Clarence sends over this photo of the newly car-free block of 37th Road between 73rd Street and 74th Street in Jackson Heights. Since this picture was taken, the asphalt on this block has been coated with an epoxy-and-gravel surface, and it looks like a two-way bike path will be striped on one side of the street.

The new plaza is part of a package to improve pedestrian safety, bike safety, transit effectiveness, and traffic flow in the commercial core of Jackson Heights, which DOT has been working on with neighborhood residents since the beginning of the year. You can track the changes and give DOT your comments through the online portal for the project.

Jackson Heights’ 78th Street Play Street, a summertime street closure won in last year’s best feel-good story of grassroots activism, has been expanded from two months of car-free space to three this year. If all goes well in September, when the school year has started, some sort of year-round street closure should be in the works for the kids of Jackson Heights.

“We’re on track to reforming the way that whole piece of street works,” said Donovan Finn, a member of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. Both the Department of Transportation and City Council Member Daniel Dromm are “pretty solidly on board” with making some sort of big change in the next year or so should all go well this summer, Finn reported.

By extending the play street through September — last year, the block of 78th adjacent to Travers Park was closed 24/7 in July and August — neighborhood residents and city officials will be able to see how it works when school is in session. The private Garden School uses the street both to access its five-space parking garage and for loading and unloading school buses. “That’s actually the only use that faces the street,” said Finn.

DOT and Dromm specifically requested that the play street be extended into September in order to test out how the school would make a year-round closure work, whether full- or part-time.

We’ll see what happens in September, but so far the play street is again wildly popular in the open space-starved neighborhood. “Within 20 minutes of having it closed, there were kids out there running around,” said Finn. Once amenities like picnic tables, umbrellas, and astroturf are brought out, he said, residents will be able to use the new public space in even more ways.

A witness or witnesses reportedly told police that a red-light runner caused the collision that killed 82-year-old Margaret Choberka in Jackson Heights. No charges were filed. Photo: Daily News

At least one witness told police that a driver ran a red light before a collision last week that resulted in the death of a Jackson Heights pedestrian, according to reports.

In the early afternoon of March 21, Margaret Choberka, 82, was walking near her home at 32nd Ave. and 70th St. when the drivers of a Toyota minivan and a Mercedes SUV collided at the intersection. The Mercedes then struck Choberka, who suffered head trauma and died at the scene.

The account of the incident in YourNabe says: “A witness at the scene who declined to give his name said the Toyota had run through a red light at the intersection.” A Queens Gazette blotter item reads: “eyewitnesses told investigators the driver of the Toyota ran a red light.” No charges were filed.

From YourNabe:

Some nearby residents said they had lived in the area for many years and found that speeding had gotten much worse recently, especially from motorists attempting to outrun red lights.

“People come down this block at 50 miles an hour to beat that light,” said Anthony DiGesu, 49, referring to the traffic light at the intersection of 70th Street and 31st Avenue.

NYPD confirmed all other details of the collision, but told Streetsblog there was no mention of a driver running a red light in the incident report, that both drivers had “valid paperwork,” and that “no criminality was suspected.”

It’s hard to fathom how neither driver could be at fault in this case, since, barring a mechanical malfunction of some sort, a two-car “t-bone” collision at a signalized intersection pretty much requires one driver to run the light. This crash is also reminiscent of the one that killed pedestrian Genowefa Kurpiewska (initially identified as Beata Kurpiewski). On May 18, 2010, Kurpiewska and her 3-year-old grandson were hit after a speeding driver blew through a light and struck another vehicle in the Castleton Corners neighborhood of Staten Island. Due to the particularly horrific nature of the crash, Kurpiewska’s death drew an unusual amount of media attention. The driver was charged with homicide.

It could be that there are mitigating factors here, details not reported by the press nor revealed by NYPD. It could be that crash investigators relied on the notorious “rule of two” when deciding whether to press charges or issue summonses. Whatever the variables, whomever caused the death of Margaret Choberka — and someone most certainly did — it appears that as far as NYPD is concerned, her case is closed.

