Seeing Red: Queens Parents Just Want DOT To Make Intersection at Childcare Center Safe
Will the city wait until a kid is killed before making a notoriously dangerous Queens neighborhood safe?
That’s what parents who send their children to the Baby Steps daycare in Rego Park are wondering after another near-miss right in front of the early childhood education facility that took out the front fence as well as crushed a memorial to a cyclist killed by a driver in 2017. That crash was in the same week in April 2025 when another driver struck a 5-year-old crossing the street.
Parents want the Department of Transportation to install a traffic light at the intersection of Alderton and Fleet streets after multiple crashes last year. But parents are more frustrated than ever after a March meeting with the agency and Queens Community Board 6 resulted in no changes and no response from the department.
“That’s the lawn that, every single day, my son and his friends play,” said Nick Weiss, a parent of a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old. The crushed fence has yet to be replaced. “Does a child have to die before the DOT does something?”
The driver that crashed into the fence also collided with a memorial for a cyclist killed by a motorist in 2017 at the intersection, mangling the white, “ghost bike.” Over the past decade, drivers have caused 33 reported crashes, according to city statistics, causing eight injuries and the death of the cyclist, Yau-Teg Fung, 84.
The danger is hiding in plain site: Alderton and Fleet are both two-way streets that intersect with four-way stop signs. Dense foliage lines Alderton, which cascades downhill to the intersection. Meanwhile, drivers use Fleet Street as a shortcut between the busier Woodhaven and Yellowstone boulevards. Weiss said drivers often speed.
Parents have been complaining for years, said Jessica Finn, another parent. She said most drivers do not stop at the intersection or, at best, come to a rolling stop. She watched the intersection for 10 minutes recently and reported that 80 percent of the drivers didn’t come to a full stop at the intersection.
“Stop signs just aren’t cutting it,” she said. Weiss added that when he’s crossing Fleet Street with his child in a stroller, drivers swerve around him to continue moving through the intersection, which he crosses every day because the day care center comprises two buildings on each side of Fleet Street.
Of his son, he said, “I hold his hand extra tight” when they cross that street.
“We have near-misses almost daily,” he said. He said the intersection has been one of his biggest stressors as a parent, since his children were initially enrolled in early 2024.
Finn added that parents “are asking for literally anything else that DOT is able to provide to make this intersection safer” due to the sheer volume of children crossing the street. The intersection is not only home to the daycare center, but is near both P.S. 174 and the Forest Hills Youth Athletic Association.
The area’s Council member has not been a consistent voice in support of DOT street safety measures, but in this case, he’s all for changes.
“When families repeatedly raise concerns about safety, the city has an obligation to listen,” Council Member Phil Wong (D-Maspeth) said in a statement. “We need to do more to protect pedestrians, especially children, and DOT must take a fresh look at this intersection and move quickly on meaningful improvements.”
That said, parents don’t always like what DOT offers: In 2016, the agency discussed converting Alderton Street to a one-way, the Queens Chronicle reported. Residents, however, weren’t happy with this solution, and Finn said some feared it would only cause drivers to move faster.
DOT has told parents that the intersection doesn’t meet federal standards for a stoplight, according to Finn. In addition, DOT said that the intersection only has light traffic and hasn’t been the site any serious injuries over the past five years.
Finn said her and other concerned parents are open to numerous different solutions, such as raised crosswalks, daylighting or simply getting the crosswalks repainted. She started a petition — it now has almost 800 signatures — asking that the DOT reevaluate the intersection and install a traffic signal.
For its part, the agency said it’s hearing the parents: “We appreciate the community’s concern for safety and will review any requests,” a spokesperson told Streetsblog.
Parents will rally at the intersection on Wednesday, June 3, at 9:30 a.m.
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