4 FEBRUARY 15, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Bus lane violations to begin on Woodhaven and Cross Bay
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Starting next week, drivers on
Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards
in Queens will be paying
a big price for improperly driving or
parking in the Select Bus Service (SBS)
lanes, the Department of Transportation
(DOT) announced.
On Feb. 12, the DOT released a statement
to alert the public that violations
will be issued starting on Tuesday, Feb.
20, for drivers who break the rules
of the Q52/Q53 SBS route. By state
law, the DOT was required to issue
warnings for at least 60 days aft er the
launch of the bus route.
The announcement came 86 days
aft er the grace period began on Nov.
19, 2017, likely because of adjustments
that had to be made in response to complaints
from residents living near the
bus lanes. A group of neighbors from
Goldington Court in Middle Village,
a one-way side street that feeds onto
Woodhaven Boulevard, recently saw
a camera removed from the corner of
that intersection aft er they received
a total of 48 warnings in the mail between
seven people.
The violations that will now be issued
include fi nes ranging from $115
to $150. Since violations are issued
against the car, not the driver, they
do not include points on the driver’s
license.
Q52/Q53 bus lanes are in eff ect curbside
in residential areas from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and
curbside along Cross Bay Boulevard
from 7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Monday
through Friday. Bus lanes off set from
the parking lane or in the main road
will be in eff ect 24 hours, seven days
a week, and curbside parking will be
preserved.
State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo recently
convinced the DOT to eliminate
the bus lane restriction on Cross Bay
Boulevard on Saturdays, and said that
he will work to have the 24-hour lanes
reevaluated in May.
The city’s bus lane rules state that
“unauthorized vehicles may enter a bus
lane only to make a right turn at the
next city street, to access a curb cut or
driveway within 200 feet, or to quickly
drop off or pick up passengers.” That
200-feet rule applies to making right
turns as well, meaning that a driver
has to enter the bus lane within the
same city block where the right turn
is made. Drivers can also enter the bus
lane if they are actively parking, but
blocking the lane for any amount of
time risks getting ticketed.
Bus lane violations can be appealed
the same way as any other parking or
camera violation if the accused person
has compelling evidence that they are
innocent.
The city was fi rst given legislative
authority to operate a camera-based
enforcement system in the summer of
2010. In a DOT report to analyze the results
of the program, there were 73,160
camera violations issued from April
2011 to March 2012. A total of 10,328 of
those violations were appealed by the
recipients, and 1,739 were ultimately
found not guilty.
The report also notes that the city
collected $7,567,882.94 from the violations
during that year.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
A bus lane on Woodhaven Boulevard near Jamaica Avenue in
Woodhaven.
Ozone Park businesses get bus lane parking relief
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Businesses along Cross Bay
Boulevard in Ozone Park are
getting some relief from parking
issues caused by the Select Bus
Service (SBS) through the eff orts of
local politicians.
At a press conference in front of
C-Town Supermarket on Cross Bay
Boulevard on Feb. 8, state Senator
Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. announced
that Saturday rush-hour parking restrictions
along the boulevard have
been eliminated. Aft er hearing the
frustrations of local business owners
who were aff ected by the parking restrictions,
Addabbo worked with the
Department of Transportation (DOT)
to make the changes.
“One thing that really drives me
with helping constituents is trying to
reaffi rm their faith in government,”
Addabbo said. “To make them know
that when they speak out and work
with us, and we work with the governmental
agencies, things do happen.
Today really is a perfect snapshot of
how government should work.”
Until now, curbside SBS lanes were
active during both the morning and
aft ernoon rush hours, from 7 a.m. to
10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., on
Monday through Saturday.
One of the concerned business
owners is Rose Chimienti, who manages
the C-Town Supermarket that
is owned by her husband, and she
joined Addabbo at the press conference.
She estimated that the parking
restrictions on Saturdays caused a 10
to 15 percent decrease in business on
the weekends, and said that the 4 p.m.
to 7 p.m. parking restriction during
the week hurts the business as well.
“People were telling me that they’re
not able to stop and they wouldn’t
come if they were running errands,”
Chimienti said. “They would go elsewhere
because they couldn’t park
here.”
Also at the press conference were
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheff er Amato,
Community Board 6 Chairperson
Frank Gulluscio and Community
Board 10 Chairperson Betty Braton.
Pheff er Amato said she was pleased
to see the city responding to concerns
about the SBS lanes given the amount
of push-back the plan has received.
“In a small community like this, our
local stores are the heart and soul of
our community,” Pheff er Amato said.
“It’s important that they can drive up
and do their errands on Saturday and
not change their routines at the cost
of moving forward.”
All of the representatives expressed
their gratitude for the DOT’s
willingness to respond to concerns
about the controversial SBS route
than spans 14.7 miles along Cross
Bay and Woodhaven Boulevards
and serves more than 30,000 riders
each day. Earlier in the week, the
DOT also made changes to a poorly
placed camera in Middle Village that
was causing dozens of residents to
receive warnings for driving in the
bus lane.
Addabbo also said that some of
the SBS kiosks for ticket purchasing
have been moved closer to buildings
rather than in the middle of the sidewalk,
but acknowledged that there
is still more work to do. One of his
next priorities will be to reevaluate
the 24-hour restrictions that are in
place along certain stretches of the
route, which he said the DOT agreed
to discuss in May, six months aft er
the route was launched.
Photo by Ryan Kelley/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
From left to right: Community Board 6 district manager Frank Gulluscio,
C-Town Supermarket manager Rose Chimienti, State Senator Joseph P.
Addabbo, Jr. and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheff er Amato at a press conference
outside the C-Town Supermarket on Cross Bay Boulevard on Feb. 8.