The recommendations to improve pedestrian safety include widening crosswalks from 12 feet to 40 feet near the 74th Street-Broadway subway station. Image: NYCDOT

When large numbers of pedestrians, trucks and cars battle for limited space, you get a traffic mess. When that traffic mess is in one of the nation’s first high-density garden communities, which now is also one of the nation’s most diverse communities, you get Jackson Heights.

City transportation planners are taking another shot at untangling congestion in the commercial core of this Queens neighborhood, and on Saturday unveiled their recommendations to an audience of nearly 200. Afterward, local Council Member Dan Dromm voiced support for the plan.

Among the proposals topping the list:

• Converting one block of 37th Road and a small stretch of 73rd Street to pedestrian ways, which may accommodate vendors and bike parking for the neighborhood’s nearby transit hub.
• Create truck-unloading zones on commercial streets for several hours each morning, and metered parking fees that vary according to demand.
• Reverse traffic on 75th Street to allow southbound Q47 and Q49 bus service to shift to that street, providing quicker trips to a major transit hub.

The full set of recommendations, which you can browse through on the DOT site, includes many of the city’s sustainable transportation priorities: encouraging pedestrian, transit and bicycle use and creating open space where possible. And for motorists, planners say, traffic will move faster by reducing truck double-parking and trimming the number of left and right turns allowed.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that congestion is a really big problem,” said David Stein, director of community initiatives for planning and sustainability at DOT, during his presentation at P.S. 69.

No one argued with that, but Stein met with skepticism from several participants steeped in the belief that City Hall often ignores views from non-Manhattan neighborhoods.

“These are not set in stone,” Stein assured them. “We want to hear from you — if there are things that you like, or don’t like.”

The $1.4 million DOT study has been 18 months in the making. The agency held three earlier sessions for the public and conducted surveys of 1,445 pedestrians, 1,843 drivers, and 75 local businesses. The project covers the area from 69th Street to 82nd Street, and 35th Avenue to 41st Avenue, which includes the northern edge of Elmhurst.

Joe Sciberras, a 61-year-old executive, said he’s tired of bus delays between the transit hub and his home, north of the study area.

“Sometimes you sit there 15 to 20 minutes,” said Sciberras, who was skeptical that planners had come up with winning solutions.

Mary Rooney, 77, who lives in senior housing north of the study area, liked the focus on pedestrian safety, especially after a neighbor was struck by a car several months ago.

“I like longer traffic lights because sometimes you can’t get across the street before the light changes,” she said.

Council Member Daniel Dromm, who represents the area, said he liked the plan and hoped it wouldn’t meet the fate of two previous studies that were never implemented. “Let’s do it and see how it goes,” he said. “If it needs tweaking, we’ll do it.”

DOT Queens Borough Commissioner Maura McCarthy said the department would sort through the public’s suggestions and hoped to make the changes in about six months.

The initial work would be done using inexpensive, temporary fixes — for instance, using large planters to close streets to traffic — before the changes become permanent.

DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights, displaying the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

NYC DOT’s Jackson Heights Transportation Study already has some of the snazziest online resources of any department project, but to get the full scoop on the changes due for the neighborhood, head over to one of the two public meetings being held tomorrow.

DOT says that the plan, developed at the request of neighborhood groups, will include improvements targeted at easing congestion, improving pedestrian and bike access, speeding bus service, making the streets safer, adding badly needed community space and tackling the thorny issues of parking and deliveries. The scope of that list suggests an exciting project.

Tomorrow’s meetings will offer a chance to sit down with DOT officials and other community members, work through the plans and offer feedback. The two sessions will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at P.S. 69, 77-02 37th Avenue (between 77th and 78th Street).

DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights can display several layers of information, like the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

Since 2009, the Department of Transportation has been engaged in a major study of Jackson Heights’ streets and sidewalks. At the request of community groups and with federal funding from Rep. Joe Crowley, DOT has been developing a plan to make the neighborhood safer, less congested, and more transit-accessible. After two years of research and community engagement, DOT will be presenting its first recommendations next Saturday, February 12.

