Queens

DOT has plans to improve conditions for pedestrians on the Queens side of the Pulaski Bridge, which connects Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Hunters Point in Long Island City. According to a recent presentation [PDF], pedestrians will benefit from additional crosswalks, new markings and signalization to reduce turning vehicle conflicts, and pedestrian islands.

On the scale of absurd political theater, fare hike hearings in New York City rank very close to the top. Elected officials heap scorn on the MTA, diverting attention from their own responsibility for underfunding transit, while beleaguered straphangers beg board members for a reprieve that depends on those same electeds. It's a cycle of frustration, blame, and unaccountability.

Another story today highlights the woeful inadequacy of our justice system to deter traffic violence and hold reckless drivers accountable for the loss of life they cause. The Daily News reports that Alexander Aponte, who struck and killed nine-year-old Ibrihim Ahmed while driving a huge campaign bus for a Queens City Council candidate, will get away with a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license. Not murder, not criminally negligent homicide, not vehicular manslaughter, not even reckless driving.

A zoning change that would provide better bike parking options in new buildings is wending its way through the city's public review process, which means 59 community boards have a chance to vote on it. The Queens Gazette reports from the goings on at CB1, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City:

Her name was Jasmine Paragas. According to reports, she was a 14-year-old freshman, an honors student, at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. She came to the US from the Philippines with her parents and younger brother, who is now 10, about six years ago.

Arturo Flores, a Queens musician who played Andean wind instruments, was struck and killed by a van this Tuesday while biking in Astoria. Reports of his death have appeared in a local message board, neighborhood blogs, and a Peruvian music blog. Conventional news coverage has not surfaced online, but a sparse account appeared in the print edition of the Daily News:

In July, bicycle advocates and family members of Asif Rahman, who was killed while biking on Queens Boulevard earlier this year, called on the city to transform the "Boulevard of Death" into a street that safely serves all users. The effort to make Queens Boulevard a complete street continues tonight at 6:30 p.m., when Transportation Alternatives leads a group ride from the Queensborough Bridge to Elmhurst, the first in a series of monthly "bike pools." From T.A.:

Last February, 22-year-old Asif Rahman was hit and killed by a truck while riding his bicycle on Queens Boulevard. Though the infamous "Boulevard of Death" is a lot safer than it used to be, it still produces far too many injuries and fatalities. Asif's family, Council member Jim Gennaro, and Transportation Alternatives held a press conference yesterday, covered by Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press, calling on New York City government to transform Queens Boulevard into a "complete street," with a physically-protected bike lane and safer pedestrian crossings. Queens Council Members John Liu and Eric Gioia also signed on to a letter urging Mayor Bloomberg to complete Queens Boulevard. 

Last month, DOT striped buffered bike lanes on Vernon Boulevard (right), part of a package of safety improvements for the north-south corridor that parallels the western Queens waterfront [PDF]. Bike facilities are scarce in this part of the city, and the addition of the new lanes, which eliminated a lane of parking along parts of the route, has not come without opposition from the local community boards, CB1 and CB2. But as Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron reports, residents also organized to voice support for the project.