Red Light Camera Obscura

 

 Impunity City

As we all know from the past decade since it was implemented, the Vision Zero program to bring down traffic accidents and fatalities initiated by the abominable Mayor Bill de Blasio failed in its mission to do just that as more people got maimed and killed since it’s implementation as the years went on and exacerbated to new extreme numbers during the last two years of the pandemic. Well, look no further on why Vision Zero as well as enforcement and punitive charges traffic violations continue to fail New Yorkers with the condition of this red light traffic camera post; which has been violated with those obnoxiously ubiquitous Cash for Cars advertisements that are always illegally posted on traffic and electric utility poles all over the five boroughs.

 

 

Zero Vision shown by city regarding destroyed fire hydrant in Whitestone

 

 For years the residents of 5th Avenue in WHITESTONE Queens have been advocating and begging for safety. They have asked for extension of bollards to prevent speeding cars and trucks from turning up their narrow residential street to a one way conversion going toward the bridge. Always met with different excuses, never once coming up with a safe Solution.  

In the last 3 months, the hydrant on the corner has been taken out three times by speeding cars careening into oncoming traffic and jumping the sidewalk. A few months ago,  a speeding car took the turn at such high speeds that it bounced off the hydrant and spun to the other side totaling a parked Jeep. The mother and her two daughters and just parked the Jeep and missed getting hit or killed by two minutes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will enough be enough. The residents of 5th Avenue need help. 

Also, the hydrant is now MIA and the block has a missing hydrant over 3 weeks. GOD FORBID THERE IS A FIRE!  

The residents have reached out to all the elected representatives as well as DOT and DEP. NO reply on when if ever the hydrant will be replaced

Precinct 114 in Astoria and a 911 call

Dear Crappy,

Thought you would like this short Halloween Story:

At 7.11 am Halloween 10.31.19 a white Ford SUV failed to stop, accelerator was reportedly stuck, and the automatic stopping assist system failed.  I have not put any real effort into guessing their speed, but the damage done to the vehicle, guard rail, Amtrak fence, was impressive. As impressive as the driver only have a small cut on his forehead from the airbags.

The Crappy story is the timeline it took from our  911 call to any NYPD showing up.  Calls went in at 7.12am from our house with request for an ambulance and police. We watched and offered assistance to the driver, while talking the gentleman out of walking away.  We had to scrub through out security feeds to find an NYPD SUV showed up at 8.45am and left at 8.52am with no photographs, no report generated. No phone call from 911 back to our contact number.

We have a damaged fence along Amtrak, we have car parts all over, we have a completely destroyed guard rail... And 114 is unwilling to answer the land line phone number. We have been in touch via 311 who made this a second 911 call to help prove that the call was not closed or handled correctly.  We will be emailing Costa as he wants to play Queens President.

Attached is a video in WMV format for you to enjoy.  It happens so fast. Amazed no one was seriously hurt.

 

Looks like this response and report showed more zero than vision.

Mayor de Blasio, the man who gave us Vision Zero, was a passenger in a car crash that was caused by his NYPD security team and covered up by their commanding officer

 NY Daily News

On a Saturday morning in August 2015, Mayor de Blasio was in the back seat of a black NYPD Chevy Tahoe bound for an event in Harlem when a driver changing lanes slammed into his ride.

No one was hurt, but the commanding officer of the mayor’s executive protection unit, Howard Redmond, was furious. Text messages obtained by the Daily News show he immediately ordered the incident be covered up to protect de Blasio’s image.

“As per CO [the commanding officer] no one is to know about this,” Sgt. Jerry Ioveno texted members of the unit, referring to Redmond. “Not even the other teams.”

“No one is to know,” he repeated.

Text messages obtained by The News reveal that Redmond frantically covered up the Aug. 22, 2015, car crash due to concerns about “optics.” The previously unreported crash offers insight into the powerful commanding officer’s critical role covering up embarrassing episodes involving the mayor. It also hints at why Redmond remains in his post despite turmoil in the unit. The News has previously reported on allegations that Redmond covered up the case of an executive protection unit lieutenant accused of roughing up a sergeant at Gracie Mansion.

No report on the crash is publicly available in state Department of Motor Vehicles records. Redmond allegedly ordered that the cop behind the wheel, Detective Edgar Robles, be officially listed as the driver of a backup SUV, text messages show. That way, the unit could more plausibly claim the mayor wasn’t in the vehicle involved in the collision, a source close to the executive protection unit said.

The crash was covered up in part because of de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, which seeks to reduce pedestrian and traffic deaths through stricter enforcement, according to multiple sources close to the executive protection unit. The Vision Zero site proclaims: “The City of New York must no longer regard traffic crashes as mere ‘accidents,’ but rather as preventable incidents that can be systematically addressed.”

