Traffic circles the city placed on intersections has not curbed speeding

PIX News

 Residents said traffic circles the city added to slow down speeding cars in their neighborhood are not working— and now they have video to prove it.

The circles along Greeley Avenue were put in to slow traffic down in 2017 after a series of bad crashes three years ago. It was done against the wishes of many community members, including the local councilman, who wanted to see stop signs instead.
 
Bill Troeller has lived on Greeley Avenue for 21 years. The incident that wrecked his car and fence was caught on video. Both drivers involved said the traffic circle both cars went though prior to the crash did nothing to slow either down.

“The guy who was hit flew into my car, knocked it back about six feet, and the other guy ended up in my front lawn,” Troeller recounted.

 Neighbor Brian Wissert said the circle effectively made turning onto the road more dangerous. 

However, most importantly, many still see cars continue to whip right around the roundabouts every day.
 
Meanwhile, the city has slowly begun using roundabout more and more to calm traffic— including in the Bronx.
 
In an open records request, the City DOT said the circles have reduced crashes by 27% along Greeley. Troeller say he hasn’t noticed a difference. He said people were out of control before the roundabouts, sometimes running into his fence then, and he said they are obviously still speeding now.

 Maybe the DOT should put stunt ramps on corners facing the intersection. Yee-haw!

Drunk driver crashes into house, reveals illegal conversion

From NBC:

Witnesses said the driver, a 29-year-old woman identified by police as Shanna Shaw, got out of the vehicle wearing only her underwear. She seemed disoriented and under the influence.

"She was just screaming, just screaming," said A.J. "No words at all."

Police said the woman tried to leave the scene but was arrested. All of the injured are expected to survive.

But there are even more victims: A.J. and his family may have lost their home, since it's been deemed no longer safe to live in.

"We have to move or vacate the apartment until further notice," he said. "It takes a toll on everybody, but you gotta live through it, I guess."

A.J. and his family are staying with friends for now. The driver, Shaw, has been charged with driving while imparied and with two counts of fleeing the scene of an accident.

Attorney information for Shaw was not immediately clear.

Messages left for the building landlord were not immediately returned. The Department of Buildings said during investigation at the crash scene, they learned the home had been illegally converted and didn't have adequate egress. As a result, a partial vacate order was issued for the first floor and garage.

Queens' DOT disasters

From the Queens Chronicle:

Construction to accommodate Select Bus Service at the confluence of Cross Bay Boulevard, Rockaway Boulevard and Liberty Avenue will not be complete until next month.

But residents and civic leaders are already saying things appear to be as bad, if not worse, then they have feared.

“This,” said a grim-voiced Vance Barbour of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, “is our ‘I told you so.’”

When completed, what was three travel lanes and a service road headed northbound will become two; bus stops along the curb will be moved across the service road to a median; the travel lane adjacent to the median will become a 24/7 bus lane; and the left turn from northbound Cross Bay to Rockaway Boulevard will be eliminated, along with the turning lane, forcing cars — and trucks — to take more roundabout routes.

Bus stops already are being installed on islands on the southbound side, with machines selling SBS tickets not far behind.

Residents long have complained that the intersection forms a bottleneck during rush hour, backing traffic up for blocks.

The city’s Department of Transportation has asserted that reducing the number of lanes will improve traffic by helping create a more uniform traffic pattern along the entire corridor.

A more uniform lane configuration, along with the elimination of some left turns such as the one at Rockaway Boulevard, are designed to reduce the amount of lane merging that is said to be responsible for a great deal of congestion.

The construction is nearing completion, even over the constant and strenuous objections of residents and community leaders such as state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven).

“Nothing makes sense,” Howard Beach Resident Joseph Cerbone told the Chronicle. “We didn’t OK any of this ... They did just what they wanted to do. It was nightmare and they’re making it worse.”

From the Queens Chronicle:

In his letter, Avella added that there was a dangerous lack of signage for drivers at the location, which is an active construction area because of ongoing work for the bike lane. The senator also urged de Blasio and the DOT to abandon the bike lane plan and take up a different proposal for Northern supported by Community Board 11.

The office of Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) said he too has been in touch with city authorities.

