What’s Up, DOT? Are You Waiting For A Kid To Get Killed?

We received the following Letter to The Editor from a parent of P.S. 889 student in response to our coverage of the safety surrounding PS889 on Coney Island Avenue:

Dear Editor,

Pedestrian safety was marked absent on my daughter’s otherwise-fantastic first day at P.S. 889. It’s not the fault of the school — the principal, teachers and staff worked overtime just to get the doors open and help everyone adjust–and bravo to them.

The chaos outside the school — lack of school crossing signs, safety lights, road markings, confused crossing points etc., is a fully owned hot mess of the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), which took a paddling by parents (myself included) as we complained to DOT, and community officials.

And bravo to all of us–including Bklyner.com–which has sounded the alarm on potential traffic danger outside the school since July. Our protests worked and at long last DOT awoke from its bureaucratic slumber and indicated they will do something.

But couched in a statement DOT released yesterday evening is ample evidence that we shouldn’t stop shouting just yet:

“DOT has been working very closely with PS. 889 /IS. 338 to install several safety enhancements requested by the community.

Tomorrow, no standing regulations will be installed on both Hinckley Place and Turner Place. Inspectors will also be sent out in the coming week for the installation of school crossing signs.

Additionally, we are studying several intersections for potential future stop signs, signals or leading pedestrian intervals – including Coney Island Avenue at Hinckley Place, and Turner Place at Coney Island Avenue.

Upon completion of these studies, which need to include data from the beginning of this school year, crosswalks will be appropriately marked.”

I asked DOT who they were working closely with at the school and since when–but they would not answer me, so I can only surmise it’s since yesterday (key clue is that the enhancements were “requested by the community”).

The part of DOT’s statement that begs us to keep the outrage burning is DOT’s  kick-the-can “studying” approach. DOT has had ample time—months and months since school construction began—to do  a traffic study—but now they say they somehow “need to include data from the beginning of the school year” to appropriately mark crosswalks.

What the what data??? Besides the photographs and story from Bklyner on the crossing problems, exactly what data does DOT need? Will DOT be measuring in the coming months how closely cars graze little children, then marking their measurements in a little notebook to be made into a study at some indeterminate point in the future? And any parent or kid could tell DOT in a day that these intersections pose a danger and need some kind of signs/signals.

The first response to an immediate hazard is not to study it up, or wait for someone to get hurt. Do the right thing DOT—PS 889 is looking great inside—make the school safe outside.

Kathy Jones
PS 889 parent