, having issued just 322 speeding tickets this year as of September. But pieces like this pointing out the dangers of the status quo should be far more common. Whether or not local electeds are attuned to the situation, a New York neighborhood besieged by dangerous drivers is a story that can be told again and again. Consider the DOT Slow Zone waiting list if you doubt it.

If a stop sign isn’t the right solution here, maybe a neckdown or a chicane would solve the problem instead. DOT told CBS 2 the segment of 47th Avenue in question does not meet federal guidelines for a new stop sign, but said it is taking another look at conditions there.