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Van Bramer Plans Rally for Stop Sign at 46th Avenue and 5th Street Intersection

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Feb. 25, 2016 By Christian Murray

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer is calling on the Department of Transportation to erect a stop sign at the corner of 5th Street and 46th Avenue.

The councilman wants the sign to go up on the south east corner as a means to slow motorists down who typically use 46th Avenue to get from Vernon Blvd. to Center Blvd.

Van Bramer will be holding a rally at the 5th Street/46th Avenue corner on Friday at 2:45 pm.

P.S./I.S. 78 is located by the intersection and parent have been asking for a stop sign on the corner for some time.

“People have been fighting for this for so long,” said Jen Theien, president of the Gantry Parents Association, a newly formed school advocacy group.

“People go down 46th Avenue at 40 mph,” Theien said, adding that it is particularly dangerous given the corner’s proximity to the NY Kids Club and the school.

Van Bramer, who has been calling for a stop sign at this location since 2012, will be bringing his own home-made sign– dubbed the People’s Stop Sign–to the rally. He has done this in the past to highlight the need for similar traffic-safety measures.

Van Bramer’s office did not have any data as to how many accidents there have been at the location.

The DOT said that it has studied the area several times and  that the intersection does not meet the criteria for a stop sign.

Rally for a stop sign on Center Blvd and 48th Avenue, which was later installed

A rally for a stop sign at Center Blvd/48th Avenue was held in 2012. They were later installed

 

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13 Comments

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Al Catasus

I’m new to LIC, and I must say that I find the stop signs bewildering throughout Hunter’s Point. In most parts of New York, the stop signs are either all way stop signs or they all control the same direction. For example, in most of Brooklyn the stop signs control traffic on the streets and the avenues are mostly unlimited or have traffic lights every few blocks. That is rapidly changing as more and more all way stops are added, but the streets are never uncontrolled. Only the Avenues are.

In LIC, the system seems to be random. On one block, the street has a stop sign, and on the next it’s the avenue. Also, the posts on which the stop signs are set up are often cluttered with other signs of all sorts. Can the entire are be reconfigured to a more consistent, predictable, understandable and safe system?

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Agree with JVB

Agree with this stop sign placement! Some cars fly down 46th and there are a LOT of pedestrians crossing there. The parking along 46th makes it difficult to see traffic coming down the street (I am NOT against street parking!), so one usually has to step into the street to even look to see if it’s safe to cross. It’s necessary as our community continues to expand.

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brooklynmc

YES. No question about it. Super dangerous. More than half the cars stop anyways because logic says there should be one. The other 40% or so of cars love to blow through at 40 mph. It is a matter of time before a stroller gets rundown. If you stand on Center Blvd for an hour you will see that 80% of cars don’t stop at stop signs anyways and that includes police cars. Unfortunately the restaurant Blend brings in a lot of speedsters who don’t care about the immediate neighborhood.

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Really?

This is not near PS 78, it is next to the NY Kids Club. And yes people drive like a**holes there and a stop sign is needed. Not sure why a rally needs to be held to prove that, it shouldn’t be so hard to get a stop sign put up in a heavily trafficked area with lots of kids running around. Way to go DOT.

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ashley

Thank you Jimmy Van Bramer! We appreciate the time you give to all our community concerns and improvements. This can actually save someones life.

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why not

Half the people who go through there stop either because they think it is a 4-way stop or they are looking for parking. So who cares just put the stop sign up for the mothers!!

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Safety Mom

As a mom concerned about the well-being of all our children, I am very pleased with JVB’ is trying to get a much-needed sign in that area. The safety and security of our children is something we must protect, especially in light of the many dangers our kids face in this neighborhood. A huge sigh of relief — or should I say, sign of relief? — from me!

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PO

Whachu talkin bout Safety Mom? What “many dangers” do our kids face in the neighborhood? LIC, especially the area by the waterfront, is a very safe area. Stop talking out of your arse and put things into perspective. There are millions of other people who live in REAL dangerous neighborhoods that would give up their left eye so that their kids can live and go to school in an area like LIC.

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Peter

I was always surprised that there was no stop sign here and that DOT finds one unwarranted is even more bizarre. First there is a school there and for children’s safety four ways stops signs should be mandatory. Second, if there were to be only one stop sign it should be for the avenue and not the street, just like the other avenues and streets in proximity there, it’s an odd deviance as is.

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Jon

Before 4615 Center and 4545 Center were built there actually was a stop sign there, and you basically had to turn left there no matter what as to the right was just a little dead end nub of 5th Street. When N. Basin Rd. and the section of 5th Street behind 4545 were opened and made one way, a stop sign went up on that road and the one on 46th Ave came down. I actually think the school is somewhat irrelevant for the stop sign discussion, as being on the opposite corner there really isn’t much need to cross 46th Ave toward to single building on the side of the street. If necessary, you can cross at Center Blvd to go that way, no real difference unless you are going from school to the Kids Club. However, with the Flea there all summer, there is a lot of foot traffic and a stop sign would make sense.

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Peter

Children are unpredictable, all vehicles approaching the intersection should have to come to a complete stop regardless of their direction of travel. It forces drivers to proceed slower and increases reaction time and awareness.

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Ike

They also need a stop sign at 5th at 51st Avenue using the same logic, the kids and adults there just dart into traffic in the morning with only their headphones and cell phone screens for protection.

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Geez

Another damn rally by the rally-master himself, JVB. Come on people, wake up and smell it…this is all a publicity stunt by Jimbo. You think the DOT is going to erect a stop sign because JVB+50 people decide to hold a rally? The DOT is sure to be quaking in their boots. What is probably happening is that JVB got a wink and a nod from the DOT saying that it is in the works. JVB then conveniently decides to hold a rally and in a few months, voila, stop sign. Now all the whiny mommy’s in the hood are satiated and JVB comes out the hero. This is called politics folks.

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