State law requires all occupants of vehicles involved in accidents to stay at the scene. But a retired member of the executive protection unit said it wasn’t unusual for a VIP under the unit’s protection to be taken away as long as there was no serious injury.

The mayor's atypical buck-passing response?

“Everything about how an accident is handled is the responsibility of the NYPD. I don’t know enough about their protocols. That’s something to ask them,” de Blasio said.

The aloof mayor was also uninterested in the apparent cover-up of the collision. Texts showed EPU members telling each other “no one is to know.”

“I don’t accept the notion that anything was done one way or another because I’m not familiar with what was done," de Blasio said, apparently ignorant of The News’s front page story and coverage it received from other news outlets.

 

Q70 bus illegal idling, hydrant parking caught in the act in Woodside

 I've been making 311 complaints since January regarding illegally idling Q70 buses on 61st St in Woodside (multiple buses just put on their hazards and block the street). Yesterday at 5 pm I found one *parked in front of a hydrant* on 39th Ave (driver apparently napping in the back seat). The neighbors say it happens all the time.

 Around the corner on 61st were two more idling buses, outside the "drop off only" zone that *always* has two parked vehicles, and the actual bus stop on Roosevelt. Needless to say, buses more or less permanently occupying the southbound lane on 61st makes for a massive honking traffic disaster.

Northern Blvd rework coming

From NBC:

Safety changes are on the way for a street that has been dubbed the new boulevard of death -- the Northern Boulevard in Queens.

Queens Blvd bike lanes to be extended through Forest Hills/Kew Gardens

Courtesy Forest Hills Post

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Department of Transportation has unveiled Phase 4 of its extensive Queens Boulevard redesign plan, but the project has lost one of its biggest original supporters.

Speaking before Community Board 6’s Transportation Committee last week, DOT officials detailed the agency’s proposal for the 1-mile section of Queens Boulevard from Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills to Union Turnpike in Kew Gardens.

This phase of the project is similar to the past three, as it includes bike lanes along the median separating the service road from the main drag.

The stretch of roadway in question will also see the creation of a new crosswalk at 78th Avenue, redesigned slip lanes between the main and service roads, an improved pedestrian island on the north side of the boulevard at 75th Avenue, extended median tips, 200-foot-long left-turn bays at Queens Boulevard and Ascan Avenue and 10 new unloading zones for trucks.

To install the bike lane, the DOT will remove the service road’s parking lane along the median, which contains 220 spaces along the one mile stretch of road.

Originally a supporter of the plan, Koslowitz began to waffle last year, once her office started receiving complaints about the lack of parking and drops in business experienced by entrepreneurs that were blamed on the bike lanes.

The lawmaker said she did not know what kind of compromise could be had between cycling enthusiasts who vehemently defend the bike lanes and area residents who oppose them.

But what she did know, the lawmaker said, is that the boulevard project is both “saving lives” and “killing business.”

“They have to redesign it to where the stores have parking and people have their bike lanes,” she said. “How many people do you see riding bikes down Queens Boulevard? Hardly any. I drive all the way into Sunnyside and I can count the cyclists on one hand.”

De Blasio announces he's moving forward with SBS

From Curbed:

In his latest Vision Zero push, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a series of road safety and traffic improvement projects set to take place place throughout the city—all part of a $1.6 billion initiative to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.

This particular set of Vision Zero projects involves wider sidewalks, new crosswalks, new protected bike lanes, and pedestrian refugee medians.

Queens:
Select Bus Service will be added to the Q52 and Q53 routes that run along the Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, passing through multiple neighborhoods in Queens. There are also plans for pedestrian safety improvements along this stretch, all of which is on schedule to wrap sometime this spring.

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 is a flop

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan to cut pedestrian deaths has veered dramatically off course, advocates and families of crash victims charged Thursday at City Hall.

Safe streets supporters rallied after an unlicensed van driver last week fatally struck an 8-month-old baby in his stroller in Queens. And contrary to the goal to cut traffic deaths eventually to zero, deaths so far this year are up 5%, to 195.

De Blasio spokesman Austin Finan defended the city’s efforts.

"No death on our city's streets is acceptable. The DOT is working diligently to complete at least 90 Safety Improvement Projects in 2016 — the most completed in a single calendar year — including expanded pedestrian space, protected bike lanes, corridor improvements and intersection treatments,” he said.

Part of Vision Zero deemed unconstitutional

From NY1:

A Queens judge has ruled that a key portion of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero plan is unconstitutional, a ruling that threatens to upend the mayor's pedestrian safety program. NY1's Grace Rauh reports.

