July 10, 2014 By Christian Murray
It has taken a lot of prodding—but the Department of Transportation has finally converted 5th Street (btw. 46th Road and 50th Ave.) into a one-way, south bound street.
Two DOT crews worked all day yesterday changing the signs and the job was done by 5:30 pm.
Community Board 2, particularly its chairman Joe Conley, had been pushing the DOT hard for the past 18 months to convert it into a one-way. The community board approved the conversion—and the addition of the street bumps—well over a year ago.
The DOT said recently that speed bumps would be installed at 48th and 49th Avenues around the same time as the street was converted to a one-way. As of yesterday, the speed bumps had not been put down.
The DOT has a separate unit that handles speed bumps.
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12 Comments
Oh, one more thing… why is 47th Road between 5th and Center two-way? I don’t think any of the other equally narrow side streets are.
Thanks for the link John, I utilized it.
Making it one-way is an unfortunate result of poor planning & lack of communication between the DOT, Community Board, Dept of Buildings, Queens County and Billionaire developers who foolishly didn’t expand the West-side width of the street, which, at this point has been completely demolished & rebuilt from Borden to 45th Ave’s.
For the last 10 years, I have lived with 53′ tractor trailers come down my block and unsuccessfully attempt to turn left or right onto 5th st. but due to parked cars, they were unable to make the turn. They’ve incidentally hit dozens of parked cars before having to be backed-up the block – and reversed onto Vernon—causing ridiculous traffic delays and horn honking, early in the mornings.
Note to Rockrose, Avalon, Tishman, et al: Next time you redevelop an entire parcel of a neighborhood—give a little thought to the infrastructure of the roads and space needed to allow all your necessary trucks & construction gear enough room to arrive to the job site instead of squeezing every possible sq.inch of space for rent/sale. You probably lost millions on delays and insurance claims. Penny-wise & pound fools….
> Finally! Are they planning on making the rest of the street one-way,
> between 50th Ave. and Borden? That section is just as narrow and
> difficult as the rest.
CC, that is not happening, as the Po Po need to be able to drive North on 5th Street (from Borden Ave) so they can turn right onto 50th Ave and get to the Precinct.
Anecdotally, there are fewer cars on 5th Street and fewer near misses where the street narrows between 50th Ave and Borden (in front of the 5th Street / 50th Ave construction). Good job by Jimmy VB. I’m a fan.
“It’s ridiculous. Especially when the boy racers are cruising around showing off their crappy cars with exhaust-amplifying mods.”
Actually, what annoys me most of all are those motorcycles with no mufflers, or deliberately loud ones. Why can’t those morons be arrested?
Why does center blvd lack basic pedestrian safety , like cross walks and stop signs? What is the DOT’s rationale?
LIC residents have been trying to get some action on this for a year or more, especially since the construction scaffolding at 50th Ave has obstructed the views of traffic on Center even more.
As soon as the first elderly person/young mother with a stroller/toddler gets mowed down by some idiot speeding the authorities will act and be apoplectic about the situation.
Log on to this site and register a complaint about the traffic, maybe if they get enough input they’ll actually do their jobs:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/contact/contact-form.shtml
I agree with r185, but the existing stop signs don’t seem to make a difference. I’ve seen at least 3 people run the stop sign across from the basketball courts at H. P. South while waiting to cross with my dog on the way to the dog park. (And they’re not cops either…I always see them running stop signs and lights in LIC, but that’s another story).
In addition to stop signs (if they could be better enforced) would be crosswalk signs and lines painted on the street. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to cross Center near Riverview or the school and have had to sprint across just to avoid being hit. It’s ridiculous. Especially when the boy racers are cruising around showing off their crappy cars with exhaust-amplifying mods.
Finally! Are they planning on making the rest of the street one-way, between 50th Ave. and Borden? That section is just as narrow and difficult as the rest.
Definitely need stop signs of speed bumps on Center. Drivers come roaring around the curve at 50 mph.
I am not sure speed bumps are needed on 5th.
The avenue in front of Food Stealer def needs to go 1-way.
Shhhhh that’s a forbidden topic 😉
Am I pushing it to also ask for stop signs on Center?