5th Street
June 2, 2014 By Christian Murray
The Department of Transportation plans to convert 5th Street (btw. 46th Road and 50th Ave.) into a one-way, south bound street in July or August.
Vikram Sinha, a Department of Transportation planner, told a community board committee last Tuesday that it would be done between July 4 and the start of the new school year.
He said that the DOT is going to do the work while school is out for summer, so parents are less likely to be impacted.
The primary reason for the change is that the street is too narrow and has become a hazard. When cars are parked on both sides of the street, there’s only 16-18 feet for two-way traffic, the DOT has said.
However, members of Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee—who have been advocating for the conversion for about 18 months– were not satisfied by Sinha’s announcement that the conversion would finally be done. They were upset that the conversion is not likely to be accompanied by the traffic calming measures they had anticipated.
They had thought that speed bumps would be installed as part the one-way conversion process. However, Sinha said that speed bumps were a separate issue and that they would be done at a different time, when resources became available.
Sheila Lewandowski, a Long Island City resident and member of the transportation committee, said at last Tuesday’s meeting that this was particularly concerning. “Once it becomes a one-way south bound [street], it’s going to be a thoroughfare. We don’t want a one-way thoroughfare without traffic calming.”
Two speed humps along 5th Street had been approved by the community board in March 2013.
The DOT has no plans to put a stop sign on the street anytime soon. “Every time we do a study it gets rejected because of low traffic volume due to construction in the area,” Sinha said.
Lewandowski said the DOT could make projections as to the volume of traffic based on the number of children at local schools. “
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7 Comments
LIC POST TAKES AWAY FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!!!!!Sheila Lewandowski, should worry about GYRO GUYS and not traffic, do you even drive, how about worrying that no bicyclist follows traffic rules and they will cause an accident.
Thanks for a link to your blog of cherry picked quotes, Sarah Goodyear. I don’t think you actually read what I wrote. Speed bumps and stop signs on 5th Street would be a good thing and reduce speeds. But I guess your proposal would have been to keep 5th Street a two-way but make it narrower so drivers have to be even more careful to avoid accidents.
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/03/22/transportation-planner-one-ways-hurt-more-kids/
1 way streets = reduces car-to-car crashes, but aren’t necessarily good for peds.
Making 5th street one way will make the 5th street / 48th ave intersection a bit less crazy. It will also make it easier to turn onto 5th street, as cars turning onto 5th now are too busy checking both directions to pay attention to pedestrians. I’ve almost been hit a couple of times in just this manner while walking along 5th.
But I agree that speed bumps will need to follow soon to slow traffic.
Furthermore this will increase traffic on Center BLVD. There are too many lights on Vernon heading north. So those parked west of 5th st will drive down to Center blvd to go North and then drive up to Vernon to get to the Queensboro bridge.
so basically they are making 5th st one-way without a stop sign or speed bumps. This will allow cars to travel down the road more quickly since there is no worry of oncoming traffic.
This is a really BAD idea.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/traffic-calming.shtml
Narrow streets is a street calming measure. I guess we’re widening it for 1 way traffic because?