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COURIER L 12 IFE, OCTOBER 8-14, 2021
City kicks off
McGuinness
Boulevard redesign
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
The Department of Transportation
sought input from drivers, pedestrians,
and cyclists who frequent
McGuinness Boulevard this week as
they begin planning their $39 million
redesign of the Greenpoint thoroughfare.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
that the city would be investing in
a “full redesign” of the road in May,
weeks after Matthew Jensen, a teacher
at nearby PS 110, was killed in a hitand
run while crossing the street.
Neighbors and activists have
raised concerns about McGuinness
Boulevard for years as pedestrian injuries
and fatalities continued to rise.
It was one of the city’s fi rst “Arterial
Slow Zones” in 2014, slowing the speed
limit from 30 to 25 mph — now the city
standard.
As part of their public engagement
process, DOT joined Assemblymember
Emily Gallagher to hold a virtual
workshop on Sept. 29 to ask the community
what they feel needs to be improved
along the roughly 1.5-mile
stretch of the road between Ash Street
near the Pulaski Bridge and Meeker
Avenue, which runs alongside the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
More than 80 people signed on to
the two-hour workshop, where they
heard a short presentation about the
boulevard and DOT’s plans before
breaking off into small groups to discuss
their main concerns with department
representatives and gathering together
to share their fi ndings with the
full group.
“I’m super grateful that DOT and
the mayor’s offi ce are working with us
to design a better street, and taking our
recommendations into consideration
and working alongside us to build a
better opportunity, for, especially, pedestrians,
cyclists,” Gallagher said at
the start of the workshop. “It’s very important
for us to take this opportunity
to really think about the roles we have
as users of the street, and really think
about the moments we felt unsafe, however
you use this street.”
Gallagher has been a longtime
proponent of improving McGuinness
Boulevard, even organizing a working
group for neighbors who want to join
the cause.
DOT has already made some shortterm
improvements, said civil engineer
Zachary Wyche. A new crosswalk
and pedestrian signal have been installed
at Bayard Street, where Jensen
was killed, and the length of traffi c
signals at night has been reduced from
120 seconds to 90 seconds, intended to
keep drivers from picking up too much
speed between lights.
Left-turn traffi c calming has also
been approved for dangerous intersections
like Greenpoint Avenue, Kent
Street, and Nassau Avenue, and a
right-turn treatment is planned for Bayard
Street.
These “in-house” projects are intended
to make the street safer for pedestrians,
cyclists, and drivers while
large-scale redesign is being designed
and implemented. DOT plans to begin
work on the redesign in 2022.
The NYPD counted 190 crashes with
injuries on the road from 2016 to 2019,
according to DOT. Pedestrians were
most often hit by cars moving straight
and making left turns, and cyclists are
most often sideswiped and hit by cars
turning right.
“So it’s a lot of paint, plastic bollards,
rubber speed bumps,” Wyche
said. “There’s sometimes a little bit of
concrete, but in general, it’s done with
things that we can put down quickly
and rearrange, and it’s a shorter timeline
than the capital project, which is
rebuilding the entire right-of-way of
the road.”
Wyche said the department already
has a few key improvements in mind.
McGuinness Boulevard is a truck route
connecting major roadways, but truck
drivers often make dangerous turns
up and down side streets, something
DOT is looking to curb. They also want
to redesign the median, where people
often stand and wait to get the rest of
the way across the 100-foot-wide roadway,
and introduce bike lanes
Bike infrastructure along McGuinness
Boulevard is “basically nonexistent,”
Wyche said, so they will be
“starting from scratch.”
While Wednesday’s session was
DOT’s fi rst conversation with the public
about the project, “Make McGuinness
Safe” has become a rallying cry
in the community in the months since
Jensen’s death. The week before the
workshop, the Make McGuinness Safe
Coalition held a virtual teach-in to discuss
the road’s current dangers and
their suggestions for the redesign.
“We’re going to get the McGuinness
Boulevard that we ask for,” said coalition
organizer Kevin LaCherra. “It’s
not a matter of resources, it’s a matter
of political will.”
The most important thing the coalition
is pushing for is a road diet — removing
a lane of traffi c in each direction.
Removing a lane forces cars to
travel at lower speeds, reducing both
the number and severity of car crashes,
explained urban planner Jack Darcey.
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