June 9, 2017 By Christian Murray
The Department of Transportation has rejected calls for the installation of an all way stop sign at the intersection of 51st Ave. and 5th Street, according to State Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan.
In a June 1 letter addressed to Assemblywoman Nolan, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg wrote that the city had studied the intersection and concluded that the roadway was not busy enough to warrant an all way stop sign based on nationally recognized safety standards.
Cathy Nolan
Residents have been calling for an all way stop sign at this intersection for years since it is only a block away from Hunters Point Community Middle School. A petition was put together earlier this year and 500 residents signed on asking for the stop sign.
Nolan, who wrote a letter to Trottenberg calling for the stop sign in April, included the petition as part of her request.
The petition read in part: “NYC Vision Zero promises to protect our children with every tool possible, and this change will help protect our children from traffic as they walk from the subway to school.”
Trottenberg, in her reply to Nolan, did say that Slow Zones would be added to certain streets around the school. She said speed bumps, markings and other traffic calming treatments will be added to those streets and that the speed limit would be reduced from 25mph to 20 mph.
The Slow Zones will go into effect before the next school year in September, Trottenberg wrote, and would be at the following locations:
51st Avenue, between 2nd Street and Center Boulevard
Center Boulevard, between Borden Ave. and 50th Ave.
49th Avenue, between Center Boulevard and 5th Street
Nolan, in a statement, said that she was encouraged by the installation of the Slow Zones but found it “very troubling” that the all way stop sign will not be added.
She has asked the DOT to study it again.
“I would ask that the NYC Department of Transportation take another look at this intersection and listen to the many students and parents who have pushed and advocated for an all way stop to be placed at this intersection.
Response Letter From NYC DOT, 51 Avenue and 5 Street, 6-5-17 by Queens Post on Scribd
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19 Comments
I agree with Sailor45. Van Bramer is useless, all he does is pose for publicity pictures. Don’t see where he ever accomplishing anything for his constituents…The real twit and the villain of this piece is Tottenberg & her band of merry men at DOT. instead of putting up a lousy stop sign for less than $100.00, they need to do traffic studies and other idiotic things. Taxpayers are not looking to widen the road, just get a stupid stop sign so no one gets killed. Should not need a letter from the Pope to do that! And for the record, Nolan is about as useless as Van Bramer. She wrote her letters, got her picture in the paper, but accomplished NOTHING.
When a child gets hit on the way to school, we can thank Tottenberg!
back in dump water Ohio they do stuff like this after you complain
like put stop signs and what not
here in nyc it is all red tape bull all the time
get used to it
Yes call 311 repeatedly to get a crosswalk at 51st ave and 5th st and also on 46th ave at 5th st.
Where is Jimmy Van Bramer on this????? DumBlsio and Trottenberg are as clueless as people say. Vote them out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JVB only shows up for photo shoots. If his photo will be in the paper, he is there! Anything that relates to his actual responsibilities, forget it.
JVB held a rally at 51st and 5th a few months ago with the middle school calling for a stop sign there, along with several letters to DOT.
Exactly, it made for a great photo op! JVB is a pretender
This is one of two intersections in the immediate neighborhood that are super dangerous. The other is 46th Ave and 5th Street by LIC Kids. Cars at both intersections stop where there is no stop sign because logic states that there should be stop signs. This is negligence on the part of NYC and is going to kill a kid and cost the city a lot of money in lawsuits. Why on earth would NYC not put stop signs at dangerous intersections around schools? I guess the same reason as when I was hit by a hit and run driver and the police would not return my phone calls or even see me when I showed up multiple times at the precinct. Flat out lack of respect, unprofessionalism and not being held accountable.
108th is terrible with hit and run reports. Was crossing as a pedestrian by the Duane Read and a Range Rover decided stop signs don’t apply to them (yes this was the 47th road crossing with the stop, not the 5th street w/o) . I was already 3/4 of the way across the street when he hit me. Went to the 108th after the guy sped away and the officer’s first response was “well how do I know you didn’t hit him??” reminded him that i was a pedestrian, and he scoffed and walked away from the desk. Thoroughly useless.
