By Sarina Trangle
State Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-Woodhaven) aims to be the next visionary contributing to the mayor’s traffic safety initiative.
Miller said he is trying to coordinate a meeting with Mayor Bill de Blasio to discuss how the bills he is sponsoring may dovetail with Vision Zero, the administration’s action plan to curb pedestrian fatalities by reducing the speed limit to 25 miles per hour on most streets and redesigning dangerous roads.
The assemblyman’s first bill calls for dedicated crossing periods for pedestrians at congested intersections. This would entail stopping all lanes of traffic for a brief period as those on foot or bicycle cross in any direction.
Miller said the idea came to him as he watched cars line up to turn from Jamaica Avenue onto Woodhaven Boulevard, edging into the turn as pedestrians have the light.
“If you can give this time, it’ll actually be a shorter period of time for cars. It would be X amount of seconds for crossing instead of X amount for those walking on Woodhaven Boulevard and X amount for those walking on Jamaica Avenue,” he said.
Miller noted that downtown Manhattan has this configuration in at least one intersection, and he believes it may benefit thoroughfares targeted in Vision Zero, such as Woodhaven Boulevard.
The artery between northern and southern Queens was named the most deadly road in the borough by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit focused on equitable transit, which found that eight pedestrians were killed in accidents on Woodhaven Boulevard from 2010 to 2012.
Miller said he had broached the idea with the prior city Department of Transportation commissioner, but it never went anywhere.
De Blasio’s team appears more open-minded.
“We look forward to discussing Assemblyman Miller’s proposals and working together on a strong agenda in Albany to protect New Yorkers on our streets,” de Blasio’s deputy press secretary Wiley Norvell said in an e-mail.
Miller said his second bill was one he has been carrying since a constituent came into his office years ago and mentioned it had been drafted by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) when she was in the Assembly but stagnated.
It would add a new criminal charge for those convicted of killing someone when driving while drowsy.
Miller said the measure would charge police and district attorneys with assessing how to define drowsy, but that the legislation targeted professional drivers who failed to comply with mandated rest periods.
“If you have a truck driver, they are obligated after a certain number of hours, I’m not sure, but say 12, to rest for five or six hours,” Miller said. “Let’s say they don’t do that and it causes a problem. This would come into play.”
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4546.