In preparation for the release of those plans, DOT has also launched a first-of-its-kind data portal collecting all the information about the Jackson Heights Transportation Study. (The portal was developed by a division of OpenPlans, Streetsblog’s parent organization.) Everything from community board presentations to raw, block-by-block data about parking occupancy is in one place.

The portal includes a new interactive map of Jackson Heights. Presenting information like vehicle speeds, pedestrian volumes, traffic crashes and parking occupancy, the map helps visualize what happens on the neighborhood’s streets. You can see, for example, how rampant double-parking blocks buses along Broadway: On one block, there are an average of 32 percent more cars parked than there are spaces. According to DOT, even more features should be available after next Saturday.

What’s presented on the 12th could also be extremely exciting. At presentations to Community Boards 3 and 4 last June, DOT proposed classifying all neighborhood streets into four categories laid out in the department’s Street Design Manual.

• Through streets would be redesigned to move vehicular traffic more efficiently, without causing speeding.
• Transit streets would have bus lanes, curb extensions at bus stops and lights coordinated with the buses. 74th and 75th Streets are likely candidates.
• Slow streets would calm traffic with re-timed signals and traffic-calming treatments like neckdowns.
• Some streets could be pedestrianized, with furniture and greenery creating new public spaces.

On top of that, DOT is looking at using curbside space more efficiently by adding more parking meters and extending metered hours, adding delivery zones for commercial vehicles, and using PARK Smart to price peak-hour parking more effectively. They’re also considering adding bike lanes and bike parking in the neighborhood.

Several ideas in this vein have been bubbling up through community-based efforts like the Green Agenda for Jackson Heights, a blueprint for making the neighborhood more sustainable released last spring.

All these possible improvements are only Phase I of the project, meaning they’re considered short-term improvements. Implementation would begin this spring. Phase II will explore larger improvements requiring either capital construction or more intense coordination with other agencies.

Of course, an ambitious list of potential improvements doesn’t necessarily turn into ambitious implementation. We’ll find out on the 12th.

At 82nd Street and 35th Avenue in Queens, a traffic cone helps keep drivers aware before crossing the path of students and parents. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

While Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is out to tear up pedestrian refuges on a dangerous stretch of Fort Hamilton Parkway, over in Queens, local street safety experts are improvising their own traffic-calming measures. Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson took these pictures of crossing guards using cones as makeshift safety improvements outside two Jackson Heights schools.

The cones alert drivers and force them to take turns slower, functioning much like a neckdown or bulb-out at the street corner. The crossing guards break out the cones after school get dismissed, a tactic Clarence says he never saw until moving to Queens. He reports that the guards have their traffic-calming technique down to a science:

I’ve talked to two of the crossing guards. One told me, “We are not technically allowed to do it, but we do anyway because it really helps protect the kids and slow down the cars when they come down the street.”

I asked how she knows where to put it, and she said, “I’ve been doing this long enough to know how cars cut that corner really fast, without looking for kids. I look to see if there are any tire skid marks on the road or gravel and I always put the cone down outside any of those.”

Living on this block, it is amazing to see the difference this cone makes on turning speeds when it is out there for half an hour.

More pictures after the jump.

Photo: Clarence Eckerson

Photo: Clarence Eckerson

Back in 2008, Jackson Heights residents banded together to win car-free Sundays on 78th Street, creating a new, temporary public space for children and families in one of NYC’s most park-starved neighborhoods. This year neighborhood activists aimed much higher: They wanted to make the street car-free 24-7 for the entire months of July and August.

As you’ll see, thanks to committed volunteers and strong leadership from District 25 Council Member Daniel Dromm, they overcame initial hesitation from the local community board’s transportation committee — which voted the idea down — to make it happen.

The fight was worth it, Dromm told us. “It was recognized just about two weeks ago in The Queens Tribune as being one of the best things about Queens – this play street,” he said. “So imagine if we hadn’t done it?” Indeed. We hope other electeds are in tune with their neighborhoods as much as Council Member Dromm.

All summer long, 78th Street was filled with a warm, family atmosphere, sometimes well after sundown. As for next year, there’s talk of possibly giving this car-free street even greater permanence.  Stay tuned.