Interestingly, before much of the recent development, 46th Ave and 5th had a stop sign on 46th…and this was a T intersection where you could only turn left or right. I could never understand why it was removed once they created more traffic.
Just give the people what they want already, they need it for safety. I guess it’s too easy and it must be done the hard way and cost more. Clueless Politicians is all we have around this city. Where is Jimmy Van Bramer on this one?????????????? DumBlasio & Trottenberg are supposed to care what people want/need. I guess not. Maybe its not vision Zero approved or something to that effect.
everyone, keep reporting “incidents” to 311 so it’s an official report. DOT does their own “Study” meaning some person just sits there random days and writes down stats. However, the more official reports on the intersection, the office workers and data people have to take that into account. It is a bureaucracy so play their game, report real “incidents everyone is talking about they have to include that in their report. IT’s a bureaucracy, every dumb office workers says no to every request until asked the 3rd or 4th time.
LICLady,
it would do no good to put up stop signs. There are stop signs at the corner of 50th Avenue & Center Blvd. People routinely blow through them without even slowing down. Never saw anyone get pulled over. Maybe Polly Tottenberg can put some speed bumps there too. Seems speed bumps is her answer for everything.
BTW, anyone count the number of letters the bureaucratic hacks sent back and forth to one and other for one lousy stop sign? i am not surprised Nolan & Tottenberg have no time left over to accomplish anything meaningful.
Totally agree, that intersection is insane! Also, can someone please do something about the north end of Center Blvd? It is extraordinarily difficult to cross Center between 46th and 47th avenues. No stop signs, but even worse – no painted zebra crossings! I am constantly playing chicken with cars, and have come close to being hit on numerous occasions. There are two major entrances to the waterfront park there. I have tried reaching out to Van Bramer’s office, to no avail. Any ideas?
JVB doesn’t care. I can tell you, not only is it a game of chicken, but you get the added benefit of TLC drivers cursing you out when they have to stop for you. Add in the double parking (AKA “valet”) for Maiella blocking the view of southbound traffic, and someone will die there.
Bingo. Frank gets it. The problem isn’t really the roads, but the drivers.
But how many of you enjoy your Uber and Lyft rides in ignorance, pretending that you aren’t contributing to the problem? Aside from being illegal (no medallion), those drivers are appalling bad and dangerous. You only have yourselves to blame.
This is a testamonial to Polly Tottenberg, whose incompetence single-handedly created the worst traffic nightmare the city has ever seen. This woman is as clueless as the guy she works for, Bill “vision zero” DeBlasio. Of course when traffic doesn’t move, you get very few pedestrian altercations. The trick is to keep traffic moving without pedestrians getting hit. Tottenberg has not yet learned to balance the two. And she shows that she is a true bureaucrat in the DeBlasio tradition, instead of putting in a stop sign that can be installed tomorrow for a few hundred dollars , she will put in “speed bumps, markings and other traffic calming treatments” that will cost taxpayers thousands and take months to install. She belongs running the DOT is some backwater town with a few thousand residents, not running the DOT in NYC!
POLLY TxxxENBERG IS A MORON! Just put a stop sign already! They will wait for someone to get hit by a car and sue the city. Such a joke. The mayoral election cannot come soon enough to get rid of all of these amateurs.
How stupid is the DOT. First of all they’ve put slow zones (which means nothing!) in all of the areas that already have stop signs (2nd street to center boulevard). The real issue, as stated in the damn letter is that 51Ave and 5th street has an incredibly dangerous intersection. 1) it is the street that the actual school is on. 2) it is the main route for students to walk from the subway to school. 3) it is the main route from the subway to the waterfront and to / from work 4) it is a 2 way street at that intersection and their are multiple accidents that go unreported every week because the 108th will leave cars waiting there for hours to file a report even though they are literally around the corner 5) It’s common freaking sense – not having a 4 way stop there is confusing as hell. Cars come down 51st and don’t even realize that cars coming in BOTH directions on 5th have no stop sign.
If the DOT wants a kid to get killed (or adult commuters) and for accidents to continue to happen there every freaking week, then they should definitely leave it as is.
Does it have to be like the offramp from the 59th street bridge where people have to die before they can pull their heads out of their @$$’s and realize that someone is going to get hurt.