By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
The DOT presented its plan, a western extension of the changes it has made on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, to a packed community board meeting March 23 at Sunnyside Community Services. Conley said 250 people turned out for the meeting of the board, which covers Sunnyside, Woodside and parts of Long Island City.
DOT “certainly got a loud and clear message that this is not going to work,” Conley said.
“Their attempts to improve traffic conditions on Queens Boulevard will only hurt the community economically and not improve pedestrian traffic safety the way the community had hoped,” he said.
The so-called Boulevard of Death has claimed 83 lives since 1993, a situation that has prompted the DOT to create pedestrian barriers and signal timing changes along the boulevard. The agency so far has focused its work on the section between the Long Island Expressway and Union Turnpike but is implementing changes between the LIE and Van Dam Street and between Union Turnpike to Hillside Avenue this spring.
“We're concentrating on the westernmost and easternmost spurs,” DOT spokesman Tom Cocola said.
No final cost has been determined for the plan, but Cocola said the street work would cost about $2 million for the western portion. Some traffic signal timing changes have already been implemented.
In April, the agency plans to install 150-second traffic signal cycle lengths between 50th Street and the LIE, giving pedestrians between 25 seconds and 30 seconds to cross the street.
In May, leading pedestrian intervals – times when only pedestrians are allowed to cross – will be installed in 18 locations between 32nd Place and 50th Street.
Also starting in May, striped lanes for cars turning through wide intersections will be installed in 23 places, including 10 in Forest Hills, according to a DOT news release.
The agency is also seeking to convert 48th Street from a two-way street to a one-way southbound between Queens Boulevard and 47th Avenue, among other changes.
Lanes will be restriped at the intersection of Kew Gardens Road and 80th Road as well as at the 80th Road and Queens Boulevard crossing in May.
“Obviously there have been a bunch of ideas out there,” Cocola said. “I don't think this agency will ever give up on Queens Boulevard.”
But Conley said people in Sunnyside had many problems with the DOT's plan, including a zigzag crosswalk pattern in front of the Big Six Towers housing complex in Woodside. He predicted pedestrians would get hurt by looking for “the path of least resistance” instead of staying within the crosswalk.
“We have real problems with traffic and pedestrian traffic on Queens Boulevard,” Conley said. “We've been lucky that we have not had the same number of fatalities” as the eastern portion of the boulevard, he said, but there are still many accidents.
Conley said a DOT proposal to close off 43rd and 39th streets would further divide a community already split by the No. 7 elevated subway line.
“This is a community that survives on the north-south connections,” said Conley, describing how the Lynch Funeral Home would have its parking taken away by the closure of 43rd Street.
“We hope that DOT will step back and take a look at this and come back to the community with a better plan.”
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