The first 2010 installment of Summer Streets is tomorrow, and I can't think of a better way to get in the mood than to check in on this inspiring grassroots victory for livable streets in New York City.

These are pictures Clarence took last Friday at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The play street started out as a car-free experiment on summer Sundays in 2008, giving kids and families some more space to play and socialize in one of New York's most park-starved neighborhoods. As a candidate for City Council, Dan Dromm supported the play street, and in office he joined hundreds of constituents on a march to the local Community Board, helping to win a vote for making the street car-free seven days a week, all summer long.

This summer, the street has gradually gained popularity as a public space, and now it attracts up to 200 people at a time, according to Dudley Stewart, president of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. High school students who help supervise activities for younger kids throughout the week estimate that over the course of a busy day, several hundred people come over and enjoy the street.

"In the evenings you can have 100 people," said Stewart. "People are there well after eight." Even after the play equipment is put away, he said, people will linger on the benches, toddlers will play on the astroturf, and kids will ride bikes up and down the street.

Have a look at more of Clarence's pictures after the jump. Wouldn't it be great if kids had free reign on the street all year round, and traffic never invaded this space again?

The Jackson Heights Green Agenda [PDF] -- the product of a community planning process that drew on the expertise of hundreds of residents -- sets an ambitious, bottom-up roadmap for making New York's most diverse neighborhood more sustainable.

The goals outlined in the Green Agenda range from increased open space and green buildings to creating a hiring hall for day laborers in the neighborhood. It's also full of livable streets initiatives. The recommendations include turning streets and parking lots into pedestrian spaces, plazas, and parks. To reduce congestion, the plan calls for adding more Muni-meters to commercial streets and pricing them to increase turnover. To serve a neighborhood where 60 percent of households don't own a car, it envisions bike lanes on Roosevelt Avenue and better transit service.

The Green Agenda emerged from a year-long planning process led by Queens Community House, a set of community centers in the settlement house tradition; the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, and the Pratt Center for Community Development; along with a few other local organizations. Funding for the plan came from a state environmental justice grant.

The coalition held three half-day workshops, starting last November, each of which drew more than 100 people, where residents discussed the strengths and weaknesses of their neighborhood. "Portable workshops" brought the process to churches, adult education classes, and other groups already meeting. The outreach was multi-lingual, an absolute must in a neighborhood where many residents don't speak fluent English.

"We've all been really happy with the process," said Anna Dioguardi, the director of community organizing and development for Queens Community House. "It was definitely challenging to get the conversation started, especially when in many communities, even the word 'green' doesn't mean the same thing it does in English."

Local activists were encouraged by the extent of participation. Len Maniace, a volunteer with the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, praised the campaign's ability to fully include Spanish and Bengali-speakers. He feels a palpable change in the neighborhood. Instead of feeling resigned to living with the way the neighborhood looks and feels now, he said, residents now ask, "Why shouldn't I have a really nice looking neighborhood?"

All that outreach helped to create a plan tailored to the specific needs of Jackson Heights. The top priority for bicycle infrastructure, for instance, is to install more bike racks, said Dioguardi, "because many people don't have room for bikes in their buildings." Jackson Heights residents, many of whom work the night shift, were also more concerned with improving off-peak transit service than other communities might be, added Dioguardi. "The final product is really much more representative of the entire community" than any top-down plan would have been, she argued.

No single group will be pushing the whole agenda. Rather, neighborhood activists will use the document to guide and coordinate their work. Maniace, for example, mentioned signing Jackson Heights residents up for energy efficiency tax credits and making the 78th Street Play Street permanent as next steps. Dioguardi said that Queens Community House would likely focus on affordable, green buildings. According to Dioguardi, the Green Agenda has also earned praise from every Jackson Heights elected official, which could make it an effective advocacy tool if some recommendations encounter resistance later on. 

