4 JUNE 20, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Fresh Pond bus lane meet draws big crowd
Community Board 5’s Transportation meeting saw a spike in attendance from concerned residents and business
owners regarding a bus lane proposal. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
between 2 and 8 p.m. claiming the
expansion of paid parking would
limits space for their personal
vehicles and entertaining negative
business prospects.
“It’s very unpopular,” said
Giuseppe Palmeri, a business
owner who has collected over
1,500 signed petitions opposed
to the bus lane. “That being said,
the merchants were not informed.
We have a lot to lose. If this plan
does not work the way you think it
will work, we have a lot of skin in
the game.”
Palmeri had made similar
statements during Community
Board 5’s regularly monthly
meeting six days earlier, at
Christ the King High School in
Middle Village.
After the plan is complete, DOT
expects 70 parking spaces to
change designation.
Banrey said these will be
converted to 55 metered spaces
on Fresh Pond and into the side
street as well as 15 alternate side
parking spots.
Although the metered parking
will be two hours, DOT provided
a breakdown of the use patterns
of existing paid parking spots
with only 15 percent of motorists
using a spot for a full hours and 41
percent, the majority, taking space
for less than 15 minutes.
No standing zones on Grove
Street will be converted to loading
zones for trucks.
Because bus traf fic is the
main concern of the initiative
announced by the mayor’s office
earlier this year to speed up buses
across the city by 25 percent, DOT
will be removing at least one of the
five stops.
The bus system is currently
undergoing a boroughwide
redesign, but the agency expects
there to be four total after
the consolidation.
Fresh Pond Road receives high
bus traffic due to the fact that
there is a depot nearby that sees
the overnight storage of not only
the Q58 and other Queens lines, but
also many that circulate Brooklyn.
The agency expects a 22 to 31
percent increase in bus speeds
during peak hours after modeling
Fresh Pond ofter Utica Avenue,
among others, in Brooklyn.
But DOT also claimed that the
bus lane will help vehicular traffic,
offering cars making a right turn
a place to allow through traffic to
pass by. Only 22 percent of visitor
to Fresh Pond Road get there by
personal vehicle, the majority
walking and taking transit.
Agency officials said they chose
2 to 8 p.m. as the period for bus
priority because those are the
slowest hours on Fresh Pond
Road where it can take up to 20
minutes to get from Metropolitan
to Myrtle.
The Board 5 Transportation
Committee is expect to make a
recommendation for or against
the Fresh Pond Road bus lane in
the near future.
Community Board 5 is scheduled
to hold its next monthly meeting in
July, but there was no immediate
indication of whether a vote on the
plan would take place.
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
The Transportation Committee
of the Queens Community
Board 5 is a rare place to
see high turnout, but residents
and business owners from along
Fresh Pond Road packed into the
small office to speak their minds
about dedicated bus lanes along
the street.
C i t y Depa r tme n t of
Transportation (DOT) officials
presented a plan to the committee
they claimed adds a net increase in
parking between Metropolitan and
Myrtle avenues while projecting
better traffic flow above the 3 mile
per hour average on Fresh Pond.
“We’re all invested in this
project and together we have to
find solutions to make it better,”
Banrey said, explaining that the
project has been presented to
many organizations in the area.
“The magnitude for projects of
this size, we don’t typically do that
kind of outreach. But the deputy
commissioner’s office wanted to
make sure that we tapped into
folks. Of course we can’t always
get to everybody – the census can’t
even get to everybody.”
But many residents were not
convinced with the plan to add a
dedicated southbound bus lane
MYRTLE AVENUE
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
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Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District (BID)
Thirty-First Annual Meeting
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
Ridgewood Savings Bank (Myrtle & Forest Avenues)
Buffet & Refreshments Compliments of the Ridgewood Savings Bank
AGENDA
• Welcome - Herman Hochberg, Chairman
• John D. Hennessey, Branch Banking Officer, Ridgewood Savings Bank
• Domenico Ciaccio, Assistant Vice President, Ridgewood Savings Bank
PANEL DISCUSSION
Changing Face of Retailing: Can shifts in retail benefit/
play into the strengths of Myrtle Avenue
and main streets in general ?
• Seth Bornstein, Executive Director
Queens Economic Development Corporation
• Rani Bendary, Associate - Cushman Wakefield
• Salvatore Crifasi, President - Crifasi Real Estate
GUEST SPEAKER
• Captain Victoria Perry Commanding Officer, 104th Precinct
• Approval of 2018 Annual Meeting Minutes • Nominating Committee
Report • Election of Board of Directors • Presentation of FY20 Budget,
2019 Annual Report • Old & New Business, Q & A, Networking
MYRTLE AVENUE DISTRICT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION PROGRAM
SUPPORT PROVIDED BY RIDGEWOOD LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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