“In response to the accidents and the community’s concerns, we reached out to the DOT to ask them to expedite the installation of signage and reflective panels to both inform motorists of the change in the traffic pattern and make the barriers more visible,” Vallone’s office said in an email.

Vallone’s opponent in November, Paul Graziano, said the bike lane has created “an extremely dangerous situation” and that the city shouldn’t install them on “what is essentially a highway.” Graziano, who lost the Democratic primary to Vallone but remains on the Reform Party line, is an urban planner who helped design the alternative bike lane proposal now backed by CB 11.

“You do not create something unless it’s well thought out, well planned and won’t be a negative,” he said.

In a statement, the transportation agency defended the barrier.

“These barriers did their job to protect those in the bike lane from accelerating turning vehicles,” the DOT said in an email last Friday. More signs, the agency said, are coming.

“In the next few days we will be installing additional safety treatments like reflective tape and flexible delineators that have been part of the design from the beginning of this project, to increase protection and awareness for all street users,” the agency said.

New bike lane causing car crashes

From CBS:

Last week, the city installed the bike lane on heavily traveled Northern Boulevard between Douglaston Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway. It’s protected by a concrete divider, which some some say has led to accidents, including one Thursday.

The problem, opponents say, is that some motorists traveling along Northern Boulevard don’t know there’s a bike lane ahead, as the road narrows from three lanes to two. The bike lane and concrete divider appear to come out of nowhere, critics say.

There are no warning signs posted.

State Sen. Tony Avella said the bike lane is dangerous and needs to be scrapped.

“I think this is a nightmare,” he said.

Avella said the city Department of Transportation installed bright orange cones in front of the concrete barriers just Friday morning.

The senator said his office has received reports of four accidents there since the lane was installed, reports he is still trying to confirm. He said you can see scrape marks on the divider from where cars have apparently hit it.

“All of a sudden, you’re coming around a curve, and you’re hitting a concrete barrier,” he said.

Avella said the community board in the area wants the bike lane replaced with a lane built onto an expanded sidewalk off the road. Trottenberg said that would take too much time and money and that the current bike lane provides safety for cyclists now.

Has DOT ever listened to a community board?

Vision Zero not working in 112th Pct

From DNA Info:

The number of pedestrians hit by vehicles in Forest Hills and Rego Park jumped by 64 percent this year, according to the 112th Precinct which recently launched a safe driving campaign.

In January, 23 people were hit in the neighborhood, compared to just 14 during the same month in 2016, according to the precinct's commanding officer Captain Robert Ramos.

In many instances, pedestrians were hit by cars making turns, police officials said.

More pedestrians and cyclists dead this year

From the Daily News:

Deaths of the most vulnerable users of city streets — pedestrians and cyclists — are outpacing fatalities from 2015, even as a drop in the number of motorists killed have held the death toll flat, according to the latest figures.

There were 202 fatalities this year through Nov. 20 — exactly as many people who died in 2015 over the same period.

But crash stats show that more pedestrians and cyclists are being killed than last year at this time under Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero Action Plan meant to end traffic deaths and injuries.

There were 124 pedestrians and 17 cyclists killed, compared to the 115 pedestrians and 14 cyclists cut down over the same period in 2015, according to city Department of Transportation figures.

At the same time, fewer people in cars and on motorcycles died this year — 61, compared to 73 over the same period last year.

Vision Zero not helping Queens as much

From the Times Ledger:

Make Queens Safer, a grassroots street-safety advocacy organization, contends Queens is falling behind the other boroughs in reducing traffic injuries and fatalities over the past year.

The group’s statistical analysis of Queens’ progress in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature traffic safety project Vision Zero finds that the borough is struggling with traffic enforcement and motorist injuries, according to a report released this week.

Queens has faced a 2.3 percent uptick in injuries to motorists and passengers since 2013 and is now the only borough where injuries to drivers and passengers exceed 2013 levels, when Vision Zero began, the report said. Throughout the rest of the city injuries to motor vehicle occupants are down, declining by 7 percent in Brooklyn and in 16 percent in Manhattan. Queens also had a 9% increase in cyclist injuries compared to 2013.

