Rally for a stop sign on Center Blvd and 48th Avenue, which was later installed
Jan. 30, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer is taking to the streets to demand increased street safety in Hunters Point.
Van Bramer is holding a rally to call on the Department of Transportation to install a stop sign at the intersection of 5th Street and 51st Avenue in Long Island City at 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
The intersection is near PS 78 and the Hunters Point Community Middle School, and Van Bramer said he has heard concerns from parents about the traffic there for years, though his office did not have any concrete statistics on how many accidents there had been at the intersection.
Van Bramer has requested that the DOT take action in the past, and upon hearing “no” again, decided to be more forceful.
At the rally tomorrow, Van Bramer will address the importance of street safety, and then erect a “people’s stop sign,” to demonstrate how easily one could be installed at the intersection.
However, the DOT said that it had completed a study for a stop sign at the intersection in December and its data indicated that it wasn’t needed.
The DOT added that it has taken several measures to improve safety in the Hunters Point area. This included converting 5th Street between 50th Avenue and 46th Road into a one-way southbound, installing a stop sign at 47th Avenue and adding two speed bumps to this stretch in the summer of 2014.
