38 The Queens Courier • december 19, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com s pedestrian safety Photo Courtesy of Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer’s Office Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer gathered with residents to ask the DOT to install a crosswalk and additional signage at the intersection of 49th Street and 11th Street in Long Island City. Elmhurst hosts pedestrian injury summit BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] Following a string of pedestrian deaths along major corridors of the borough, Elmhurst Hospital held a day-long symposium examining injuries and coming up with ways to help ease the problem. Physicians, hospital administrators, transportation and traffic safety experts, and community activists gathered at Elmhurst Hospital Center on Thursday, December 12 for a citywide one-day pedestrian injury summit. The hospital released information from a study showing traffic accidents as a leading cause of blunt trauma injuries in the emergency room. “Neighborhoods in western and central Queens have seen an increasing rise in the number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians,” said Dr. Jaime Ullman, Elmhurst Hospital Center’s Director of Neurosurgery and one of the main organizers of the event. “According to a recent study we conducted, traffic accidents involving pedestrians, especially those taking place on Queens Boulevard, Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, resulted in more than 20 percent of the injuries seen in Elmhurst Hospital Center’s Emergency Room.” Other summit participants included representatives from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), The New York State and New York City Departments of Transportation, NYPD, EMS, NYU School of Medicine and Jamaica Hospital. Councilmember Daniel Dromm also attended the symposium and said the focus should go to educating young people and adults on issues of pedestrian safety and include community involvement. Pol calls on DOT to ‘act now’ BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] Long Island City residents are calling on the Department of Transportation (DOT) to implement safety improvements at a busy intersection before someone gets hurts. Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer gathered with residents on Monday, December 16 to ask the DOT to install a crosswalk and additional signage along the intersection of 49th Street and 11th Street to help protect residents. The councilmember also called on the DOT to conduct a traffic study of the intersection to create long- term answers to facilitate speed reduction. There are two residential buildings, L Haus and Hunters View, located at the intersection and adjacent to the exit ramp off the Pulaski Bridge. This area, which has a large amount of traffic, suffers from numerous vehicle crashes, according to residents who also said they fear for their lives dodging speeding cars. “Vehicles are allowed to speed, without stopping, coming off the Pulaski Bridge onto 49th Avenue. This creates an extremely dangerous intersection due to the lack of clear crosswalk markings and stop signs or signals,” said Greg Smith, president of the LHaus Board of Managers. “As a building with 123 units with over 40 young children, it is imperative for this matter to be addressed immediately. We need a crosswalk, as well as proper signage before we see anyone hurt.” Van Bramer’s office reached out to the DOT in November of 2012 to request safety measures to prevent illegal access to 11th Street, as well as address speeding along 49th Avenue. The agency responded in January saying the location has had “several safety improvements made,” according to Van Bramer. “There are a variety of solutions that can be implemented immediately to make this heavily trafficked intersection safer,” said Van Bramer. “I do not understand why DOT has chosen not to take action. Now is the time to act. Not after a tragedy occurs.” According to the DOT, the agency studied the intersection earlier this year for crosswalks and traffic control. “Safety is DOT’s top priority and the agency will be studying the Hunter’s Point area for a future capital project that will be designed to enhance safety and improve mobility for this growing area,” said DOT spokesperson Nicholas Mosquera. “In the short term, the agency is taking a look at signage in the area.” Rally for Queens Blvd. safety BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] A group of local residents want to make the “Boulevard of Death” a thing of the past. Despite the snow, members of Transportation Alternatives’ (T.A.) Queens Activist Committee and residents gathered on Saturday, December 14 to march down Queens Boulevard during the “Winter Wander Rally,” to call for a safer thoroughfare. The group of advocates, who began the event at New Life Fellowship Church in Elmhurst, spoke about the “Zero on Queens Boulevard” campaign, calling for a redesign of the roadway with pedestrian safety improvements, dedicated lanes for Select Bus Service (SBS) and protected bike lanes. The snowy march served as the beginning of a push to let people know and learn more about what they can do to change the busy corridor. “We’ve been trying to build community support for the city to re-envision Queens Boulevard,” said Jessame Hannus, co-chair of T.A.’s Queens Activist Committee, who carried a sign that read “30 mph” to remind drivers of the speed limit. “We just want to make it clear that this is a neighborhood street and we are all neighbors.” Hannus said so many accidents happen on the boulevard, but the community just ignores them because they believe it is normal. According to a “Queens Blvd. Crash Data” map by T.A., there have been 890 pedestrian injuries, 17 pedestrian fatalities, 205 cyclist injuries and 2 cyclist fatalities between 2002 and 2011 on Queens Boulevard, stretching from Jackson Avenue in Long Island City to Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica. The “Zero on Queens Boulevard” Transportation Alternatives’ Queens Activist Committee and residents gathered to march down Queens Boulevard during the “Winter Wander Rally” to call for a safer Queens Boulevard for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. campaign, with more than 40 coalition partners and close to 2,000 petition signatures, has a long-term goal of making sure the city allocates funding and energy to change the boulevard on a large scale, saving lives and strengthening the local economy. Councilmember Daniel Dromm, who has worked with the Department of Transportation to implement neighborhood slow zones and other pedestrian safety improvements in his district, also joined the group on its snowy march. In his district, three children have also lost their lives in traffic fatalities in the past few months. “I believe in the three E’s, engineering, education and enforcement on these issues, and that’s what we have tried to do in my council district,” said Dromm. “More needs to be done.” According to the DOT, there have been many decade-long improvements to the seven-mile strip that have re-engineered the streets for enhanced THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano safety. Some of these improvements include pedestrian countdown signals at more than 60 intersections at Queens Boulevard from Queens Plaza South to Hillside Avenue, lowering the speed limit on Queens Boulevard from 35 to 30 mph, installing 15 electronic boards displaying the speed of passing motorists and installing 46,000 linear feet of pedestrian fencing along the entire corridor to prevent jaywalking. “Safety is DOT’s top priority. In the last 10 years, traffic fatalities have fallen borough-wide by nearly 35 percent,” said DOT spokesperson Nicholas Mosquera. “Queens Boulevard saw 18 pedestrian fatalities at its height in 1997, zero pedestrian fatalities in 2011, the first time this has been recorded, and two last year along the entire seven-mile corridor. We continue to look for ways to enhance safety both on Queens Boulevard and citywide.”
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