DOT'S PRESENTATION FOR SAFER STREETS IS ONLINE: "TRAFFIC & SCHOOL SAFETY IN WINDSOR TERRACE & KENSINGTON"

At last night's highly-anticipated street safety meeting in P.S. 130, the Department of Transportation (DOT) presented the Kensington-Windsor Terrace community with a slide show that detailed several proposed improvements. The presentation is posted on DOT's website.

The meeting was particularly welcome in light of the death of Mohammad Naiem Uddin as he crossed E. 7th Street near Caton Avenue as well as continued vehicle collisions in the neighborhood and additional near misses.

A heightened awareness of the area's hazardous traffic conditions has led concerned members of the community to form two grassroots groups, Windsor Terrace Safe Streets and KWT Safe Streets.

DOT's presentation covered

• city-wide improvements already implemented
• reducing the speed from 30 mph to 20 mph
• adding speed cameras
• recently-completed KWT projects
• the pedestrian refuge on Ocean Parkway 

Pedestrian refuge on Ocean Parkway at Church Avenue; photo courtesy of Colin Klebanoff

• daylighting on Albemarle Road (removing a parking space near an intersection to make drivers and pedestrians visible to each other)

from the DOT presentation

• projects approved for KWT but not yet underway
• speed bumps on Albemarle Road 
• curb extensions at the Church Avenue-McDonald intersection



Church Avenue-McDonald Avenue intersection

• projects for KWT that require further study
• increasing the Leading Pedestrian Interval (pedestrians start crossing before vehicles start moving) at E. 7th Street at Caton Avenue
• speed bumps near P.S./I.S. 437; the school is currently under construction on Caton Avenue at E. 7th Street and scheduled to open in September 2015

DOT's proposals for Caton Avenue, between Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue

Particular attention is being paid to cures for trouble spots near our local schools: proposed reduced speed zones, proposed street conversions, upgraded signs and parking, crossing guards, and more.

from the DOT presentation

Residents packed P.S. 130's auditorium just about to capacity to listen to the DOT's presentation and to ask DOT representatives many pointed, pressing questions afterward.



A resident's proposal to install left-turn signals at the notorious and deadly Ocean Parkway-Church Avenue intersection drew the loudest applause. 

The left-turn signals would allow vehicles traveling on Church Avenue to turn left onto either the Prospect Expressway or Ocean Parkway. The point of installing the signals is to give pedestrians time to get across the roadway before vehicles make the turn.

Speakers representing the Department of Transportation were Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner; Kim Wiley-Schwartz, Assistant Commissioner of Education and Outreach; and Rob Viola, Senior Project Manager in the Traffic and Planning Division.

Commissioner Polly Trottenberg addresses the community

Thanks go to our New York City Councilmember Brad Lander and Community Board 7 for working with the community and DOT to bring about this meeting.

New York City Councilmember Brad Lander