Streetsblog New York City

Separate crashes in the past 48 hours have critically injured two New York City pedestrians.

On Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m., an unidentified 81-year-old woman was crossing Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens when she was struck by a tow-truck driver turning left from westbound Atlantic Avenue. The woman sustained severe trauma to the head and was last listed in critical condition, according to police. Despite the fact that the circumstances of the crash indicate the victim was crossing Woodhaven with a walk signal and the truck driver failed to yield, NYPD gave Streetsblog the standard line that the crash involved “no criminality” and that it “looks like an accident.”

This morning at around 7 a.m., a minivan driver struck a pedestrian at the intersection of 172nd Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition. NYPD had no further details on the crash at this time.

Update: The Daily News reports that the victim of the Bronx crash was crossing Jerome when he was struck by a minivan driver heading north, then hit again by a southbound driver. The minivan driver said he didn’t see the victim “until he was right in front of me.” No charges were filed.

We’ve got another highlight from 2010 construction season to share with you. A two-way, protected approach to the Queens side of the Queensboro Bridge bike-ped path has been paved, striped and open for business since the end of October.

Clarence took these photos of the new approach, part of a package of bicycle and pedestrian improvements that NYC EDC is carrying out at Queens Plaza and vicinity. The project has been in the works for several years and, when finished, will encompass a major reallocation of real estate from cars and parking to public space, walking and biking. The bridge approach in these photos will be a link in a two-way path running from Northern Boulevard to Vernon Boulevard.

Read more…

A driver hit and killed a three-year-old child in Queens at around 4 p.m. today, according to the NYPD. Streetsblog first learned of the fatal collision via a Twitter report which said the child was struck at the intersection of 89th Road and 211th Street in Hollis. The NYPD’s public information department can’t confirm that information or any other details yet.

The same report also stated that the vehicle was being driven by an NYPD traffic agent, which the department denies. We’ll update this post as we learn more.

Update: NYPD gives the location of the crash as 211th Street and 89th Avenue, one block north of 89th Road.

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?

Read more...

Here's a look at NYCDOT's plan for the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge [PDF], which would give cyclists traveling between Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Sunnyside, Queens a safer and more comfortable ride by installing bike lanes with extra-wide buffers. The project recently got some press in the Brooklyn Paper for attracting the opposition of local trucking interests.

Also known as the J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge, this span over Newtown Creek is currently a danger zone for cyclists. Heading toward Queens, the Greenpoint Avenue bike lane ends abruptly at the bridge, throwing cyclists into mixed traffic where the road widens from two lanes to four. The confusing intersection on the Queens side of the bridge, where Greenpoint Avenue meets Van Dam Street and Review Avenue, is one of the locations most prone to crashes that cause severe injuries in the entire borough.

As part of a badly needed resurfacing of the bridge, DOT has proposed putting the bridge on a road diet using new markings. Two of the bridge's travel lanes and its striped median would be narrowed. The other two lanes would be turned into bike lanes with no physical protection but plenty of room: six feet of travel width with a nine foot buffer. On the Queens side, the intersection would be simplified and include new pedestrian crossings.  

The redesign, unsurprisingly, has already drawn some controversy. According to the Brooklyn Paper, truckers have objected to bike lanes on Greenpoint Avenue, both those proposed for the bridge and those already built on the Brooklyn side. Of course, Greenpoint Avenue is already only two lanes wide on either side of the bridge. Moreover, in addition to improving safety on this bridge, the new bike lanes may help relieve some pressure on the narrow bike/ped path of the Pulaski Bridge, which is terribly overcrowded.

DOT's website has the redesign slated for November implementation. We haven't received any replies from the department in response to requests for more information about the status of the plan. 

The mother of a student at PS 162 in Queens is in critical condition after a driver struck her in front of the school this morning. The crash occurred as the parent was crossing 53rd Avenue between 201st and 202nd Streets at around 9:10 this morning, in view of students and teachers, according to a press release from Council Member Mark Weprin.

The driver, who remained at the scene, has been charged with failure to yield and driving with a suspended license, according to the NYPD. Eyewitnesses cited in Weprin's release said the driver was speeding.  

Weprin called on the Department of Transportation to install speed humps, traffic lights, or other measures to calm traffic in front of the school. Whatever the right solution is for PS 162, New York City sorely needs better enforcement to prevent reckless drivers from injuring people on city streets. The crash this morning is also a reminder that the city's commitment to Safe Routes to School must still be strengthened significantly to ensure that it's safe for children and families to walk to every one of its thousands of public, private, and parochial schools.

