Today’s Headlines

  • Keep Digging, Marty (NYT, Bklyn Reporter, Voice)
  • Golden Can’t Keep His Story Straight on Unpaid Tickets, Either (Post, WNYC)
  • Cuomo Holds Straphangers Hostage by Shortchanging Subway Work (News)
  • More Coverage of L Shutdown Plan: NYT, 2AS, AMNY, Post, News
  • Silly Academics! Everyone Knows Bikes Kill Commerce (Patch)
  • Amtrak Releases App to Guide People Through Penn Station (NYT)
  • Family Devastated by Judge’s Plea Deal With Killer Carjacker (Post, News)
  • Motorist Runs Over Teenager in Jamaica and Flees (NY1, News)
  • Watch Drivers Slalom Past DOT’s New Greeley Ave. Traffic Circles (Advance)
  • Welcome to Omaha. Please Walk Safely. (ABC)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • Tooscrapps

    That traffic circle is the new standard in uselessness.

  • reasonableexplanation

    Seriously, roundabouts are wonderful, but what they put up here is not one, and is way, way worse.

    Honestly a good chunk of intersections in residential areas in NYC could and should be roundabouts instead of stop signs or traffic lights.

  • Tooscrapps

    Agreed. The implementation here is a joke.

    Though traffic circles can be safer for drivers, the jury is still out on the effects on peds and cyclists. Pretty good post here:
    https://streets.mn/2017/11/17/are-roundabouts-safer-for-pedestrians/

  • reasonableexplanation

    I wonder if any analysis has been done on mini-roundabouts, of the type that would actually fit in current NYC streets, similar to this:

    https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/images/7/75/Tiny_mini_roundabout_1_-_Coppermine_-_4700.JPG

  • Simon Phearson

    I sometimes wonder, when it comes to the NYCDOT, whether the half-measures they implement are a matter of incompetence or a matter of political support (or the lack thereof). In many case, it can be hard to tell.

    This is not one of those cases.

  • kevd

    maybe the problem is that that isn’t how traffic circle are supposed to work?

    also, first in NYC?
    Columbus Circle, Grand Army Plaza, Bartel Pritchard, Park Circle (off the top of my head).

  • Joe R.

    Marty Golden is a perfect example of the saying “give someone enough rope and they’ll eventually hang themselves”.

  • Jeff

    None of those are really traffic circles. They’re just kind of a circular arrangement of signalized intersections.

  • com63

    I downloaded the Amtrak app only to discover you can only use the app once you are inside of Penn Station. You can’t look at it beforehand to plan. Better than nothing, but still kind of useless.

  • Larry Littlefield

    He and his generation and legislative colleagues will be leaving future New Yorkers much worse off, with higher taxes, and diminished services. He’s had the last laugh at his “constituents” many times over, believe me.

    Ask Golden why New York City is the only locality in the state that doesn’t get AIM aid? Wealthy suburbs get it. Those in the Hamptons get it. City residents pay for half of it in state income taxes.

  • kevd

    As are some large, heavily trafficed traffic circles in Europe.

  • kevd

    I think 80% of NY drivers would drive straight over the middle of that.
    Stick a 1000 lbs cement planter in the middle and it might do something.
    they’d still complain when they hit it…..

  • reasonableexplanation

    It’s that way so larger vehicles can get through (firetrucks, etc.). Planters and such can work where the intersection/roundabout is much larger.

    Wherever these bad boys are common, they’re respected. They will be here too.

    With the exception of speeding, NYC drivers are actually pretty law abiding, compared to what I’ve seen elsewhere, honestly.

  • crazytrainmatt

    If the amtrak app gives the departure board that’s a helpful step, but this PDF Penn station map is what you’ve been looking for (though it’s missing the new corridor extension west of 8th ave): http://jasongibbs.com/pennstation/

  • AnoNYC

    Agreed, needs something solid if even flex posts.

  • kevd

    if you’ve driven in the UK you would know that there is such a thing as too many roundabouts.. I would get nauseated driving there sometimes from the endless roundabouts.
    Also, drivers there absolution fly through them. As in all things, Germany may have achieved a transportation idea.. More roundabouts than in the US, fewer than the UK.