“In five districts (Community Boards 1, 4, 7, 12 and 13), implementation of Vision Zero has been particularly weak and action to jump-start street safety improvements is most urgently needed,” the report said.

Compounding the problem, several Queens neighborhoods are seeing significantly fewer traffic tickets written for these violations by their local police precincts relative to 2013 levels, the advocacy group said. The biggest declines occurred in the 109th and 110th precincts, where ticketing was down by more than 30 percent, with the most significant drops in tickets for cell-phone use.

As part of the Vision Zero effort, NYPD received resources to hire additional traffic safety officers.

“Based on the statistics presented here, there is little evidence that these greater workforce numbers are translating into greater enforcement on the ground. NYPD should provide an accounting of how it is using its Vision Zero budget allocations,” the report said.

Pedestrians lucky to escape debris from rooftop accident

DNA Info/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

From DNA Info:

A car crashed into a the wall of a rooftop parking lot on Austin Street Sunday evening, ripping a hole in it and sending dozens of bricks falling onto a busy sidewalk Sunday evening, officials and witnesses said.

The incident occurred just after 8 p.m. atop a two-story commercial building housing several businesses, including Exo Cafe, a Lucille Roberts gym and PM Pediatrics.

Sources at the scene said that the valet accidentally hit the gas instead of the break, causing the car to smash into the wall.

A representative for the parking lot declined to comment.

No one was injured in the crash and the driver refused medical attention, but the falling bricks damaged three cars, according to fire and police officials.

Forest Hills mystery accident

From Edge of the City. Anyone know what happened here? Looks like a doozy.

Not a smart move

From the Queens Courier:

A man attempting to cross the Long Island Expressway Saturday night was struck and killed by a car, police said.

The 34-year-old man was hit near exit 24 in Flushing at about 9:45 p.m. as he was trying to cross from south to north in the vicinity of 169th Street.

According to authorities, the pedestrian ran from the center wall of the expressway into the left travel lane and was struck by a Toyota Suburban. The driver attempted to brake and swerve to the right to avoid him.

So this happened again...

From CBS New York:

Witness Joe Illescas said his family was shopping when he believes the driver was trying to park in a handicap spot in front of the store.

“You can see that she was parking, trying to put it in park, she didn’t have it in park, took her foot off the brake and must have accelerated, right inside,” Illescas said. “Thank god there’s no tragedy, call it luck, a miracle, thank god everybody is okay.”

The driver was not injured.

About 15 people were inside of the store at the time. The manager reported she was cut by glass, but no one was seriously injured. Castro reports only the manager reported a small injury
The store is expected to be shut down for a week.

Car crashes into Flushing Pathmark

From WPIX:

Multiple people were injured after an SUV crashed into a Queens Pathmark Tuesday evening.

Firefighters responded to the scene at 31-06 Farrington St. in Flushing around 6 p.m., for a car into the building.

The crash caused part of the ceiling to collapse.

Five people were injured in the crash. One person is in serious condition.

Vision Zero is a net zero

From the Daily News:

The News’ analysis focused on 12 major thoroughfares where many of Vision Zero’s high-profile policies — increased enforcement, improved signage and, in most cases, a reduced 25-mph speed limit — were first implemented.

The News compared the stats for the roads in the months following the rollout, from September through December 2014, with the same period in 2012, which was a statistically average year for traffic-related fatalities. The News found:

Some roads saw huge drops in the number of wrecks that resulted in an injury or fatality — such as a stretch of Broadway in Manhattan, from 125 to 95, and Forest Ave. on Staten Island, from 33 to 17.

But on half of the roads, the carnage actually increased. Fifty people were injured or killed on E. Gun Hill Road in the Bronx during the months following the speed limit reduction, compared with 33 during the same time period two years prior. On Southern Blvd. in the Bronx, casualties jumped from 21 to 31.

Overall, the number of wrecks remained virtually unchanged on those problem corridors, and casualties fell only 4%.

Citywide, The News found there wasn’t a marked decrease in the number of wrecks during 2014, compared with the prior year and a half. And March of this year was among the months with the most wrecks between July 2012 and March 2015 with 17,410 — including nearly 2,600 that resulted in an injury or death.