Jackson Heights residents and Council Member Daniel Dromm (bottom left) marched to Queens Community Board 3 to call for expanding the car-free 78th Street Play Street. Photo via Jackson Heights Green Alliance

Nearly 200 Jackson Heights residents marched on their community board last Thursday night to support the expansion of car-free public space in their neighborhood. That feat of organizing helped win the approval of Queens Community Board 3 for a summer-long 78th Street Play Street, reversing the stance of the board's transportation committee.

The play street debuted in the summer of 2008, but up until this year, it's only been in effect on Sundays. Now the street will be free from traffic for the entire months of July and August.

The play street occupies the block of 78th between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue, functioning as an extension of the heavily-used Travers Playground, which many parents in the neighborhood say is overcrowded during hot summer months. "We've got to find creative ways to increase the green space in the neighborhood," said Dudley Stewart of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. "We're second to last in city districts as far as green space is concerned." Jackson Heights residents have used the play street for activities from chalk painting and ball games to learning to ride a bike.

Extending the play street to last through the summer was one of the planks in Daniel Dromm's campaign for City Council last fall. "Without him, it would have been almost impossible to have this happen," said Stewart. Since taking office, Dromm has leafletted neighbors and commissioned a traffic study on the play street. The summer-long extension also enjoyed support from City Council Member Julissa Ferreras, Assembly Member Michael DenDekker, Senator Jose Peralta, and U.S. Congressman and Queens Democratic Party Chair Joe Crowley.

Even so, the transportation committee of Community Board 3 voted against extending the duration of the play street, claiming that it would bring crime and noise to the neighborhood after dark, eliminate parking spaces, and block emergency vehicle access. 

After that setback, local activists decided that they'd have to make a big push to convince the full board to overturn the committee's recommendation. Stewart told supporters to meet at Travers Park last Thursday before walking over to the board meeting. "I was expecting 30 people, 50 at the most," he said. "When 150 or 200 people arrived, it was just a wonderful spectacle." The crowd marched to the board meeting, chanting and singing the whole way. 

It was an unprecedented display of neighborhood activism, said Stewart, who is a community board member himself. "It's never happened," he said. "It's unheard of in this district."

The marchers, many of whom were children, spoke to the board, and their testimony, along with some revisions to the plan to allow emergency vehicle access, helped win a 27-9 vote in favor of the extended play street. The plan now requires a formal go-ahead from NYCDOT, which, along with the health department, has spoken strongly in favor of the plan. FDNY and NYPD have also endorsed the extended play street. 

What's next for the livable streets activists of Jackson Heights after this impressive victory? According to Stewart, open space remains the area's greatest need. If the summer-long play street is a success, he said, "We're going to try and work very hard to make it a permanent expansion to the park." Stewart also proposed looking for similar locations elsewhere in the neighborhood where summertime play streets could be put in place. 

At the Transportation Alternatives City Council candidate debate last night, the three Democrats competing in District 25 sat down to tackle concerns about traffic, public space, and street safety. An overflow crowd of about 50 people packed the second floor office of the Queens Diversity Center to see them.

The starkest differences between the candidates centered around how to allocate street space and improve safety. Challenger Daniel Dromm, a school teacher, was the only one to speak unreservedly in favor of design and engineering improvements. "We need to have more bike lanes installed," he said. "We may need to have lighting systems that give pedestrians more time to cross the street."

Incumbent Helen Sears took a different view of cyclist safety. While Dromm had called for better education of both drivers and cyclists, Sears got more specific. "I think every company that makes bikes should have to produce a video that will absolutely show the cyclist exactly what the rules of the road are," she suggested.

Businessman Stanley Kalathara at first insisted that "providing a special route in the street" for bike lanes is "impossible," but later modified the claim, saying that 34th Avenue and 35th Avenue might have the necessary space. (Note: 34th Avenue already has a bike lane.)

Dromm was also the only candidate to express much support for congestion pricing. "I do support some form of road pricing that would help to alleviate the burden on the MTA," he said, adding that he would also support higher gas taxes or bridge tolls to fund transit. "The majority of people in this neighborhood probably do not have cars, and that’s why I make that such a high priority."

