DOT Unveils Plans To Make Ocean Parkway Safer For Drivers, Pedestrians & Bicyclists
After a summer of meetings, input from the NYC Department of Transportation, and a letter from members of Community Board 12’s Transportation Committee, the New York State Department of Transportation and its consultant, the URS Corp., presented their “Ocean Parkway Safety Improvements from Prospect Parkway to Shore Highway” plan on Wednesday, September 17 at a meeting hosted by Assemblyman James Brennan, who represents the 44th Assembly District. The meeting, held in the Ditmas Junior High School auditorium (700 Cortelyou Road), was the second under Assemblyman Brennan’s aegis and was designed to boost safe travel on the notoriously dangerous Ocean Parkway.
Pointing to his PowerPoint presentation, Bill Marman, the Vice President and Engineering Director at URS Corp., ran through the changes that are planned for Community Board 12 (which includes Kensington). The changes include banning left turns from seven service roads onto Ocean Parkway—Avenue C, Cortelyou Road, Ditmas Avenue, 18th Avenue, and Avenues I, J (where already left turns are not permitted), and P. This move is expected to reduce pedestrian and cyclist collisions by as much as 49%, with officials pointing out that turning plays a major role in collisions. The new plan will also forbid right turns off of Ocean Parkway to Avenues C, J, and P and Kings Highway. Traffic signals will replace stop signs at five locations and new traffic signals will be added to others.
For pedestrians, officials plan to add two lead pedestrian intervals at Cortelyou and Avenue U. This gives pedestrians a six-second head start by freezing traffic in all directions. Currently, while the Ocean Parkway light is red, vehicles can continue to move on the cross streets.
The addition of countdown clocks at 152 locations should encourage pedestrians to scurry from crosswalk to sidewalk before the signal turns red. Eighteen corners and 108 medians will have 538 pedestrian ramps installed to make them compliant with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. Three locations will get speed display clocks, which keep the motorists informed of his/her driving speed and posts the speed limit along side of it.
These proposals cover changes to Ocean Parkway from Avenue C through Avenue P, Bay Parkway and 18th Avenue, all within Community Board 12 and the 66th Precinct’s boundaries, which extend as far south as Kings Highway. A small strip is under the jurisdiction of Community Board 14 and the 70th Precinct.
Starting in August, 2013, the state DOT began work to correct the safety issues at the Church Avenue/Ocean Parkway intersection, a year and several months after the collision that killed 73-year-old pedestrian Ngozi Agbim, and after Councilman Brad Lander delivered a stack of petitions from area residents to Governor Cuomo insisting that the “crash prone” intersection be fixed. For this year, the 66th Precinct said that collisions have declined by 16% at that intersection. Nonetheless, the most recent NYPD Motor Vehicle Collision Report lists 16 crashes there.
Some ideas proposed to fix Ocean Parkway’s traffic troubles at Assemblyman Brennan’s June meeting were withdrawn, including mid-block crossings and the installation of more pedestrian islands, similar to the one at Church Avenue/Prospect Expressway. Yeruchim Silber, a CB 12 Transportation Committee member, had argued that they could “impede safety and slow down all emergency vehicles.” On the other hand, Mr. Silber encouraged placement of pedestrian cross walks at Avenues F, K, and Elmwood.
Members of the CB 12 committee met with the state DOT to review the proposals. Yeruchim Silber and CB 12 District Manager Barry Spitzer attended the presentation at Ditmas Junior High School. Its role was advisory. There will be no public hearing on the state DOT proposals.
Charles O’Shea, the state DOT’s External Affairs Director for the NYC region, said the lead pedestrian intervals, which were originally under consideration for nine locations and will now be implemented in just two, “is a great start for the community.” On several other occasions Mr. O’Shea said his agency would monitor the effectiveness of these enhancements.
“Changes could be implemented later if the community wants them,” he said.
After the presentation finished, the 10-member audience, the same size as the flock of government officials present, were invited to comment. Only a handful drove cars.
“Won’t the ban on left turns send people several blocks out of their way?” one man asked.
Another man pointed out that in the Bronx, countdown times are 20 seconds.
“I see people running across Ocean Parkway, ’cause the timing is out of sync with how long it takes to cross,” he said. (The time on the countdown clock at Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue is 10 seconds.)
A third worried about the number of children on Avenue F, where there are some very long stretches.
“We can work with putting speed bumps on service roads,” Brennan said.
The discussion circled back to the Church Avenue/Ocean Parkway intersection. One woman who lives on Church Avenue said she was so afraid of crossing Ocean Parkway that she took the bus from E. 7th to E. 3rd to avoid walking across it. She pointed out that at Beverley the road is not monitored.
“Ocean Parkway is not walkable. Where are the police?” she asked.
Another man, a pedestrian, echoed her cry complaining that the pedestrian path on the eastern side of Ocean Parkways says, “No Biking.”
“No one enforces that rule,” he said.
But thanks to the city’s Vision Zero plan, that intersection will be under the microscope for the next two weeks. The 66th Precinct has set up a temporary headquarters there and will begin enforcement next week. Deputy Inspector Deddo says he plans to issue tickets to those breaking the no biking rule on Ocean Parkway’s pedestrian path.
When asked whether further changes are being considered for the Church Avenue/Ocean Parkway intersection, Brennan said the “OP/Church Avenue is a dangerous intersection. The issue there is turns. We will continue to monitor it.”
In a written statement about the Ocean Parkway/Church Avenue improvements, state DOT spokeswoman Diane Park said, “Several improvements have already been made at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue, including the installation of a refuge island; the implementation of lead pedestrian walk time; and the changing to the traffic signal to a flashing yellow with an arrow for turning vehicles, so motorists are conscious of pedestrians walking across the parkway. NYS DOT is monitoring this location and will make additional adjustments if necessary.”
Two Kensington veterans of Councilmember Brad Lander’s Fiscal Year 2013 Participatory Budgeting sessions, which had approved a $200,000 project for safety improvements on Ocean Parkway at Church, believe the state DOT changes ignore the core issue. It left traffic flow configuration and intervals unchanged.
“With the new 25 m.p.h. limit, thru-traffic onto Ocean Parkway may be calmed,” said one, “but the turning traffic onto and off of the expressway at Church is still a big issue.”
Another individual added that the state DOT plan “made some signage changes. It added a few flashing lights, marked the walkways better, added a few seconds onto the total amount for crossing east-west. Still, the extreme danger of simultaneous pedestrian crossings and heavy-turning car and truck traffic from Church Avenue onto Ocean Parkway and the Prospect Expressway remains. At $300,000, it was an expensive band-aid.”
Summarizing the discussion, Assemblyman Brennan said, when it come to traffic, “Everyone has their own opinion. It’s not easy to balance things off.”
Construction for the state DOT Ocean Parkway Safety Improvement plan starts April, 2015 and will continue through September, 2016.