Talked Maspeth Traffic-Calming Plan
The plan to improve crosswalk safety near St. Stanislaus Kostka School and convert the east end of 57th Drive into a plaza was not met with much contention-or people-last Tuesday, May 14, during a presentation sponsored by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley which drew just two attendees.
St. Stanislaus was identified in a 2003 DOT study as a school where traffic was found to put pedestrians at an increased risk for injury.
But, a city program called “Safe Routes to School,” which makes small infrastructure improvements to the streets and sidewalks around primary schools that see a high number of vehicular accidents, aims to change that.
Around St. Stanislaus, more curbs will curb more accidents, officials said .
The city will install a series of “neckdowns”-slight extensions of the sidewalk and curb into the street at crosswalks that make the distance to cross streets shorter and cause cars to turn slower, said Ryan Kalleberg, a representative from the design firm RBA Group, which is handling Safe Routes deigns for the city.
He said the neckdowns slow turning but “do not impede traffic flow.”
According to a 2006 report from the DOT, 40 percent of St. Stanislaus’ students walk to school. The school’s current enrollment is about 270, according to its website.
The city will realign a crosswalk at Maspetch Avenue and 61st Street and add Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant pedestrian ramps at Flushing Avenue and 61st Street, according to Kallenberg.
He said those and other intersecstory tions around St. Stanislaus will receive the neckdown treatment. In addition, the city will create a plaza that restricts access to 57th Drive from 61st Street, slowing traffic and significantly shortening a crosswalk that currently spans both Grand Avenue and 57th Drive.
Drivers can reach 57th Drive via a small road that connects the drive to Grand Avenue west of the plaza.
“That’s the only place where we’ll be losing [parking] spots,” Kalleberg noted, adding that the new infrastructure will eliminate dangerous turns at what is currently a fivepoint intersection. Since other improvements will only affect crosswalks, no other parking will be lost, he said.
“We’ve completely eliminated, here, a conflict that exists between pedestrians and vehicles,” Kalleberg said .
The school is ranked 32nd on a list of 33 top-priority schools in Queens identified for safety infrastructure by the 2003 DOT report.
The Department of Motor Vehicles data that the DOT used in its report shows there were 100 accidents within 700 feet of the school between 1998 and 2000-eight involved pedestrians, and one was classified as a “school-related accident.” For the study’s purposes, school-related accidents are defined as “accidents involving pedestrians ages four to 14, occurring on weekdays during the school year,” the report stated.
Between 2001 and 2004, there were 116 accidents in the same radius- six included pedestrians, and none were classified as school-related, according to the same report.
There were no pedestrian fatalities between 1998 and 2004 within the 700-foot radius studied, the report found.
Though data is more than 10 years old, it is unlikely conditions have changed for the better, Kalleberg said.
The improvements are being funded by Crowley’s office, according to a representative.
“It is essential that we protect our children attending our local schools,” Crowley said in a statement. “The Safe Routes to School program for St. Stan’s will improve road conditions and dangerous intersections around the are.”
Crowley was slated to make an appearance at the meeting, May 14, but the event was effectively cancelled when only two members of the public showed, and she decided not to come, representatives from her office said.
Construction will likely begin within the next six months, according to Jorge Tua from the city’s Department of Design and Construction. The project is currently out to bid, Kalleberg noted.
Tua said that work will not be conducted during school pickup and drop-off hours, so it shouldn’t create any problems for students trying to get to school.
While contractors are working on the very sidewalks and crosswalks, the city will provide safe alternatives for students walking near St. Stanislaus, Kalleberg said.
