By Ivan Pereira
Community Board 12 helped the city fine-tune its plans to improve the traffic in the bustling downtown Jamaica area during the board’s monthly meeting last week.
The Department of Transportation talked to the board at the June 15 hearing and updated it on the agency’s two-year study of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area.
Aaron Sugiura, the DOT project manager, said the dozens of bus lines that use the roads cause the daily congestion and by rethinking the way those buses operate, the other motorists sharing the road will have an easier time traveling.
“We fix a lot of the problems in the downtown and we fix a lot of the problems throughout the borough,” he said.
The DOT’s plan includes several street changes that would extend some of the bus lanes in the area.
Archer Avenue currently has a bus lane between 150th and 160th streets and 180 buses operating per hour per direction, according to the DOT. The plan would expand the eastbound lane from 150th Street to Sutphin Boulevard and give other drivers more of the road, according to Sugiura.
“What we are looking at doing is focusing on where the buses are moving,” he said.
A similar change would be implemented on Jamaica Avenue between Parsons Boulevard and 168th Street, where 90 buses travel per hour per direction and has bus lanes only during rush hours. Sugiura said the DOT wants to extend those lanes to Sutphin Boulevard as well.
In addition, the DOT wants to make new signage that indicates to motorists which streets prohibit truck and bus stops and which streets allow for pickup and drop points for commuter vans.
Board members said they were concerned about how the project, which is slated for the end of the summer, would affect pedestrians who go to the area for shopping and other needs, but Sugiura assured them that no construction would be involved. They also wanted more assistance for commuter vans that pick up and drop passengers at the transit hub, and the DOT said it has been working on ways to benefit the vans as well.
Board Chairwoman Jackie Boyce thanked the DOT for taking an initiative to solve the congestion because it has become a growing problem in the downtown area for years.
“We really need something to happen,” she said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
