Department of Transportation holds a town hall in Long Island City for a sidewalk lounge

Apparently, Polly Trottenberg's D.O.T. has other priorities besides the perpetual problems regarding street infrastructure, traffic calming, the safety of pedestrians, bikers and drivers and in this idiotic proposal, the lack of available parking spaces.

Another vexing thing about this stupidity is that this meeting is on the same day as the public advocate election.

At least the growing homeless population will have a place to rest along with their shopping carts of their personal belongings for hours on end.

Lawsuit to be filed over Northern Blvd bike lanes

From the Queens Chronicle:

Douglaston Civic Association President Sean Walsh announced on Monday that his group plans on filing a lawsuit against the city over the Northern Boulevard bike lane.

“Our civic, at its annual meeting, decided to sue the city,” he told members of Community Board 11 at the advisory council’s meeting on Monday.

The suit will be against city Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, Mayor de Blasio and the City of New York and will seek the path’s removal.

Woodhaven Blvd at a standstill due to new bus lane

From CBS:

A new bus lane on Woodhaven Boulevard is causing a traffic nightmare.

Drivers said their rush hour commutes have nearly doubled since the change.

Cars were backed up for miles on Woodhaven Boulevard on Tuesday night, and drivers say it’s being caused by the select new bus service.

One lane of traffic is now for buses only — no cars allowed.

Trottenberg said the DOT redesigned the pinch points and corridors in the hope of creating three lanes of traffic that move. The problem is in rush hour it doesn’t.

There are people who say it has added an hour to their commute.

New bike lane causing car crashes

From CBS:

Last week, the city installed the bike lane on heavily traveled Northern Boulevard between Douglaston Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway. It’s protected by a concrete divider, which some some say has led to accidents, including one Thursday.

The problem, opponents say, is that some motorists traveling along Northern Boulevard don’t know there’s a bike lane ahead, as the road narrows from three lanes to two. The bike lane and concrete divider appear to come out of nowhere, critics say.

There are no warning signs posted.

State Sen. Tony Avella said the bike lane is dangerous and needs to be scrapped.

“I think this is a nightmare,” he said.

Avella said the city Department of Transportation installed bright orange cones in front of the concrete barriers just Friday morning.

The senator said his office has received reports of four accidents there since the lane was installed, reports he is still trying to confirm. He said you can see scrape marks on the divider from where cars have apparently hit it.

“All of a sudden, you’re coming around a curve, and you’re hitting a concrete barrier,” he said.

Avella said the community board in the area wants the bike lane replaced with a lane built onto an expanded sidewalk off the road. Trottenberg said that would take too much time and money and that the current bike lane provides safety for cyclists now.

Has DOT ever listened to a community board?

BDB congestion plan is not all that

From AM-NY:

Don’t count on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s upcoming “congestion plan” to cut down on commute times.

While the mayor’s strategy to relieve street congestion is expected to be published in coming weeks, his administration has made it clear that commuters shouldn’t expect the plan to make much of an impact on traffic.

Details of the mayor’s strategy has been scarce so far, with Polly Trottenberg, the Department of Transportation commissioner only saying that it will target commercial delivery hours, parking regulations, and will incorporate data-driven approaches to certain points of gridlock.

DOT can't prove that bike lanes are needed

From CBS:

If you ask drivers, many will tell you it’s become chaos in New York City because of miles and miles of bike lanes popping up in recent years.

The Department of Transportation installed more than 60 miles of dedicated cycling space last year, the most of any year to date.

The DOT’s website states that studies show a double digit increase in volume of 59 percent after implementation of the lanes, but that was information from 2014 before many more miles of cycling lanes were added.

Trottenberg also said recent data shows traffic isn’t getting worse in NYC.

“When we look at our traffic studies we see at best we keep traffic neutral, sometimes better,” she said at Tuesday’s press conference.

When pressed for specific studies showing more drivers aren’t on the roads, the DOT referred CBS2 to their website.

A lot of street real estate has been given up on the promise that bike lanes would be heavily used. At some point, New Yorkers would like to see the evidence that it was — and remains — a good bet.

City to reserve some spaces for shared cars

From Metro:

The city will roll out a pilot program in the spring that allows car-sharing companies such as ZipCar and Car2Go to rent out scarce public parking spaces and even metered spaces.

A shared goal of many city agencies is to minimize the number of cars in the city — on account of environmental factors, space, and traffic, among other reasons. The City Council Committee on Transportation heard testimony from the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, as well as representatives from some car sharing companies Monday that made the case that carsharing services can dramatically reduce the number of cars kept in the city.

The idea is to have a mini-fleet of cars available to more people in more locations around the city, even in the outer boroughs where parking garages and lots are fewer and farther away. For instance, several Enterprise cars could be parked around the corner from your apartment.

