By Michael Morton
“I wouldn't say one is better than the other or more appropriate than the others,” Ramgarib said. “All are dangerous areas.”
But while two of Ramgarib's selected intersections – 92nd Avenue and 217th Street and 94th Avenue and 213th Street – were changed at Christmastime from two-way stops to four-way stops, the DOT declined to make the change at two other intersections, 94th Road and 217th Street and 94th Avenue and 213th Street.
Ramgarib said he had been turned down by the DOT in the past, but he was not giving up on getting the other two intersections converted to four-way stops. He said he was concerned because one of those intersections, 94th Avenue and 213th Street, is a bus stop for PS 135 in Hollis, while the other at 94th Road and 217th Street has pedestrians crossing to reach the public library on the northwest corner.
An officer in the 105th Police Precinct's Traffic Safety Unit said that neither intersection was a particularly dangerous area for auto accidents. “They're not really different than any other spot,” he said.
But on the corner of 94th Avenue and 217th Street, a bus driver dropping off students from PS 135 saw things differently.
“There should be stop signs here. I'm always worried about them,” she said, referring to the students.
And at the corner of 94th Road and 217th Street, a Queens Village teenager entering the library said there should be a four-way stop there, too.
“I've seen three accidents in, say, the last five months,” Issac Watts, 13, said.
When making its decision, the DOT applied the normal standards for stop sign installation set by the federal government, a spokesman said. He said those standards were very strict, noting that pedestrian and vehicular volume, roadway geometry, and the location of any nearby traffic signals were some of the factors employed in the formula.
He also said installing a stop sign that did not meet the criteria could cause its own problems.
“If you put one up where it is not warranted, you become liable if something happens,” he said.
Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timedledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