According to the most recent census numbers [PDF], Dromm's intuition is correct: 52 percent of District 25 residents don't own cars. Still, Kalathara pledged to oppose pricing in no uncertain terms, and Sears made her support conditional on the construction of additional municipal garages. Apparently the council member subscribes to the belief that car commuters will use her district as a park-and-ride if they can't drive across the 59th Street Bridge for free. Logic dictates otherwise, but if there's any way to fulfill that prophecy, thousands of additional parking spots would do it.

Off-street parking policy was something of an Achilles heel for all three candidates. Their prevailing view: More garages and more parking would reduce the terrible congestion problem in Jackson Heights, one of the most transit-rich neighborhoods in Queens. Someone should send around a copy of Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking to these folks:

• Kalathara: "People are going to buy cars anyway, it has nothing to do with the garage."
• Dromm: "I agree that any development that comes into the community should have parking attached to it. Some people here come from Jersey and don’t use transit. So they need space."
• Sears: "We have very viable commercial areas. It’s a tri-state shopping center; people don’t take public transportation to get here."

After they're done with Shoup, the candidates might want to peruse TA's 2008 report, Guaranteed Parking, Guaranteed Driving, which spelled out that many car trips originate in Jackson Heights precisely because city zoning laws require parking attached to new development.

Each candidate also had one or two ideas that stood out as especially unique or insightful. I'll end on a bright note with some of these: 

• Dromm: "Reducing the speed limit is something we have to look at. These cars come barreling down the streets, especially the side streets, not the avenues. It rattles my windows." 
• Kalathara proposed car-free summer weekends on the major shopping streets in Jackson Heights: "37th Avenue, 73rd Street, and 74th Street -- make it like a shopping mall, car-free so people can shop and have a lot of fun."
• Sears used the disjointedness of Queens Boulevard to justify her stance that it can't accommodate a bike lane: "When [DOT] did studies for traffic, they did not do Queens Boulevard in its entirety, they did sections of it. As a result, they went by Community Boards; none of it connected." Okay, that's a terrible excuse for inaction. But it's also a pretty trenchant observation about DOT, when you consider that nearly all of the Class 1, on-street bike lane miles installed in the past two years have been confined to two community board districts in Manhattan, with two more in Brooklyn slated to receive some soon.
  

Both Queens Boulevard, still one of the city's most dangerous streets, and Northern Boulevard, another heavily trafficked feeder to the free 59th Street Bridge, run through the 25th. Only five percent of workers in the district commute by car to the Manhattan CBD, while 39 percent rely on transit [PDF]. Livable streets activism is strong here: Residents helped launch the 78th Street Play Street last year as a temporary corrective to the district's cramped sidewalks and lack of public spaces. Calls for a protected bike lane and traffic calming on Queens Boulevard have been continuous since the death of Asif Rahman last February.

Two-term incumbent Helen Sears sided against congestion pricing in last year's City Council vote, declined to join Eric Gioia and John Liu in urging safety improvements for Queens Boulevard, and responded to the district's sidewalk crunch by proposing a ban on food vendors in 2006. Democratic primary challenger Daniel Dromm, a teacher at PS199, also answered TA's candidate questionnaire, while a third Democratic candidate, Stanley Kalathara, has confirmed he will attend the debate. Republican Mujib Rahman has yet to confirm.

For a preview of tomorrow night's action, here's what Dromm and Sears told TA when asked their opinion of road pricing as a traffic reduction tool:

• Daniel Dromm
  Daniel Dromm does believe that road pricing will alter New Yorkers' travel choices. Dromm is a strong advocate for reducing motor vehicle congestion and expanding mass transit access and funding. Road pricing may be an effective way to reduce traffic but its implementation and design must not alienate or appear to unfairly burden different sections of the City. The major concern is that road pricing, as twice recently proposed, is not politically viable at the moment. Dromm advocates for vastly increasing street parking fees, improving parking management, and initiating a residential parking program. Dromm is a firm believer that neighborhoods surrounding high-traffic roadways will benefit from reduced vehicular congestion.
• Helen Sears
  Helen Sears: I believe that congestion is a serious problem in NYC for many reasons, including health (emissions contribute to high asthma rates and other issues) and the environment (it is critical that we reduce our carbon footprint). I look forward to working on this issue in the future, and will advocate for a plan that equitably distributes any burdens equally among the five boroughs.

