By Alexander Dworkowitz
Amid a recent reports citing Northern Boulevard as one of the city’s most dangerous roads, the city Department of Transportation has began another study of the busy thoroughfare.
While the uproar over the boulevard’s safety thus far centers on Jackson Heights, a DOT spokesman said his organization may soon look to improve safety along the roadway’s entire 11-mile length.
The DOT’s study focuses on the need for left-turn signals along Northern between 68th and 114th streets in Jackson Heights. According to DOT spokesman Tom Coccola, the city’s 1997 study on the same section of road resulted in several left-turn signals installed.
The DOT’s move to refocus on Northern Boulevard comes amid state Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette’s (D-Jackson Heights) criticism of both the DOT and the road’s safety.
“What it boils down to is that [the DOT] has chosen to regard Northern Boulevard as a highway, and when you do that, you [look to] move cars as quickly as they can from the Nassau line to Queensboro Bridge,” Lafayette said.
The assemblyman has called for more left-turn signals, more signs posting the 30 mph speed limit and changing traffic-light timing to slow traffic.
The work of Lafayette and the DOT comes after the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives published Department statistics on the number of fatalities on New York City streets.
The group found that from 1998 to 2000, 20 pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and passengers died on Northern Boulevard, more than on any other road in the city. Queens Boulevard, which has earned the title “Boulevard of Death,” had recorded 18 fatalities during that time, the second most in the city.
But in terms of deaths per mile, Queens Boulevard, which extends about seven miles, had been more dangerous than Northern Boulevard, which stretches for about 11 miles.
Transportation Alternatives contended that four-mile-long Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, with 16 pedestrian deaths from 1995 to 2000, is the city’s deadliest road for pedestrians on a death-per-mile basis.
Lafayette said he was angry the DOT conducted another study rather than responding immediately to the statistics.
Answering Lafayette’s criticism, Coccola replied, “Northern Boulevard has the potential to be a very dangerous road.”
While the study is thus far limited to Jackson Heights, Coccola said the DOT wants to increase safety on all of Northern Boulevard.
“The year 2000, we had 1,430 reported accidents,” he said. “They’re spread out all through the road, literally from Sunnyside to the Nassau County line.”
Coccola said efforts to improve safety on Queens Boulevard began in March 2001 and include extending pedestrian crossing times, lowering the speed limit, installing red-light cameras and placing three-foot-high anti-jaywalking barriers along the road.
Such measures appear to have helped. In 2001, four fatalities occurred on the road vs. an average of nine deaths in each of the previous years since 1993.
Coccola said Northern Boulevard, about half the width of 140-foot Queens Boulevard, does not necessarily require changes such as anti-jaywalking barriers.
One alternative is to increase pedestrian awareness along all of Northern as it was done for Queens Boulevard.
“We really went out aggressively and hit the senior centers and junior high schools with our safety education team about being good pedestrians,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind us attacking Northern Boulevard the same way.”
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 141.
