FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 11, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Community board leaders urge DOT
to reevaluate Woodhaven Blvd. SBS
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @angelamatua
Several Queens community board leaders
had a number of requests at Monday’s
Queens Borough Board meeting that they
believe will improve the implementation
of the Select Bus Service (SBS) on
Woodhaven Boulevard.
Representatives from the Department
of Transportation (DOT) and MTA
attended the Queens Borough Board
meeting in Kew Gardens on Jan. 8 to
update members on SBS initiatives and to
answer questions.
Th e Q52 and Q53 SBS routes along
Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards,
which were rolled out on Nov. 12, have
faced criticism since their implementation.
Residents complained about
heavy traffi c along the thoroughfare
due to construction at the intersection
of Woodhaven Boulevard and Union
Turnpike last October.
Th ough the changes have been in eff ect
for less than two months, DOT employees
argued that there have been benefi ts
for Q52/53 bus travelers.
“Overall, we’ve been hearing very positive
things from bus riders and traffi c
was again very challenging over the summer
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
A Q53 Select Bus Service vehicle operating on
Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst.
and through the fall, but I think were
kind of beyond that and seeing the traffi
c results that we expected,” said Queens
DOT Commissioner Nicole Garcia.
However, Betty Braton, chairperson for
Community Board 10 in Ozone Park and
Howard Beach, said that since November
she has been fi elding complaints from
residents about the route.
“Th ere are a lot of unhappy campers out
there,” she said. “I’d be interested in seeing
what the statistics are because anecdotally,
residents are complaining about
commutes being longer going north
bound, and they’re complaining going
south bound the commute is longer.”
As part of the new features along the
corridor, bus-only lanes are in eff ect on
Woodhaven Boulevard from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and
along Cross Bay Boulevard from 7 to 10
a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through
Saturday.
Braton, who drives along the route,
said that she believes buses do not use
the lanes frequently enough to justify
these hours. She asked that the DOT take
another look at expanding the hours that
cars can use the bus-only lanes.
“One of the other things people are
complaining about are that private vehicles
that go in the bus lanes are going
to be summonsed, yet buses are regularly
coming out of bus lanes,” she added.
“Th ey shouldn’t be playing leap frog with
each other.”
Councilman Robert Holden, who represents
neighborhoods with little public
transportation options such as
Middle Village, Glendale, Maspeth and
Ridgewood, said that the current traffi
c light synchronization forces him to
stop every two blocks before running into
another red light, which causes congestion
and frustration.
“Motorists are not happy,” he said. “I
know the bus riders might be, but in my
neck of the woods, we take our cars a lot
because we don’t have a subway. We’re at
a point where we have to travel by car but
it seems like the deck is stacked against
any motorist in the borough.”
Jessica Kuo, a transit development city
planner for DOT, said that the signal
optimization was “meant to improve traffi
c, so if you’re seeing issues, I’m going to
take that to the head engineers.”
Both Holden and Braton implored the
DOT to study whether the bus-only rules
can be scrapped during the weekends to
give motorists more freedom to move
around the corridor.
“It is something we are discussing internally
but this just launched so we want
to give it a chance,” Garcia said. “It’s not
outside of the realm of possibilities.”
In addition, the city agency will look to
make street improvements across multiple
intersections across the boulevard.
Among the changes, DOT will extend
left turn bays where possible and construct
median extensions with pedestrian
islands at six intersections.
Th e agency will also construct fi ve new
slips between the service and main road
on Woodhaven Boulevard at 86th, 88th,
91st, 97th and 103rd avenues.
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