The forum gets underway tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Diversity Center of Queens, 76-11 37th Avenue (between 76th Street and 77th Street).

Enjoying a game of four-square out on the street in Jackson Heights. Photo: Transportation Alternatives.

Using surveys and other data collected before and after last year's car-free events, Transportation Alternatives sheds some light on the upward trend in their new report, "I Walk in My Street" [PDF]. Here are some of the notable findings reported by TA:

• Before Summer Space, only 42% of respondents said they would visit Montague Street more often if it were closed to auto traffic; during the closure this number jumped to 72%.
• The percentage of respondents who rated the pedestrian experience of Montague Street as “Good” or “Very Good” increased from 79% before the closure to 97% during the events.
• 100% of those surveyed at the 78th Street Play Street felt that the event “enhanced the park and farmers’ market.”
• Pedestrian streets encourage walking: during the Williamsburg Walks event, 47% of those surveyed said that they had walked to the event, a 14% improvement over normal levels.
• Montague Street retailers experienced 26% higher sales during Summer Space than on comparable days in 2007, on average.

It takes a lot of preparation to put on a pedestrian street, and TA's report also includes detailed explanations of how each neighborhood pulled it off. You can learn how the organizers went about community outreach, city permitting, volunteer coordination, the whole shebang. While it's too late to apply for a pedestrian street this summer, if you're interested in bringing one to your neighborhood in 2010, it's never too early to get cracking on a game plan.

Streetfilms newcomer Robin Urban Smith brings us this romp through a new play street in Jackson Heights. Located in a neighborhood with little access to park space, the 78th Street Play Street effectively extends Travers Park out past the curb every Sunday for 20 weeks.

Neighborhood groups Jackson Heights Green and Friends of Travers Park put a lot of time and effort into getting the play street off the ground. "This is the only play street I know of that's organized by grassroots groups," said Elena Madison, one of the volunteers behind it (the events are usually organized through the Police Athletic League).

This Sunday will be the third time 78th Street turns into a play street, with Williamsburg Walks and Montague Summer Space rounding out the weekend's car-free action.

A few weeks ago, the bus stop for the Q47 and Q19b at 37th Ave. disappeared, replaced by three metered parking spots. According to the DOT spokesman, the change was made to speed bus traffic and thereby "reduce congestion and eliminate honking." The spokesman said that three more metered spots didn't represent a significant increase in metered parking and shouldn't be perceived as "giving back" parking to space formerly dedicated to mass transit. In making the move, the department worked with the MTA, which determined that nearby stops--at 35th Ave. and 37th Rd.--were close enough together that the 37th Ave. stop was superfluous.

Sweeney begs to differ, noting that the two remaining stops (represented by the top and bottom yellow dots on the map above; the middle dot is the eliminated stop) are now approximately 1,350 feet apart (the MTA says it tries to provide stops every 750 feet on average). Sweeney also has a problem with the way the change was made, saying the community was not consulted, and if they had been, metered parking spaces would not have been on the list of requests.

"The Western Jackson Heights Alliance has repeatedly asked for muni-meters and loading zones to be installed in the area," said Sweeney in an e-mail to Streetsblog. "If the Dept of Transportation is looking for quick and easy fixes, these two changes are it. Adding more parking spaces will not improve the situation--it will make it worse. Double parking, by trucks and cars that are loading and unloading, is the primary cause of congestion, and by extension, horn honking. Unfortunately, metered parking spaces are easily abused by motorists feeding the meter throughout the day. In 2003, Transportation Alternatives did a study of the area and noted that 39 percent of the metered parking spaces were abused by merchants feeding the meter through-out the day."

After hearing the DOT's rationale for the move, Sweeney still questions how it fits into the mayor's plan for a greener New York. "Jackson Heights must be the only place in New York City right now that is losing mass transit options and adding parking for private automobiles," he writes. "Does Mayor Bloomberg really care about congestion, air pollution and pedestrian safety outside of Manhattan? His actions are not in sync with his words."

