From the Times Ledger:The construction of traffic islands on College Point Boulevard has created a number of traffic problems and an increase in accidents since it started, community leaders say.
The long rectangular curbs that serve as partitions for pedestrians trying to cross busy roads have caused headaches for drivers, said Community Board 7 District Manager Marilyn Bitterman.
“It’s a total traffic nightmare over there,” she said at a district service cabinet meeting last week.
When the traffic islands were first built in October, they lacked the proper signs and markings to warn drivers of their presence, Bitterman said.
“If you’re putting in a center island, put it in and put the proper signage and markings at one island and then move onto your second one,” she said about the project, which has been drawn out over the last four months.
A police source said accidents in the area with the new traffic islands skyrocketed by 400 percent after they were first put in.
The city Department of Design and Construction, the agency in charge of the traffic islands’ construction, installed yellow bollards and white plastic delineators around the partitions in the end of November so that drivers would see them.
A spokesman for DDC said the project is expected to be finished in the spring or as soon as the weather allows for the road to be paved and marked. The project’s contractors cannot pave the road while it has snow on it, he said. DDC believes the traffic islands will make the street safer for pedestrians and motorists.
City Department of Transportation officials said they were confident traffic problems would be alleviated once the project is complete.
9 comments:
Now then, now then, now then-What's all this, then? Bollards abound, yet nary a hoarding or roundabout to be seen? What gives with you Yanks?
That section of college point was always miserable to walk around. Cars roaring by, swerving around recklessly. Anything to calm the drivers passing through has the potential to offer great benefit to those walking around in the area. There have been a lot of apartments going up there the last several years. A lot of people who might want to cross the street to head to a store. It's not the neighborhood it was 20 years ago. Reconfiguring the street to reflect that is a good thing. An anonymous police source says crashes are up. No mention of the severity of the crashes, or of their timing. Did they spike immediately after the installation, but then drop since better signage was introduced? What about this road makes pedestrian islands so dangerous that they have to be removed, that there is no way to manage them? Won't drivers get used to them eventually? Can better signage help? The road is very hostile to pedestrians. Why don't they count? Have the islands improved the conditions for those not in motor vehicles? Why no patience to wait and see what conditions are like once the project is completed in the spring?
If this was executed poorly, as made in the claim that signage was not installed at the same time as the islands, then why not focus on that?
The problems are many:
- the road is in miserable condition, you have to constantly swerve around potholes and bumps to avoid totaling out the bottom of your car
- the lanes are not well delineated
- there are always double-parked cars and trucks (no one gets ticketed over there)
- the drivers are, for the most part, selfish, lawless ASSHOLES
- the pedestrians pay absolutely no attention to the lights, and are teaching their many, many, unnecessary children to do the same
The traffic islands are a good thing - they should be extended the entire length of the boulevard. If drivers can't see them it's because they're STUPID FUCKING IDIOTS!
Why doesn't CB7 work on the overpopulation and garbage problems?
Looks like some fresh prime real estate for a local to set up a folding table and sell cheap plastic goods and counterfeits.
"...put it in and put the proper signage..."
Signage? In what language, pray tell?
CON is a disaster end to end because it us built ovr r an old dirt and wood based road without a proper concrete base , and receives daily abuse from all manner of commercial vehicles.Basically the whole thing needs to be torn up and restarted from scratch.
“It’s a total traffic nightmare over there,”
So in other words, it's no different than before the islands were installed.
No, it's very different. Accidents are up 400 percent. That was reported back in November.
You gotta read your weeklies, like Crappy does.
http://www.qchron.com/editions/north/boulevard-islands-seen-as-a-hazard/article_b3a2b92a-3162-5572-8013-c56549ae27b4.html
http://www.qchron.com/editions/north/boulevard-islands-frustrate-officials/article_5f2a5767-9237-500c-80cd-c6d22414b955.html
Maybe drivers should stop looking down at their phones and pretending they're too important to look at the road.
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