The most dangerous intersections in Queens

Data Source: NYC Open Data / https://data.cityofnewyork.us

Police deny that they damaged a car

"This is the car two detectives hit last night (July 1) right after a stop and frisk. It's in front of 43-14 Bowne Street, Flushing between Cherry Ave and 45th Ave. The NYPD has yet to show up. Cops were called at 2 A.M and repeatedly by the owner. So far, two marked NYPD cars have driven by and did not stop and at least 3 detectives have driven by and haven't stopped. A call went in to the Community Affairs at the 109th and a call has gone in to Senator Avella still nothing!!!" - Anita

Update: "The cops finally showed up after 6 hours telling the owner that it couldn't have been a detective, then said it took so long to respond because all the 109th officers were on emergency which is bullshit! We counted 4 marked cars that drove by slowly and a few undercovers. Then the cop did not believe what time the owner started calling 911 and asked to see his phone and proceeded to tell the owner of the car that it won't be investigated because no crime was committed !!"

Stop speeding on 147th Street!

The following pics are of yet another accident that occurred in the corner of 147 street an 5th avenue in Whitestone. This area has been besieged by speeding cars and reckless driving for years.

The local boys driving the Cadillac are said to have been driving at a high rate of speed (normal for this corner). They are fortunate they did not flip over and or injure themselves or some poor innocent pedestrian.

We have been trying to get traffic devices that would improve safety for years. All of which has fallen on dead ears. We have requested a 4 way stop sign and were denied. We requested an one way west bound on fifth avenue (this would limit the amount of cars and trucks as well as curtail the highway speed most drivers continue on the block). We have repeatedly requested speed humps on 147 street in order to curtail speeding. What have we gotten instead? Nothing! Why must we continue to wait until someone gets seriously hurt?

Remedy this now please.

For our elected officials receiving this email, your help is desperately needed.

Alfredo Centola
Community Activist

DeBlasio, DOT blind to Maspeth street safety

"de Blasio has got to be kidding ?

His Vision Zero Action Plan to make streets safer must not include Queens, or at least the town of Maspeth. E-mails about a major on going safety problem, to his office, Queens DOT commissioner Dalila Hall's and NYC DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg's offices go ignored and unanswered.

Almost 3 years ago, a group of residents along 70 St between 54 and 51 Aves asked the city to convert 70 St to a one way northbound. Our major concern after seeing parked vehicles being sideswiped and their mirrors torn off, as well as a number of fender benders, is for the safety of the children at IS 73. You see, many children, teachers and staff share the street with speeding school buses, racing TLC cars, parents dropping their kids off and the local citizens trying to get out and go to work. This is a narrow tertiary street. It runs from Queens B'lvd. to 54 Ave. where it ends at the entrance to IS 73. Someday, someone missing the stop sign, is going to drive through this "T" intersection and straight into the front entrance of this school !!! The city, in all its wisdom, moved the left turn lane on Queens B'lvd from 69 ST ( a secondary roadway ) to 70 St because of the volume of accidents. Drivers have discovered that they can avoid 6 or 7 traffic lights on 69 St by racing down our block.

On November 2, 2012, Community Board 5 received a letter from Maura McCarthy, former Queens DOT commissioner, responding to an October 18, 2011 request by the board for a one way conversion. Ms McCarthy responds by stating that traffic counts, street measurements, traffic circulation, area parking and the school congestion studies conducted by the DOT show that this area, and its pedestrians would be better served and safer as a one way street. The DOT recommends to the board that this conversion take place.

THREE YEARS LATER.......

We are still a two-way street. Someone was hit by a car on 70 St one block before the school. 5 students were hit by a car that jumped the curb at 71 St and Grand Ave. One child later died. 70 Street ends at 54 Ave and the traffic funnels down 71 St to Grand Avenue.

Our local council member Crowley - useless in getting the DOT to get moving.
DOT stated in the past it was a budgetary issue....we are talking 6 blocks here people !!! NOT all of Maspeth.
CB 5 notifies residents by mail that the conversion will take place week of 4/14/2014...DOT now denies this.

Where is the action, Mr. Mayor?