  • kevd

    I’m sure they would be respected by NY drivers…
    like bike lanes and fire hydrants and double parking regulations and speed limits and red lights.

    I’ll have some of what reasonableexplanation is smoking, please!

  • reasonableexplanation

    The only time I see cars parked at fire hydrants without a driver present, they have nice orange tickets on their windshields.

    Double parking is also usually ticketed when the driver leaves, though it needs to be ticketed when the driver is there too, in my opinion.

    Speed i’ve discussed.

    How often do you see cars run red lights? I drive walk ride and bike pretty frequently around the city and outside of some choice parts of bay ridge and east new york, I almost never see this.

  • kevd

    I think we must live in entirely different cities.

    “Double parking is also usually ticketed when the driver leaves”
    Double parking is occasionally ticketed. It is not usually ticketed at all.
    Granted, on side streets, and not in the bike lane. I don’t care.
    Its just the traffic (car and bike) blocking double parking I care about- and that is rampant.

    Red lights? I constantly see drivers go through the red just after it turned.
    Or pull the left turning, follow super close to the left turning car in front of you so that you can get through the light just like the guy in front you did.
    But just completely blowing through a red light (that didn’t just change) at speed? No, not a lot. Drivers have some self-preservation instinct after all.

  • reasonableexplanation

    I’m totally with you on double parking on main streets; it should be ticketed mercilessly even when the driver is in the car. Right now, if a meter maid walks by a double parked car without a driver they’ll ticket it every time (same with a car without someone in it at a hydrant). They should ticket it when there’s a driver in it too though.

    I don’t think appropriately priced parking is the problem re double parking. Some people are just too lazy to pull into a spot. I see cars double parked next to open hydrant/driveway spots all the time for no reason other than laziness.

    You can enter the intersection on a stale yellow, as long as you’re in it before the switch to red, you’re in the clear. This I see all the time, but it’s allowed, and if you’re not paying attention to when the switch happens, can look like the car a red. Cars actually running a just turned red does happen, but is pretty rare in most of the city. Cars running a solid red at speed I’ve only seen in Bay Ridge.

    Left turning is fine as long as you’re in the intersection before the switch to red. If the lead car pulls out far enough into it that a second car can fit, that’s fine. Those that enter the intersection after the switch I see maybe once a week, and they’re assholes.

  • kevd

    not talking about a yellow.
    I’m talking about a red. entering when it is red.
    its a simple distinction to see and I can tell the difference.
    And I’m aware of what a yellow requires you to do as a driver.

    i’ll document it in DT BK sometime for you. It isn’t so much dangerous as it is an inconsiderate “me-first” attitude that sometimes messes up traffic.

    Meter maids will ticket what they see. But they ain’t everywhere. They probably aren’t enough places based on the double parking I see on Flatbush ave by me. Really messes up the B41.
    Agreed, regarding lazy drivers. So I guess its enforcement PLUS pricing.

  • reasonableexplanation

    I’m glad we’re on the same page.

    The 2 left turning drivers that turn on red does happen, but not often, at least in my experience.

    It’s not like bad behavior doesn’t happen, and I’m sure you can document it without issue if you tried, but honestly, over the course of an hour drive around the 5 boros I’m not guaranteed to see something that makes me shake my head. Considering how many drivers I’ll interact with over that hour, that says something.

    There are some troubled intersections that have bad behavior more often, and those can be fixed via design and enforcement, but they’re not the norm. Part of what makes my driving so laid back is that I avoid those when I can.

    We’re in full agreement about double parking/standing. it messes up the flow for everyone, and taking care of that will yield huge, immediate benefits.

    I’ve only driven in the first world, and honestly, it feels like a misconception that NYC drivers are bad. They’re just aggressive. Some of the worst driving I’ve seen is actually at the interface of suburbs and rural areas, where you have folks that just don’t know how to respond to something out of the ordinary. (The best I’ve seen is at the interface of suburbs and cities, where drivers know how to deal with both).

  • kevd

    I watch it literally every single weekday morning at multiple (though specific) intersections on my way to work. So yeah. It happens often.
    Perhaps it could be helped with a left turn phase, as there is clearly a problem.