Friday, October 8, 2010

3 bad DOT projects

From NBC:

A typo on a sign along the Willis Avenue Bridge is confusing some commuters.

The northbound exit sign alerts drivers to Interstate 287, instead of the correct Interstate 278.

NBCNewYork viewer Cecil Shepherd tipped us off to the snafu.

Fordham University student, Andrew Colianti, who uses the bridge daily to get to the Bronx campus, agrees "that area can be very misleading for drivers who may be crossing the bridge for the first time. This just makes it worse."

After NBCNewYork made a few calls, the NYC Department of Transportation confirmed the error.

The sign will be fixed by the weekend, according to DOT press secretary Scott Gastel.


From CBS:

Who would install a traffic island that forces drivers to go perilously close to speeding trains to make a turn?

If your answer is the New York City Department of Transportation, you’d be right.

“The fact that the DOT engineers could have approved this, it boggles the mind,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Queens.

Halloran said that’s not the only thing that boggles the mind. In addition to the new traffic island near the Little Neck train station, DOT engineers also installed a sign that makes it illegal to make a right turn during morning and evening rush hours. So your choice is to make an illegal right turn and risk a ticket or make a legal left turn and risk your life.

“Someone is going to get killed,” Halloran said.

 
From CBS:

A new study suggests that New York City’s new bike lanes are causing too much trouble – and danger, as well.

A report on the bike lanes is to be released Friday by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the Daily News reports. The study is suggesting that the plan, originally intended to make a safer city, is having the opposite effect.

And as it turns out, bicyclists, pedestrians, motorists and even police may all share a part in the blame.

As New Yorkers apparently are still trying to figure out how to deal with all the new bike lines, people are getting hurt.

During a three day period, Stringer’s staff observed 1,700 safety violations – with only two summonses given out, according to the report.


Maybe the bikers were drunk.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is not NYCDOT competency grand?

faster340 said...

Something else that failed that the glorious NYC Regime thought should be shoved down our throats because they know better than us... hhhhmmmmm us little people don't know shit.....

Anonymous said...

News flash! Pedestrians and motorists are having a difficult time figuring out traffic lanes and the result is dangerous conditions. Hundreds of jaywalking, speeding, lane changing, and traffic light violations were observed in a single day.

I can't stand the new bike lanes, but that was still a ridiculous 'news' story.

Anonymous said...

Fun guy goo lee dao loud, boobie dy mourn summa

Anonymous said...

AGAIN, Fun guy goo lee dao loud, boobie dy mourn summa

Anonymous said...

That's easy for you to say.

Anonymous said...

Waht teh f............?

Anonymous said...

DOT, THE SAME PEOPLE MCCARTHY AND KAHN THAT SAY 107 AN HOUR ON A 26FOOT WIDE STREET WITH 33% OF THOSE CARS SPEEDING, IS NOT A SAFETY ISSUE , JUST AN INCONVENIENCE.

GOTTA LOVE THESE IDIOTS.....

Anonymous said...

What makes your street any different from many other streets in this city? A whopping 2 cars per minute, there are plenty or areas where residents only dream of having traffic that light.

Anonymous said...

trucks?

Kevin Walsh said...

The DOT has installed yet more signs that ban left turns from 39th/Sandhill onto Little Neck Parkway, and also ban left turns from Little Neck Parkway onto 39th Ave/sandhill.

Thus, Sandhill Rd/39th Avenue is now in effect one-way for through traffic from Douglas Road east to Little Neck Parkway.

Padavan's office sent me an angry letter he wrote to the DOT about this.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Anonymous said...

There are an incredibly dangerous new painted lanes under the Triboro Bridge, precisely at 21st Street and Hoyt Ave. North, which coax a driver to make a left hand turn in oncoming traffic, all for the purpose of creating bike lanes that are equally as dangerous.

I will try and take pictures soon of this fiasco, but anyone reading this, please be careful here. You are taking your life (and other's) in your hands.

Anonymous said...

Hey enuf wid dis here bike lane garbitch. Reel Amuricns don't ride no bisickles. Dey ride in cars.

Anonymous said...

Das right. We know dem cars never exceed the defacto City speed limit of 30 mph on non-highway streets. It only dem bikers dat breaks dem traffic laws.

Babs said...

This is pretty scary sh*t.

To get to this low level of extreme incompetence - you have to be pretty friggin' stupid to not only DO this - but, to not correct it!

Wow unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

There are an incredibly dangerous new painted lanes under the Triboro Bridge, precisely at 21st Street and Hoyt Ave. North, which coax a driver to make a left hand turn in oncoming traffic, all for the purpose of creating bike lanes that are equally as dangerous.

What is you precisely trying to say, or to coax us to comprehend?
Yeah, they finally formalized the left turns everyone was making there by creating a left turn lane. So what? Do you treat every minute change in the environment with such alarm?

Anonymous said...

I don't get why bike lanes in Manhattan are weaved in major Ave and then they wend their way through portions of Broadway that are partially closed. What bothers me, when crossing what I think are closed pedestrian areas, open to single car lanes speeding through. As a pedestrian you don't expect it and conceivably get hit by speeding cars and especially bikes that don't stop for red lights.

Bike lanes should be placed north / South in only 1 quiet designated Ave in each direction and preferably not in Midtown at all - makes zero - safety sense.

The perimeter of Manhattan along the shoreline should in fact be bike lanes with barriers to protect bikes and have right of way for recreation purposes.

In Queens certain places should outright ban recreational biking and designate alternative roads for bike lanes that see less car volume. Designated bike lanes should have special markings and raised so that motorists are discouraged from using them. There are plenty of opportunities to create safe bike lanes in Queens around and in the many parks and connect between parks. Otherwise using bikes to commute is really not feasible unless planned responsibly. Rather the approach should be for recreation, to allow riders a safe way to enjoy or exercise using bikes should be the focus. Our parks are a way to do this and they should be incorporated into a master bike plan.

Skid Marx said...

It's all Bloomturd's fault!

Helen said...

Probably the only "important" thing that anyone at the DOT noticed about the wrongly-numbered Northbound Exit sign in the first posting was that the lettering had been changed from uppercase "SHOUTING" to the new "improved" typeface.

Anonymous said...

Bike lanes are dangerous. Get rid of them Mayor Bloomberg. Another one of your grand ideas that you want but the majority does not.