If experience is a guide at past streetscape changes, I believe that a big part of the problem is the island’s newness. Once local drivers are used to it being there, they will not hit it so much as when it was new, and the anti-island sentiment will fade away.

The staff member pointed out that the Jersey barriers on the FDR off-ramp extend right up to the intersection, and that you really have to make a tight 90 right-hand turn to avoid the island. This is probably a tighter turn that most motorists are used to making, and certainly based on the turning cab in this bird’s eye image, it is a tighter turn that people were used to making before.

I said I thought that the island and tight turn serves an important function by slowing cars and forcing them into single file at the beginning of the street instead of allowing for a situation where aggressive drivers could jocky for space for blocks inland.

I still think the best solution here is not to remove the island, but to make it more visible to turning cars, or — if it is still that big a problem in a few months from now after everyone has gotten used to the island’s presence — consider reducing the length of the Jersey barrier. That would allow cars to make an easier turn while maintaining the important pedestrian refuge.

Silver’s opposition to this is an example of why we should thank the DOT when it does the right thing, as here.

I can’t believe Sheldon Silver wants to make the intersection more dangerous for pedestrians. Actually, yes I can.

Why in NYC is it always, “It doesn’t work! Take it away and make it like it used to be.”

How about: “It doesn’t work! Let’s work together to come up with a solution that does.”

And why is Shelly Silver becoming the most regressive force in NYC when it comes to traffic, transportation and public space?

One unintended but successful traffic calming device at a highway-surface street interface can be found at the offramp from the Henry Hudson Parkway at W. 79th St. In this case, driver’s must navigate around a semi-circle upon exiting the HHP. The surface of the semi-cicle is in horrible condition. The combination of having to drive in a tight semi-circle, and poor road surface conditions forces most drivers to proceed cautiously until they exit the circle and begin to haul-ass uphill towards Broadway on W. 79th.

As an occasional driver I’m sympathetic to the difficulty in adapting to the fact that when you return to the surface streets you reluctantly have to acclimate to the slower speeds, stop lights, and pedestrians that were absent on the expressway. Looking at the TA crash maps it’s clear that these off-ramps are problem locations. http://www.transalt.org/crashmaps/brooklynped.html I’m not really sure how to help drivers make this transition- I guess as you said it comes back to infrastructure. Certainly keeping them from entering the streets at 40 or 50 mph is a start. Making our surface streets less like expressways would help too.

These transitions need to be uniform, clearly and forcefully articulated and installed citywide, so that drivers come to EXPECT that when they leave the highway, they will be required–nay, FORCED by the design of these transitions–to reduce their speed and be alert not just for cars but for a whole variety of users that city streets routinely accommodate.

Looking at those photos of how scuffed up it is – YIPES!! Years ago, I am sure this ped refuge would have been torn up immediately…the DOT response would have went something like this: “Sorry, failed experiment. Too much damage to cars.”

This is precisely the message we need to be sending drivers, that our city is not built like a speedway and they need to slow down. And if we want to change the mindset of drivers, these kind of amenties and situations are going to become more common.

How about on the exit, but before the sharp turn, a sign that says “SLOW?”

Perhaps at Grand Street the DOT needed to design something a little larger that not only would provide a greater refuge (imagine sitting in a wheelchair there) but would also be more visible to cars, slowing them down further.