Support a Slow Zone for Prospect Heights

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Support a Slow Zone for Prospect Heights

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danaeo
getting it
Joined: Sep '05
Posts: 135

Sign the online petition to let DOT know you support safer, calmer streets through the creation of a Prospect Heights Slow Zone.

For years community groups have called on the NYC Department of Transportation for a comprehensive plan to calm traffic after a number of serious collisions on local streets that endangered both drivers and pedestrians. Once the Barclays Center opens in September, the influx of "cut-through" traffic from cars avoiding major roads will only make the situation worse.

Now, the DOT has created Neighborhood Slow Zones (NSZ), a new program that reduces the speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph and adds safety features such as speed humps and neckdowns in order to change driver behavior. The ultimate goal of the Neighborhood Slow Zone program is to lower the incidence and severity of crashes and to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Slow Zones also seek to enhance quality of life by reducing cut-through traffic and traffic noise in residential neighborhoods.

The Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council plans to submit an application for a Prospect Heights Slow Zone when it is due in early February. More information, including a map of the proposed zone, can be found on our website.

# Posted 1 yr ago
GOD
I am what I am.
Joined: Jul '07
Posts: 424

Signed!

Why attack God? He may be as miserable as we are.

- Erik Satie

# Posted 1 yr ago
catwalkertexasranger
above average
Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 483

Another waste of time band aid. The center is still under construction and blamed for something that is happening now.
Classon Ave from Empire to Atlantic has more than a half dozen schools with large student bodies. Classon is just one of the raceways in the area. Street signs,parked cars,emergency call boxes to name a few have been crushed by speeding drivers. School buses w the stop sign deployed are ignored daily as drivers drag race to the next stop sign or light on their way across the area.

Drivers often take full advantage of the yellow light condition and speed thru rather than anticipate the upcoming red signal. Franklin, Bedford,Washington and Vanderbilt not much better.
The police need to pretend traffic safety is important to drivers and non drivers alike. Get some officers doing speed monitoring asap. Have foot patrol officers stop people w bad registration and no seat belts, drinking beer and smoking blunts on Franklin. STOP people w children standing on the front seat and not properly restrained.

Great place to start is Eastern Parkway at Classon. The pavement is uneven as Classon crosses EP so cars and trucks of all kinds catch air as they fly past the school for the deaf. The cars that generating the most sparks can easily be spotted and stopped at Lincoln. If they make it to St.Johns you can stop them in front of the location of a run over street pole. If they are really jammin' and make it to Sterling you can pull them over at the intersection of funeral home and grade school, also the site of a pole hit by a speeder. If they make it to Park where the grade school and playground let out on to the street you can look over at the nursing home where the FDNY/NYPD emergency call box was run over a few weeks ago.
We don't need another task force but just any law enforcement of the speed limits and traffic signals already in place. If the police won't do shit, maybe DOT can install some oil pan, front end ripping off speed bumps to remind drivers that the traffic laws are not a suggestion. I used to fume when the Jewish school bus drivers would position the bus to block traffic while loading and unloading,after years of local traffic observation it seems a good practice

# Posted 1 yr ago
blenderfish
weirdo
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 41

when I heard about the slow zone project, I immediately thought our neighborhood would be perfect for it. We are more or less a solid block of residential streets with only one commercial thoroughfare. I'm glad to see someone taking the lead on this.

# Posted 1 yr ago
Boygabriel
M Train Devotee, G Train Appreciator
Joined: Nov '05
Posts: 4,431

The police need to pretend traffic safety is important to drivers and non drivers alike.

THIS.

The NYPD still doesn't take traffic safety seriously enough, even though hundreds of people die each year in auto accidents in the city.

Our society and our city is evolving beyond a car-centric way of thinking about street layouts and safety, but it's happening at a glacial pace.

Spend a buck, light a number for one the 400,000 victims in Darfur: darfurwall.org

# Posted 1 yr ago
stacey
rocking it
Joined: Mar '05
Posts: 3,524

Thank you. I have signed it.

# Posted 1 yr ago
eastbloc
comprador bourgeois
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 902

The NYPD still doesn't take traffic safety seriously enough, even though hundreds of people die each year in auto accidents in the city.

Agreed. They don't take it seriously _at all_.

The enforcement methods for moving violations generally consist of checkpoints and targeted "enforcement weekends", instead of consistently reduced tolerance for those infractions which most endanger public safety:

1) disobeying traffic signals
2) speeding
3) double-parking

# Posted 1 yr ago
whynot_31
Former Lurker
Joined: Mar '06
Posts: 16,032

They need to create incentives for the cops to issue moving violations.

We likely need to hire more cops as well.

For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.

# Posted 1 yr ago
Amighty
art lover
Joined: Apr '09
Posts: 42

Sounds like a great idea, as there is very little reason to allow speeding on our residential streets and it would definitely make it safer for everyone. I do have a problem with speed-bumps, though. They're bad for the environment (until we all have hybrids, I guess), and we have enough idling and stopping and starting spewing fumes already. Without more cops enforcing the rules though, they could reduce the speed limit to zero and it wouldn't make a difference.

