By Howard Koplowitz
The intersection of 234th Street and Linden Boulevard has been the cause of much distress for neighborhood residents. Motorists exiting the Cross Island Parkway southbound at the Linden Boulevard exit first drive down 234th Street and are forced to either make a left or right turn at Linden Boulevard instead of going down 234th Street – a one-way street southbound and northbound on both sides of Linden Boulevard.The situation ties up traffic, frequently leaving cars stuck in the middle of the intersection.”The obvious thing to do is to let people proceed through (234th) street,” said Constance Moran, the Queens borough commissioner for the city DOT, noting that the intersection had been “quite, quite congested” during the five times the agency had surveyed the area.”The major problem we felt was at rush hour (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.),” she said. Moran said the agency has looked at both two- and one-way operations on the intersection to eliminate the congestion.But if the street were made two-way, Moran said, parking would have to be removed – making that option unlikely since parking is considered to be an asset to a neighborhood.”There would be a lot of conflict in the intersection,” she said. “A two-way would kind of hinder – it might be a Band-Aid rather than a tourniquet.”If 234th Street were one-way running southbound, drivers would have the option of making a left or right onto Linden Boulevard or continuing down the street into what Moran called “the center of Cambria Heights.” Under this option, parking would still be allowed.If it were a northbound one-way street, Moran said the Q27 bus would have to be rerouted and the layover zone would have to be removed since it blocks entrances and exits to the strip mall.As an aid to any project undertaken, the traffic signals could be retimed to allow for better traffic flow, Moran said. One civic member asked if there was ever any thought of making a new exit on the Cross Island to solve the traffic problem, but Moran said that is a state DOT issue and the proposed action falls under the city DOT.Another member said she would like the street to become a one-way southbound road because people are driving on 223rd Street to avoid the traffic on 234th. “It takes too long to get out of that block,” she said.A resident of 234th and Linden said that part of the problem is that residents from outside of Cambria Heights park in the area when they try to catch an express bus to Manhattan.
