8 The Queens Courier • FEBRUARY 13, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Call for Vision Zero on Northern Blvd. BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] Local politicians and residents are saying the time to act is now, before another innocent life is taken on Northern Boulevard. Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer gathered with other elected officials and traffic safety advocates late last week to call for Northern Boulevard to be added as one of the 50 locations in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative. “We are all committed to Vision Zero, and it is our obligation to speak up and stand up every single time pedestrians are killed or injured as a result of reckless driving,” said Van Bramer, who has developed a list of locations with traffic fatalities. The group gathered at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and 48th Street in Woodside, where four pedestrians were stuck on February 1, while they were waiting for the bus. One of the victims was a seven-yearold girl who suffered a skull fracture, but survived. “Here we go again,” said Senator Michael Gianaris, who introduced a bill in the Senate, which would charge drivers with vehicular homicide if they continue to drive without a valid license and are in an accident that causes serious injury or death. “Until we begin taking pedestrian safety seriously, we are going to keep standing at more and more press conferences talking about the same issue and we hope we don’t have to do it too many more times,” he said. Last month, de Blasio and his administration, together with the NYPD, Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Taxi & Limousine Commission, launched an interagency working group to implement a Vision Zero initiative aiming to reduce traffic fatalities to zero within the next 10 years. The announcement took place less than a block from where third-grader Noshat Nahian, on his way to school in December, was fatally struck by a tractor trailer on Northern Boulevard and 61st Street. The working group will come together to implement the mayor’s plan by developing a report, due to the mayor by February 15. It will be released publicly and serve as a blueprint for the mayor’s “Vision Zero” plan for safer streets through the city. “This is a street,” said Van Bramer. “For some, they may think it’s a highway, but the truth is there are people living, working and going to school all along Northern Boulevard and it has to be just as safe as any other street in the city of New York and until it is so, we will not rest.” THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Assemblymember Nily Rozic (left) and Community Board 8 Parks Committee Chair Martha Taylor. SUPPORT GROWS FOR GREEN MARKET BY MELISSA CHAN [email protected] A budding plan to grow a farmers’ market in Fresh Meadows is getting the green thumbs up from neighborhood residents. Community support is sprouting for a green market to open at Cunningham Park this summer, local leaders said. “It’s up for a lot more discussion, and we’re really in the tentative, beginning stages,” said Martha Taylor, who chairs Community Board 8’s Parks Committee. “But we’re excited about it at this point.” Local vendors would sell fresh produce — and possibly baked goods, jams and juices — near the tennis courts, in the corner of the main parking lot on Union Turnpike and 196th Place. Officials hope to open the market in late June, after the Big Apple Circus leaves town, and run it for at least one afternoon a week until October. “People from this community go to other green markets in other parts of Queens,” said Assemblymember Nily Rozic. “I think this is really something the community has been craving.” The Parks Committee held a meeting January 30 to gauge public interest, since a proposed plan was met with some opposition about eight years ago. Some residents had feared the market would decrease parking spots, increase traffic, and take away business from a newly opened supermarket nearby, Taylor said. But reception for the plan has increased over the years, said Taylor and Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association President Jim Gallagher Jr. “We were pleasantly surprised at all the people who were there in favor of it, including some who had been opposed to it the first time,” Taylor said. The Parks Committee plans to interview market vendors next month, while the full board is slated to vote on the proposal in late spring. Residents looking to weigh in can call Rozic’s office at 718-820-0241. “I think we’re going to have a process that is very neighborhood-driven, and one that has everyone’s input,” Rozic said. “Fresh Meadows foodies are in for a treat.” THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano Local politicians gathered at the site of a recent accident to make sure Mayor de Blasio includes Northern Boulevard in his traffic safety initiative. DANGEROUS CROSSINGS FOUR QUEENS ROADWAYS SOME OF MOST UNSAFE BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] As Mayor Bill de Blasio and other local leaders push to lower traffic deaths, a new report has identified four Queens roadways as some of the most dangerous for pedestrians. The analysis, from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit policy watchdog organization, found that from 2010 to 2012, Woodhaven Boulevard had the most pedestrian deaths, with eight fatalities. It was ranked sixth overall out of 12 counties in downstate New York and the second worst in the city, behind Broadway in Manhattan. Tied with the 14th most deaths were Union Turnpike, Queens Boulevard and Northern Boulevard, which had five fatalities each. Union Turnpike and Queens Boulevard, nicknamed the “Boulevard of Death,” were new to the list this year. “Queens Boulevard is definitely an unsafe road,” Woodhaven resident Hermina Diaz said. “I see people crossing the street when the light is red all the time, and I also see cars speeding by to not get stuck at the red light.” An eight-year-old Woodside boy was killed on his way to school in December when a truck driver, who was operating his vehicle with a suspended license, hit him at the intersection of 61st Street and Northern Boulevard. On January 15, de Blasio launched his Vision Zero initiative, which aims to Northern Boulevard, where an eight-year-old boy was fatally struck in December, was named one the most dangerous for pedestrians in a recent report. reduce traffic fatalities to zero within the next 10 years, at the site of the child’s school. Nearly 60 percent of pedestrian fatalities occurred on arterial roadways, multi-lane roads that often have speed limits of 40 mph or more and little pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign analysis. “We can save lives by building complete streets with protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks and pedestrian safety islands,” said Paul Steely White, executive director of advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “It is clear more needs to be done to ensure pedestrian safety throughout the City of New York, but especially here in Queens,” said Congressmember Joseph Crowley. Crowley, together with Assemblymember Francisco Moya and advocacy group Make Queens Safer, held a town hall meeting in Jackson Heights on Sunday, February 9 to receive suggestions from community members on how to improve pedestrian safety in the area. Attendees spoke about dangerous intersections, signal timing, street lights, enforcement, and the need for and lack of crossing guards, according to Make Queens Safer co-founder Cristina Furlong. “We were able to make connections in different community groups that are interested in making Queens safer,” she said. -With additional reporting by Katelyn Di Salvo and Angy Altamirano THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano
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