# Posted 1 yr ago
stacey
rocking it
Joined: Mar '05
Posts: 3,524

Amighty said:They're bad for the environment (until we all have hybrids, I guess), and we have enough idling and stopping and starting spewing fumes already.

Im not sure what you mean by this. You don't stop at a speed bump you slow down.

# Posted 1 yr ago
eastbloc
comprador bourgeois
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 902

Any change in velocity is wasteful. Speed bumps are also hard on suspensions and chassis and decrease the mean time between failures of these and associated components. Moreover, the truly flagrant violators sail over them as if they did not exist.

There are other, better traffic calming solutions, such as zig-zags, chicanes, and speed cameras...

# Posted 1 yr ago
dailyheights
Honorary Fellow
Joined: Jan '05
Posts: 4,619

Sorry Danae, but I think Eastbloc is probably right, unfortunately.

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# Posted 1 yr ago
whynot_31
Former Lurker
Joined: Mar '06
Posts: 16,032

Grid lock is also very effective at slowing cars down. Cars rarely speed on Canal St in Manhattan.

For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.

# Posted 1 yr ago
thelambchop
blueberries!
Joined: May '08
Posts: 132

the DOT will work with the community, if it's approved, to sort out the best locations for speed bumps. that could mean we just put them in front of churches, schools and playgrounds where we are especially concerned.

in my view, there's not much downside to trying out these measures, even if they're not perfect.

# Posted 1 yr ago
danaeo
getting it
Joined: Sep '05
Posts: 135

Eastbloc, I agree that there are other, perhaps more effective, measures like chicanes that are used around the world to slow traffic - and I wish we had them here. Unfortunately, none of these are measures that DOT is willing to try. And like speed humps, those measures also require a change in velocity, which you deem wasteful.

But the point of the Slow Zone is that it would cover a larger neighborhood than the speed humps that are now scattered around , and often come as a surprise to drivers. Making the entire area a slow zone would mean cars travel at a consistent speed throughout the zone, which would address some of the full efficiency concerns.

PHNDC and the Park Slope Civic Council are hosting a forum with DOT where you can learn more about Slow Zones. I will post the details soon.

# Posted 1 yr ago
GoodProspect
getting it
Joined: Feb '09
Posts: 184

signed.

Proud to be a naturalized citizen of the greatest city on earth.

# Posted 1 yr ago
homeowner
mod
Joined: Jan '06
Posts: 3,003

Making the entire area a slow zone would mean cars travel at a consistent speed throughout the zone, which would address some of the full efficiency concerns.

I'd be very surprised if this were the outcome. Only enforcement would make this happen and I can't see the few cops in the 77th deciding they want to enforce speed restrictions when there are so many people out there waiting to be stopped and frisked.

# Posted 1 yr ago
whynot_31
Former Lurker
Joined: Mar '06
Posts: 16,032

The 77th pct is getting more different by the day.

Utica and Vanderbilt Ave in the same shift....

For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.

# Posted 1 yr ago
jml
Irregular
Joined: Aug '05
Posts: 204

Signed. Problems or not, it's still better than nothing. I hope you can add Eastern Parkway to the slow zone as well.

# Posted 1 yr ago
homeowner
mod
Joined: Jan '06
Posts: 3,003

Question for everyone. How does designating the neighborhood a slow zone impact police, fire, and ambulance response? I'm concerned that if we put speed bumps and neckdowns on every block what are already slow response times will become glacial.

# Posted 1 yr ago
joeschmo
rookie newb
Joined: Mar '10
Posts: 22

extend it east to franklin and you have my signature.

# Posted 1 yr ago
dailyheights
Honorary Fellow
Joined: Jan '05
Posts: 4,619

Now Park Slope is trying to get in on the "slow zone" action:

Neighborhood Slow Zones and Safer Local Streets:
Is 20 (mph) Plenty for Park Slope?

The New York City Department of Transportation is currently accepting applications from individuals and organizations interested in establishing reduced speed-zones in their neighborhoods. Neighborhood Slow Zones are a community-based program that reduces the speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph and adds safety measures within a select area. Signs and gateways announce the presence of a Slow Zone. The Zone itself is a self-enforcing, reduced-speed area with traffic-calming treatments that may include speed bumps, curb extensions and special markings. Is Park Slope the right place for a Neighborhood Slow Zone?

Come learn more and share your own opinions at a community meeting hosted by the Park Slope Civic Council, co-sponsored by Councilmember Letitia James, Councilmember Brad Lander, Councilmember Stephen Levin, P.S. 10, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, Park Slope Parents, Parents Association of Millennium Brooklyn High School, and Park Slope Neighbors. The meeting will be moderated by Daniel Murphy, director of the Pitkin Avenue BID and a member of Community Board 7, and will include speakers and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

For more information, please visit: http://www.parkslopeciviccouncil.org/slow-zones.

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# Posted 1 yr ago