Return to
SCHOOL
2020
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School Pledge
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,14 SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2020 BTR
A newly installed speed trap at the intersection of Bruckner Boulevard and Hunts Point
Avenue.
BY MARK HALLUM
While the city Department of
Transportation hopes to breaking the
momentum of a speeding epidemic
with new speed camera enforcement
on Bruckner Avenue in the Bronx,
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s larger commitment
to street safety was called into
question by the mayor’s own Surface
Transportation Advisory Council.
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg,
elected offi cials representing the
Bronx and NYPD offi cials on Tuesday
said that the installation of new equipment
near Hunts Point Boulevard will
catch speeding motorists and resolve
what local residents refer to as the
“Highway to Heaven.” DOT announced
an ambitious plan to create what they
called the largest speed camera network
in the world with photo enforcement
in all 750 school zones across
the city.
But similar spot improvements
citywide have done little to satisfy up
to 12 advocates who signed onto a letter
to de Blasio asking for a better plan
to calm traffi c and reduce congestion.
“While we acknowledge that the
city has taken some steps to address
these enormous challenges, we believe
that more must be done immediately
to avoid the impending wave of congestion,
pollution, inequality, and traffi c
violence. Specifi cally, we believe that
City Hall must accelerate and release a
surface transportation plan,” the letter
stated. “In June, our council advanced
a series of draft recommendations in
support of a surface transportation
plan, which we believe should be reviewed
and advanced without additional
delay… To date, our council has
received neither feedback nor next
steps from City Hall on the status of
our recommendations and the City’s
surface transportation plan.”
A full list of the recommendations
made to the de Blasio administration
can be viewed online.
The recommendations include up
to 40 miles of “emergency” bus lanes;
a network of protected bike lanes; actions
to restore public confi dence in
taxis, for-hire vehicles and pooled
rides; and in lieu of the Central Business
Tolling, they recommended extensive
HOV lanes into the city to
prevent congestion.
“We have not put out the formal
report that they’re seeking, but we
have, I think, been in partnership on
a lot of the projects they’re interested
in. Remember this summer, ‘we’re doing
bike lanes, bus lanes, open streets,
close to 10,000 restaurants for our open
restaurant program including 81 areas
of the city where we’re closing off
streets for the whole week so that people
can be outdoors and enjoy the restaurants,”
Trottenberg said beneath
the Bruckner Expressway overpass in
the Bronx. “Now we’re working with
Department of Education on outdoor
learning. So I think the interest in seeing
the streets transformed, some of
that has been underway but there’s
still really more to come.”
On Bruckner Boulevard, the speed
limit will be reduced from 30 miles
per hour to 25 with photo enforcement
signs already in place near the truckchoke
intersection which Councilman
Rafael Salamanca described how residents
are force to hurry across the road
for the danger posed by the amount of
congestion and speed.
Trottenberg says higher speed limits
and increased road deaths are due
to empty streets during the worst of
the COVID-19 crisis that saw the majority
of commuters and motorists laying
low. But since the infection rate
has dropped across the state, the surge
of personal vehicles – and car-buying –
has already to take hold of the city.
For those vehicles crossing Canal
Street from the Manhattan Bridge, it
can take as long as an hour to reach
the Holland Tunnel.
Health and safety always come first.
Students will be learning 5 days a week,
no matter what.
Learn more:
schools.nyc.gov/returntoschool2020
Speed cameras
come to Bruckner
Transit experts say it’s not enough
/returntoschool2020