It's not every day that a New York City real estate executive name-checks Donald Shoup, but one developer admiringly referred to the dean of progressive parking policy while explaining his project to Streetsblog. If not for the New York City Economic Development Corporation and mis-directed political pressures, says TDC Development President Michael Meyer, the huge mixed-use project he's building at one of the biggest transit hubs in Queens could have made better use of enlightened parking policy. 

The project, known as Flushing Commons, is a mixture of retail, housing, and office space slated for downtown Flushing, one of New York's fastest growing business districts. It's also one of the most transit-rich areas in Queens, making it a prime location for great walkable development.

But Meyer's project is slated to include a suburban level of parking, which will induce shoppers to drive to an area  that's already overrun by traffic. And if some Flushing leaders get their way, the project will include even more -- and cheaper -- parking.

Meyer believes the area is ready for walkable development, but notes that 50-year-old beliefs about transportation and development still prevail. "We're almost in a time warp," he said, adding that "Flushing is not the way it used to be," but "emotions and misconceptions" lead people to think excessive parking is a necessity.

Zoning rules require 700 spaces at Flushing Commons, according to Meyer, but the project will build far more -- 1,600 spaces -- because the parking-obsessed Economic Development Corporation demanded that level of parking. 

Flushing Commons would build up to 620 residences, 275,000 square feet of retail space and 234,000 square feet of commercial space just two short blocks from the busiest subway station outside Manhattan. The site is served by 21 different bus routes and is a short walk from the third-busiest pedestrian intersection in all of New York. The property, currently a 1,100-space surface parking lot, is owned by the city, hence the active involvement of EDC. 

"This is not a single-use suburban development site," said parking policy expert Rachel Weinberger, co-author of a recent report on parking innovation in American cities. "And yet EDC seems to be once again pushing suburban-style development standards."

Read more...

The MTA roadshow is in full swing, with raucous public hearings on service cuts drawing hundreds in Queens and Staten Island last night. Some press outlets are questioning whether the hearings actually get anything accomplished. It's a good question to chew on, since the MTA Board's options are limited by the agency's massive budget gap.

What's not in doubt, however, is that the hearings give our elected officials prime time to grandstand and deflect blame for their own role in bringing about the current mess. At each hearing, all the electeds take turns at the mic first. Hours can pass before a single straphanger speaks.

New York's state legislators have played an especially critical role in the transit funding crisis. In the last two years alone, the legislature has foiled two potential revenue streams for transit, congestion pricing and bridge tolls. The solution Albany could muster -- a regional payroll tax -- has come up far short of expectations. Then the state stole $143 million from the MTA in December to balance its own budget problems. Neither the state nor the city has kept up its share of funding for student MetroCard costs.

Our elected officials are the ones with the most power to help fund the MTA and avert drastic cuts, or at least put a fix on the agenda. Here's a sampling of what they said at the hearing in Queens last night.

Assembly Member José Peralta is currently running to replace Hiram Monserrate in the State Senate. Transit riders would be hard-pressed to do worse than bridge toll foe Monserrate, but they might have no choice.  Peralta's campaign website touts his opposition to congestion pricing, and he was a particularly vocal opponent of tolls on the East River bridges.

Last night, Peralta missed no opportunity to land a blow against the MTA -- telling the board "some of you aren't even paying attention" was the applause line of the night. "You have my word as a state legislator that we will continue to fight this," Peralta promised the crowd. His solution? Give the state more control over the MTA -- an idea that should draw grimaces from anyone familiar with Albany's recent history of governance.

Plenty of other electeds used their three minutes at the microphone exclusively to attack the MTA. None of these pols mentioned the role their legislative houses played in the MTA's fiscal crisis. Some choice excerpts:

Read more...

A new report says pedestrian injuries in some parts of Queens are at their highest levels in almost a decade.

In fact, reports the Daily News, vehicles are responsible for more patient injuries at Elmhurst Hospital Center than any other cause, according to hospital figures.

Last year, 256 people were treated at the hospital for a pedestrian injury -- the highest number in almost 10 years. That's up from 240 in 2008 and 215 in 2007.

"Pedestrian injury is the No. 1 injury mechanism that came into this hospital during 2008 and 2009," said Dr. Jamie Ullman, director of the hospital's department of neurosurgery. "We haven't seen any decrease in the problem."

Ullman and other hospital staff are hosting their second annual pedestrian summit today, meeting with transportation and law enforcement officials in hopes of reducing casualties. Figures from 2008 reveal crashes concentrated in several spots, including Queens Boulevard and 63rd Drive, Roosevelt Avenue near 64th and 69th Streets, and Northern Boulevard near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Physical improvements to Northern Blvd. and other areas haven't helped, Ullman says. She is calling for a PR campaign aimed at both pedestrians and drivers.

Read more...