Photo: Will Sweeney

Fed up with the dysfunction of New York City's streets, people all around the city are picking up video cameras and making their own StreetFilms. The one above is pretty amazing. Unless you like the sound of car horns honking, make sure your volume is turned down before you press "play."

This StreetFilm was produced by Will Sweeney and Kozo Okumura around the palindrome intersection of 37th Ave. and 73rd St. in Jackson Heights, Queens on a Saturday evening at about 6 pm. Will writes:

We put together the video because we wanted to show how visceral the problem is on a daily basis. The problem of traffic congestion has so many side effects that are difficult to communicate in words or still images. Also, most residents would cite noise as the main complaint, particularly horn honking.

Will and Kozo are part of a growing group of neighborhood documentarians who are submitting work to StreetFilms. Last month Brooklynite Doug Gordon shot this video of car traffic illegally entering Prospect Park. Likewise, Ian Dutton of Community Board 2 in Manhattan has been video-taping bike facilities to show the reality of what it takes to get around New York City on a bicycle, at times.

So how about you? It doesn't take much these days. You don't need a great camera, just some patience, steady hand and an idea that you want to communicate. Check out some of our StreetFilm-making tips then send it in to us to post.

The Queens Times-Ledger reports on the "cool reception" given last week by Queens Community Board 3 and City Council Member Hiram Monserrate to the DOT's proposal for a one-way pair of streets on 35th and 37th avenues. What's most disappointing about the debate so far is the DOT's insistence it can't come up with any other solutions to the chronic traffic congestion that plagues the heavily residential neighborhood.

Will Sweeney, a founding member of the Western Jackson Heights Alliance civic association, said one-way streets east and west would increase vehicle speeds and danger to pedestrians. He said the congestion was created not by east-west problems, but by backups on north-south streets. That is where the DOT should focus its efforts, he said.

"We do need a traffic engineering solution to the congestion and pedestrian safety problems in Jackson Heights. We don't need a dangerous raceway for through traffic," he said.

DOT Queens Borough Commissioner Maura McCarthy, who noted that no one spoke in favor of the plan, said there were not many options for the city to consider.

"We are not here to force anything down anybody's throat," she said, but then added "there are not a lot of other ideas."

You can find a PDF of the DOT's complete presentation here.

Photo: Sarah Goodyear 

Two weekends ago, I decided to take an informal and unscientific survey of license plates in these three neighborhoods. I found that after New York, the most common plates are North Carolina or Pennsylvania. I considered that PA was relatively close and that possibly motorists were just visiting for a few days. But North Carolina is a long haul from NYC. Last Friday, I did the experiment again. This time I counted. 192 NC plates, 97 PA plates, 43 NJ plates, 21 Ohio plates, 12 CT plates and a few other random states in the single digits.

A little more research confirmed Sweeney's suspicion that all those cars didn't belong to tourists from Greensboro and Fayetteville. Turns out that so many drivers from our area are going down south to fraudulently obtain North Carolina plates that legislators in that state have introduced legislation to make the practice a felony. Reports Raleigh TV station WRAL:

State Insurance Commissioner Jim Long said motorists flock to North Carolina from expensive insurance states, such as New Jersey and New York. They give fake local addresses and get cheaper insurance and tags.

"They're coming down here literally by the bus load," Long said....

Investigators want the state Division of Motor Vehicles and insurance agents to improve how they verify where people live.

"The goal in all this is to protect the rates being charged to North Carolina drivers by keeping those from other states from buying insurance down here, then going back up north and having wrecks and costing all of us," Long said.

Sweeney notes that better enforcement in North Carolina would have a beneficial effect on New Yorkers as well. "A very effective way to re-claim our streets from cars is to make sure that all illegal cars are off the streets," he writes. "I think that if the city and state enforced the insurance and registration laws of the city, we could tremendously decrease the number of vehicles on the streets. And the revenues from fines and traffic tickets would actually be paid!"