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CB 11 Transportation Committee denies speed bump request, recommends major highway change

Two speed bump proposals were struck down and a major highway change was recommended during a Community Board 11 Transportation Committee briefing this week.

The committee denied a speed bump request on 36th Avenue between 218th and 219th Streets in an attempt to prevent pushing the traffic problem over to 38th Avenue.

“We concluded that it would not do any good to put speed bumps on those streets,” said Chris Petallides, who co-chairs the committee.

“When you’re trying to slow down traffic, you’re just transferring the problem to the next street,” he continued. “A truck will just conveniently move over the next street, rather than drive down the street with speed bumps.”

Another proposal for a bump on 36th Avenue between Bell Boulevard and Corporal Stone Street was also shut down.

Petallides and co-chair Bernard Haber said traffic at that location is caused by double-parked cars from a nearby school and not by speeding motorists.

The pair of consulting engineers did, however, suggest the board reach out to the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) for a traffic study of the Long Island Expressway (LIE) exit on the southbound Clearview Expressway.

Traffic gets backed up on the Clearview past Northern Boulevard from motorists waiting to get onto the LIE, Petallides and Haber said.

The board’s Traffic Committee said the state DOT should widen or turn the exit into two lanes.

The committee also suggested removing obstructive advertisements on a problematic bus shelter at the northeast corner of Union Turnpike and Springfield Boulevard.

Drivers going west on Union, who are trying to turn north on Springfield, “cannot see a pedestrian crossing Springfield,” Petallides said, because the shelter hinders the view.

The committee chose to take the less ambitious route over getting rid of the entire shelter, which straphangers use to get out of the rain while waiting for the bus.

“If that works, fine. If not, we’ll remove the shelter,” Petallides said.

Members were also all in favor of removing overnight parking restrictions from 35-30 Francis Lewis Boulevard to 36-34 Francis Lewis Boulevard to free up spaces for nearby residents.

 

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