By Mark Hallum
A Bay Terrace corridor will get improvements as the city DOT and the mayor’s office announced the kick-off of a $1.6 billion effort to enhance safety conditions at intersections and roadways.
The stretch of Corporal Kennedy Street between 26th and 23rd avenues will be reworked to create better traffic flow while decreasing the distance residents have to walk to cross the street, bettering safety conditions as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative.
City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) welcomed the improvements for the seniors who live in the area.
“This area, which is home to a large senior population, has been in serious need of pedestrian safety improvements and has been one of our main requests for years,” Vallone said. “The requests have been heard and I’m proud to have worked hand-in-hand with the DOT to decide on and design the specific changes being made. These improvements will greatly increase the safety of all pedestrians in this area and we will continue to work with the community and the DOT to determine if any further safety enhancements are necessary.”
The intersection at 26th Avenue will have crosswalks where the curbs will give pedestrians more room to stand. It also reduces the distance they have to walk to get to safety and installs medians between lanes so pedestrians can reach that point before crossing the rest of the street instead of having to rush from one side of the crosswalk to the other.
Similar changes will be made at 26th Avenue without the center median installations. Selfhelp Clearview Senior Center sits on the northwest corner of this intersection as well a nearby center for Holocaust survivors, and has been a safety concern for both Vallone and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who has pressed for better safety measures in this area.
Corporal Kennedy Street will use the street’s width to condense the flow of traffic by creating more clearly defined lines between parking and driving. Instead of 25 feet of shared parking and driving space per lane, 13 feet will be designated for parking with 12 feet for driving.
This is a similar plan to what DOT will implement on Oceania Street between Horace Harding Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway, a bike path which cuts mainly through parkland between the two boroughs.
DOT will divide the wide thoroughfare into a two-way bike lane on one side of the road, with parking between the lanes and vehicle traffic. The two-way bike lanes will be installed on the west side of the road with a turn lane on the overpass of the Long Island Expressway.
“Dangerous streets have to change,” de Blasio said in a release. “We want to get the word out: We’re moving lanes, adding new space for pedestrians and making it safer to cross intersections–all to keep your family safe.”
But the citywide improvements are not welcome at all locations in the city.
In Woodhaven, the dreaded Select Bus Service plan for Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards opposed by residents and elected officials alike will launch, with new bus stops being installed on the median in the middle of an intersection and, according to some transit experts, will overcrowd residential streets.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
