Crossing Queens:
New Data Show Fatal Hot Spots For Pedestrians In The Borough
By DOMENICK RAFTER
The AARP is spearheading a campaign to survey crosswalks and busy intersections to take steps to improve safety, and they're getting some needed help by local state legislators.
State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) cosponsored legislation, recently voted out of the Senate Transportation Committee, aimed at taking steps to improve traffic safety at these intersections.
He was joined by the bill's Assembly cosponsor, Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Glendale), as well as local community activists, to announce the legislation and survey at a press conference in Woodhaven on April 29 at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and 89th Avenue.
The intersection is of particular concern because it is within a few blocks of two elementary schools, PS 60 and PS 306, as well as the Forest Park Senior Center. The location highlights the two most vulnerable age groups to pedestrian accidents, children and the elderly.
"People shouldn't have to be Olympic athletes to cross Woodhaven Boulevard," Addabbo said.
AARP's campaign, called "Complete Streets Week: Making New York Walkable for All Generations" started the week of April 19 and surveyed hundreds of dangerous roads and intersections statewide, including dozens in Queens.
By The Numbers
For a three-year span beginning Jan 1, 2006 and ending Dec 31, 2008, 94 people were killed in pedestrian accidents in Queens; more than a third of those fatalities were victims age 60 and over, said William Stoner, AARP's Associate State Director, Livable Communities.
Five of those fatalities occurred on the infamous "Boulevard of Death," Queens Boulevard between Jamaica and Long Island City, while four occurred along Woodhaven Boulevard between Ozone Park and Elmhurst. Other major thoroughfares with multiple pedestrian deaths include Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights, Main Street in Flushing, 21st Street in Astoria and the Van Wyck Expressway northbound service road in South Jamaica.
The legislation currently being debated in Albany would allow the Department of Transportation to use the results of the survey to implement traffic safety changes at problem intersections.
How To Fix It
Among the suggestions that could be implemented are better signage, more curb cuts and raised crosswalks, increasing the duration of traffic lights and wider medians on wide boulevards to allow pedestrians to wait if they can't make it the entire way across the streets.
Two intersections along Woodhaven Boulevard, Myrtle Avenue and Park Lane South, are between 125 and 135 feet wide, but only have 30-35 seconds crossing time, often forcing people of all ages to dash quickly across the 10-lane boulevard.
"By increasing the amount of time you have to cross streets and decreasing speed limits at major intersections, we can dramatically reduce pedestrian fatalities," Miller said.
Stoner said that the traffic lights in the area are programmed for pedestrian crossing at four feet per second, but that the timing should be closer to three feet per second.
Counting Down
Another feature being explored is the installation of countdown clocks at crosswalks that would tell pedestrians how many seconds are left before the traffic light changes, a feature that can be found in cities such as Washington D.C. and Las Vegas.
The countdown clocks have already been installed at some busy intersections across the city, including a couple of busy intersections in Astoria and Flushing, for a pilot program that began in 2006. The results were mixed, ranging from significantly reduced pedestrian accidents, as was the case at one intersection along Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island, to no change reported at a wide intersection along Gun Hill Road in The Bronx.
Some have complained the clocks encourage reckless behavior from teenagers and young adults, who have been observed trying to race the clocks.
Donna Marie Caltabiano, director of the Forest Park Senior Center in Woodhaven, noted that this was a problem that everyone will soon have to grapple with.
"One of my seniors told me she used to wonder how elderly people crossed streets like Woodhaven Boulevard when she was younger," Caltabiano said, "Now she knows. We're all going to be seniors one day and this will affect all of us."
Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400 Ext. 125