Eyes on the Street

Eyes on the Street: Safer Streets Come to Jackson Heights

In June, Queens Community Board 3 overwhelmingly supported two traffic safety projects: a neighborhood Slow Zone for part of Jackson Heights and new pedestrian islands on Northern Boulevard. Now those improvements plus multiple Safe Routes to School projects are being installed. Clarence Eckerson Jr. snapped some photos earlier this week as DOT crews poured concrete and installed new signs and speed humps.

By Stephen Miller

5:39 PM EDT on September 26, 2014

New curb extensions are popping up on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr. — New curb extensions are popping up on 35th Avenue in Jackson Heights. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

The Slow Zone covers the area between 34th and Roosevelt Avenues, with the eastern boundary at 87th Street and the western boundary along Broadway and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway [PDF]. It is bringing 20 mph speed limits and 26 new speed humps to the area, which contains six schools, two daycare and pre-K facilities, and one senior center. Slow Zones are popular with CB 3, where they have already been installed in Corona and Jackson Heights/East Elmhurst.

On Northern Boulevard, crews are installing nine new pedestrian refuge islands at key intersections along 40 blocks between 63rd and 103rd Streets [PDF]. At its June meeting, CB 3 asked DOT to extend the project east to 114th Street with more pedestrian islands. Pedestrian islands have already been installed at 63rd Street, where 8-year-old Noshat Nahian was killed on his way to school last December.

DOT has installed pedestrian islands on Northern Boulevard, including here at 89th Street. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr. — DOT has installed pedestrian islands on Northern Boulevard, including at 89th Street. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Stephen Miller

In spring 2017, Stephen wrote for Streetsblog USA, covering the livable streets movement and transportation policy developments around the nation. From August 2012 to October 2015, he was a reporter for Streetsblog NYC, covering livable streets and transportation issues in the city and the region. After joining Streetsblog, he covered the tail end of the Bloomberg administration and the launch of Citi Bike. Since then, he covered mayoral elections, the de Blasio administration's ongoing Vision Zero campaign, and New York City's ever-evolving street safety and livable streets movements.