You know the area well having filled potholes a few blocks away.
You demonstrated that our local streets make great speedways.
Are you waiting to visit an injured or dead child and their parents before acting?
Has your "vision" gone blurry ? or don't you care about Queens?
You can take action here with much better results - in a much shorter time span.

The DOT states that it will not convert this street while school is in session. Makes NO sense. Spring the change on drivers all at once on a Monday morning after spring vacation, or on bus drivers, parents, and taxis who will NOT travel through here all summer!!! DOT workers can NOT work outside if the temperature is below 45....poor guys. Take a look at the faded, missing, and falling street signs in the area. Watch the next pothole patrol...how hard they work....and my point will be well made." - SKI

4 drown inside submerged car in Luyster Creek

From the NY Post:

A woman’s 19th birthday ended in tragedy Friday night when the car carrying her and four friends plunged into Steinway Creek in Queens — killing her and three of her pals, police sources said.

The 20-year-old driver escaped the Honda Accord and called 911, but his four passengers — two men aged 20 and 21 plus the birthday girl and another woman — all died after rescue divers pulled them from the submerged car.

“The guy couldn’t stop and the car flipped into the creek,” a law enforcement source said.

The car crashed through a chain-link fence and fell about 15 feet into the water from an industrial area near 19th Avenue and 37th Street in Astoria at about 10:40 p.m. on a foggy night and was completely submerged as cops and firefighters rushed to the scene.

The scuba divers had to break open the windows of the car — which the driver borrowed from his grandmother — to rescue the people inside, the source said.

The driver and passengers were at Buffalo Wild Wings in Queens celebrating a birthday party before they went into the water, not far from a city wastewater treatment plant and the Rikers Island bridge, police sources said.

Neighbors noted the street doesn’t have a “Dead End” sign that would have warned the driver.

Ok there's some things here that don't make sense. Buffalo Wild Wings is in Forest Hills on Continental Avenue near Austin Street. How and why did the car end up on 19th Ave in Astoria?

Also, why did all the media outlets refer to this location as "Steinway Creek"? It's name is Luyster Creek.

And then it gets even worse...

From the Daily News:

An SUV overturned into the East River early Saturday morning in Astoria just blocks from where four friends lost their lives when their car plunged into the Steinway Creek hours before, authorities said.

The SUV was apparently driving north on 20 Ave around 4 a.m. when it ran through a brick wall and a chain link fence and overturned into a waist deep inlet of the East River where the street abruptly stops at Shore Blvd., witnesses and authorities said.

Neighbor Yvett Kasanakis, 48, a bridge painter, helped the four passengers out of the murky waist-deep water. All four suffered minor injuries, one was treated at Mt. Sinai and one was brought to New York Queens Hospital, fire sources said.

FDNY divers did not find any other passengers in vehicle.

The shivering twenty-somethings told Kasanakis they were leaving a nearby club and heading to Neptune Diner when the crash occurred. They also told the Good Samaritan that the driver, who they claimed to have just met, had fled after the accident.

Disturbing sight by Muni Lot 1

"Hey there, today I was in Flushing by 37th ave where the the municipal lot is, and there is this car parked there that I have attached photos of. I understand that people died last week in a car crash but do you happen to know why they would park that there in downtown Flushing? It's very bloody and disturbing." - Tiffany

Answer: It was the closest open spot near the 109th precinct.

More photos were sent in by the Flushing Phantom.

DOT to close dangerous bridge ramp at night

From the NY Times:

Cars have slammed into a beauty salon and shattered the windows of a Caribbean restaurant over the years, each after failing to navigate a turn at the base of the Queensboro Bridge where it unspools into Long Island City, Queens.

Now, not just the ramp — with a dangerous curve that city officials say has claimed three lives in recent years — but the entire outermost Queens-bound lane of the bridge will be shut down at night, when the emptied-out bridge may tempt drivers to speed.

The southernmost lane of the bridge, formally the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, has a breathtaking view for those traveling on that side of the bridge; the New York City skyline is visible from the passenger side window. It will be closed beginning on Monday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, according to a statement released Tuesday jointly by the Department of Transportation and the New York City Police Department.