By Bill Parry
Judging by a show of hands, most of the crowd of more than 200 residents who attended a pedestrian safety town hall meeting in Astoria last week knew somebody who had been injured in a traffic collision.
Even the program’s co-host, U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), shared that he lost a close friend in a collision last year.
“Marion Kurshuk was a member of my Democratic club in Woodside until she was struck and killed by a motorcycle while trying to cross Queens Boulevard at 58th Street,” the congressman said.
Kurshuk was a 78-year-old volunteer who gave her time helping the homeless and the needy. She was just a few blocks away from her 59th Street apartment just before Christmas.
The hot-button issue of traffic safety was also a personal one for the evening’s other co-host, City Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria), for a different reason.
“I remember growing up on these streets in Astoria; now I’m raising my son here,” Constantinides said. “I notice there are more cars, more buses and more pedestrians, and the infrastructure has to keep up with all of this growth.”
Crowley offered his theory for the increased volume of traffic in western Queens.
“We’re not living in the [19]50s, ’60s or ’70s when there was one car for each home. Now it’s three or four per household,” he said.
Joining the two elected officials on the panel were safety advocates from Make Queens Safer and Transportation Alternatives and several commanders from the NYPD, including Deputy Inspector Kevin Maloney, of the 114th Precinct.
Several representatives from the city Department of Transportation were on hand at the March 19 meeting, including Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
“This is the signature issue for Mayor de Blasio’s administration and we are committed to outreach,” she said.
Trottenberg discussed Vision Zero as an attempt to change the mindset of drivers and pedestrians starting with workshops May 5 and 23 sponsored by the DOT and the NYPD with a time and place to be determined.
DOT Policy Director Jon Orcutt announced a new website, nyc.gov/visionzero, will be devoted to the Swedish plan to eliminate all traffic deaths in 10 years.
“There’s a lot more data-sharing that’s going to happen between the agencies and to the public,” Orcutt said.
This new flow of information and communication was illustrated by safety activist Paul Steely White, who had just attended a TrafficStat meeting at Police Headquarters.
“I hadn’t been invited to 1 PP in over five years. There’s really been a sea change. It was just very clear that the Vision Zero mandate from the mayor and Commissioner Bratton has been transmitted to the rank-and-file cops,” he said.
White also urged residents to become more involved in community board meetings and speak out.
“A properly marked intersection is more importance than one parking spot. That’s the type of battle you’ll fight at the community board,” White said.
Bob Piazza, the Transportation Committee chairman of Community Board 1 agreed, saying, “When I took over the committee it was nice and quiet, now we’ve had five meetings already this month and that tells you how things are changing. With the attention this thing is getting, maybe we’ll start getting things done.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
