WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 29, 2018 3
Disagreement over success of SBS on Woodhaven & Cross Bay Blvds.
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
Despite the community opposition
in the beginning, the city
Department of Transportation
(DOT) is calling their Select Bus Service
plan on Woodhaven and Cross
Bay Boulevards a success a year aft er
it rolled out.
Not everyone, however, is buying it.
The Q52 and Q53 bus routes brought
dramatic redesigns for south Queens
commuters by creating a dedicated
bus lanes and improved curb space
for waiting.
A report from the agency released
on Nov. 20 claims that commute times
have been cut along the 11-mile stretch
— and traffi c injuries and deaths have
been greatly reduced.
“On the first anniversary of the
rollout of SBS on the Q52 and Q53
lines, we can take pride in the fact that
Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards
have truly been transformed,” said
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
“This project was a massive group
eff ort by staff at DOT – as the project
combined innovative planning and
engineering with extensive repaving,
street marking, expanded sidewalk
and median work, which have together
made buses faster and more
reliable. While we were also relieved
to see that overall traffic injuries
have declined, two recent pedestrian
fatalities along Woodhaven prove just
how much more Vision Zero work we
have to do to make this crash-prone
street safer.”
In 2016, DOT went through a series
of public comment sessions which saw
fear and frustration from both motorists
and straphangers who feared one
of the new waiting zones at the corner
of Woodhaven and Jamaica Avenue
would be dangerous, being the setting
of rollover accidents.
Photo: DOT
Community leaders, such as Senator
Joseph Addabbo, criticized DOT for its
unwillingness to accept input from residents
and in November 2017, aft er the
rollout, motorists could be seen in gridlocked
traffi c along the thoroughfare.
According to the report, 129 people,
including 34 pedestrians, were killed
or seriously injured between 2012 and
2016. But two recent deaths at Jamaica
Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard indicate
more traffi c calming measures
need to be applied.
Commute times have been cut by
about 9 to 10 percent and about 80
percent of people prefer the new service
to the old, the DOT reported.
Councilman Robert Holden, however,
called the recent study on the
success of the SBS route biased in the
way it confi rms the agency’s conviction
that the initiative would bring
improvements.
“The complaints I receive from my
constituents, as well as my own personal
experiences driving on
Woodhaven Boulevard, directly
contradict the claims in this report.
There is no doubt that the DOT could
fudge the numbers to fi t its narrative,
so we deserve a report that is conducted
without bias,” Holden said. “The
DOT has created a traffi c nightmare
on Woodhaven Boulevard. It took
me months to convince the DOT that
traffi c lights along the route were not
synchronized properly. The project
has also created several dangerous
curves and slip lanes, and pedestrian
safety has barely changed. To spin
this report and claim that Woodhaven
Boulevard has been improved is
laughable.”
Holden claimed his office has
received an increased number of requests
for speed bumps on residential
side streets along the route, indicating
a displacement of motorists away from
the boulevard.
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