DOT caught speeding more than 500 times

From WPIX:

The wheels of government move fast.

Since the start of Vision Zero in 2014, city owned vehicles have racked up 11,367 summonses.

More than 500 of them were handed out to the city Department of Transportation, which implemented much of Vision Zero, an initiative to stem the spike in pedestrian deaths, according to a PIX11 analysis of citation records.

Is DOT ignoring graffiti due to Vision Zero?

From CBS 2:

A Queens lawmaker is calling on the city to do more to remove graffiti.

State Sen. Tony Avella told CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez that after requesting graffiti removal in his district, he discovered the clean-up on city property had taken a back seat to other priorities.

“The fact that now the city under Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Transportation has chosen not to respond to graffiti requests unless it’s a profane nature or racist nature, it’s highly unacceptable,” Avella said.

Avella said Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told him the city wasn’t responding to all graffiti complaints because the agency was concentrating all its resources on the mayor’s Vision Zero program.

Infrastructure upgrades for the tower people

From LIC Post:

The Long Island City/Hunters Point area is about to get a $40 million infrastructure and roadway upgrade through funding allocated by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Most of the roadways in the Hunters Point area have not been reconstructed since the beginning of the 20th Century, according to Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. With Long Island City’s explosion of residential and commercial growth, plus the City’s emphasis on traffic safety stemming from Vision Zero, this area was identified as due for a makeover.

Well this should be applied to the entire borough, if not the city, no? Infrastructure everywhere is shot and overdevelopment is everywhere.

Also, in years long past, the infrastructure upgrades were put in BEFORE upzoning, not as an afterthought.

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.

More left turn signals for safer streets

From the Daily News:

Drivers could get the green light for safer left turns under a bill Public Advocate Letitia James is introducing in the City Council Thursday.

James wants the city Department of Transportation to put dedicated left-turn signals on 100 intersections to prevent drivers from zipping into crosswalks crowded with pedestrians. Another bill from James would make the DOT put out quarterly reports identify problem intersections where drivers are striking pedestrians who have the right of way.

“By increasing the number of protected left turn signals at large intersections and taking a closer look at locations with chronic right-of-way violations, we can make Vision Zero a reality,” James said.

No left turn GPS option could improve road safety

From CBS New York:

Many people turn to Google for answers, and now two New York City Council members say the technology giant has the answer to making city streets safer.

As CBS2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, members Brad Lander (D-39th) and Ydanis Rodriguez (D-10th) have asked Google maps to include an option for drivers to select a route with reduced left hand turns.

The councilmen believe the request falls in line with the city’s Vision Zero plan to reduce the number of deaths on city streets.

According to the NYPD, so far this year there have been 62 pedestrian fatalities, and 5 bicyclist fatalities. The Department of Transportation’s stats show that approximately 10 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the last 18 months involve left turns.

Bike crackdown in western Queens

From LIC Post:

The 108th Precinct has been targeting law-breaking bicyclists.

The precinct–which covers Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City—issued 352 bicycle summonses over the past 28 days, compared to just three for the same period a year ago.

The summonses were for a range of offences—such as going through red lights, riding against traffic and failure to adhere to a multitude of road rules.

Captain John Travaglia, the commanding officer of the 108 precinct, said that 560 bicycle summonses have been issued in the precinct year to date, up from 75 for the same six-month period last year. He said the number also included wayward bicycle delivery people.

Travaglia said the clamp down is partly the result of adhering to Vision Zero, a concept that aims to reduce traffic fatalities to zero.

He said that the precinct has yet to have any traffic fatalities so far this year and that this push is to help minimize deaths.

“We have all witnessed it,” Travaglia said. “Some bicyclists are like dare devils; they go through red lights fast and yet they don’t know what is coming.”

He said that he has been targeting bicyclists just like motorist to reduce injuries and fatalities.

Lancman wants clarification of safety law

From the Daily News:

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens) says he plans to introduce an amendment to the mayor's Right of Way law tomorrow that would further define when a driver could be handcuffed for hitting a pedestrian or cyclist.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's law, which went into effect last August as part of his Vision Zero initiative, made it a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail for a driver to injure or kill a pedestrian or cyclist who had the right of way.

Lancman's amendment would require cops to take into consideration "visibility, illumination, weather conditions, roadway conditions, roadway design, faulty vehicular equipment or design," and whether the pedestrian was also following the rules.

Lancman says he's pushing the bill because the NYPD would not clarify for him what constitutes a driver failing "to exercise due care" under the law.

"We cannot let people get arrested and potentially sent to jail without a clear understanding of what type of conduct is criminal and not criminal," he said.