Traffic Calming

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.

On Wednesday evening, Manhattan Community Boards 9 and 10 jointly hosted a public forum on traffic calming for Morningside Avenue, including a presentation by NYC DOT about its safety proposals. Board members were generally receptive to DOT's plan, which is expected to go back to each board for resolutions of support, while offering their own suggestions -- some reasonable, some not so much. DOT said at the meeting it would like positive votes before moving ahead with the plan.

Community Boards 9 and 10 in Harlem will again hear from DOT tonight on a plan to calm traffic on Morningside Avenue [PDF]. The proposal was developed in response to a request from the North Star Neighborhood Association, and though there is general agreement that speeding drivers are a major problem on Morningside, the community boards have so far failed to endorse the city's plan to make the street safer.

Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 10 voted on a slate of pedestrian safety improvements for Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge. While a number of smaller changes, such as wider crosswalks and curb extensions, received the board's support, the board rejected the centerpiece of the plan -- trimming traffic lanes to slow speeding drivers [PDF].

After a three-and-a-half-hour meeting that itself followed a nearly three-hour deliberation last month, the Manhattan Community Board 7 transportation committee voted 7-0, with three abstentions, for a resolution asking DOT to study safety improvements for Amsterdam Avenue. The resolution asks DOT to consider a protected bike lane, pedestrian islands, removing one of the avenue's four car lanes, and retiming signals. It now moves to the full board for a vote on November 6.

On the same day the City Council's transportation committee held a hearing on a bill that would require DOT to install speed humps around every public school in New York City in two years, the agency announced that it had selected 15 neighborhoods from 74 applicants to its Slow Zone program. Slow Zones include signage, a 20 mph speed limit, and speed humps.

Last night, the full board of Manhattan Community Board 6 passed a resolution in support of a DOT plan that would fill in a gap between two sections of Second Avenue's protected bike lane by replacing a car travel lane with parking from 23rd Street to 14th Street. Across the East River, Queens CB 1's transportation committee was receptive to community requests for traffic calming on 21st Street in Astoria and Long Island City, asking advocates to come back with more specific requests.

Despite starting off with a somber reminder of the damage created by dangerous driving, Manhattan Community Board 7's transportation committee ended its meeting last night gridlocked over whether to support meaningful street safety improvements.

Last week, Staten Island Community Board 1 passed a resolution asking DOT to install bike lanes, while in Manhattan, a community-requested plan for a road diet and pedestrian islands continues to be delayed by two Harlem community boards.