The proposal is based on a study conducted across five cities (Washington, San Diego, Seattle, and Vancouver and Calgary, Canada) showing that an average of nine cars were taken off the road for every ride-sharable car brought to a fleet. In Calgary, 11 cars were taken off the streets for each shared car.

The program would consider using some “underused” parking spaces designated for some subsidized residents in NYCHA housing, and senior housing and at hospitals. The pilot will designate 300 spaces in public parking facilities, and another 300 on-street spaces.

I've found that people who use these services generally don't own cars. They mostly are subway riders but avail themselves of the carshare when they have to travel to distant places or have a complicated route. We'll see just how many cars are "taken off the streets".

BQE to undergo 5-year overhaul

From CBS 2:

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is slated for a major rehabilitation project — one that could cause potential traffic headaches for the thousands of commuters that traverse the aged outer-borough roadway every day.

The ambitious $1.7 billion undertaking aims to repair a 1.5 mile stretch of the highway, which features 21 concrete and steel bridges towering over city streets, WCBS 880’s Rich Lamb reported.

“The BQE project, what we’re calling “Sands To Atlantic,” is a huge, challenging, almost once-in-a-lifetime project,” Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said.

According to the DOT, the rehabilitation plan will work to revitalize the roadway’s crumbling, decades-old infrastructure, repair potholes and improve road accessibility.

The project is slated to begin in two years and will take around five years to complete, Trottenberg said.

DOT starts cleaning up graffiti

From the Daily News:

City Department of Transportation crews showed their graffiti-busting bona fides at the Manhattan Bridge on Friday to fend off criticism that the agency was shirking its clean up duties.

State Sen. Tony Avella of Queens had complained that Mayor de Blasio and the DOT “cannot walk and chew gum at the same time” because they declined his request to issue a contract to hire cleaners for agency property like street lights and traffic signs.

The agency told Avella it was “difficult for DOT to expend many precious resources for the removal of graffiti at the expense of needed maintenance and transportation improvements.”

But as crews on Friday attacked graffiti in a bridge underpass with potent-smelling chemicals and hot water, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said no money had been diverted from graffiti clean up of bridges and other structures. The DOT is working with the city's Economic Development Corporation on a $7 million removal effort,she said.

“We're working closely with them and identifying hot spots where we see a lot of graffiti," she said.

While the DOT is focused on Vision Zero street safety projects, she said, “the mayor also is a believer in the broken windows theory and is investing also to do graffiti clean up.”

Is DOT ignoring graffiti due to Vision Zero?

From CBS 2:

A Queens lawmaker is calling on the city to do more to remove graffiti.

State Sen. Tony Avella told CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez that after requesting graffiti removal in his district, he discovered the clean-up on city property had taken a back seat to other priorities.

“The fact that now the city under Mayor de Blasio and the Department of Transportation has chosen not to respond to graffiti requests unless it’s a profane nature or racist nature, it’s highly unacceptable,” Avella said.

Avella said Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told him the city wasn’t responding to all graffiti complaints because the agency was concentrating all its resources on the mayor’s Vision Zero program.

BRT budget doubles, broken into phases

From Capital New York:

Mayor Bill de Blasio's plans to build the city's most ambitious fast bus service in southeastern Queens have grown a good deal more expensive than anticipated.

The project once was estimated to cost $200 million but now is expected to cost $400 million, according to Polly Trottenberg, de Blasio's transportation commissioner, who testified on Wednesday before the New York City Council.

As planners worked through the design options, “The price tag for the project grew very large — $400 million — and the timeline grew very long, basically ... into the middle of the next decade," she said.

(The original project was supposed to start construction in 2017 and last a year, according to a 2015 report in the Daily News.)

As has previously been reported, the city now plans to implement the project in phases, beginning with operational improvements like off-board fare payment and concluding, in the second phase, with actual construction.

A better plan for Queens Blvd?

From the Times Ledger:

...one 25-year resident of Woodside has a different name in mind. Community advocate and safety consultant Bill Kregler believes that if changes are not made to the boulevard’s redesign plan, it will become known as the “Road to Ruin.”

During a walking tour with DOT officials and community leaders last week, Kregler handed Trottenberg a 35-page detailed report, complete with 116 photographs, that he authored. The report documents the deterioration of the service road driving lanes that have been neglected as construction of the bike lanes became the DOT’s priority.

“In their rush to create a commuter lane for cyclists, and removing travel lanes along one of the busiest roadways in the city for the first time, they’ve created a mess with potholes, cracking asphalt and sinking and collapsing of the service utility cover, because all that traffic is being forced into one overused lane,” Kregler said. “Since its implementation, vehicles have slowed to a crawl during the morning and evening rush hours, creating bottlenecks, and motorists peel off dangerously down our side streets, creating a safety hazard for our children and seniors. Woodside is getting the shaft here and it is becoming a dangerous situation.”

Kregler said Trottenberg did not seem to be pleased to receive his report, although a DOT spokesman confirmed it was being reviewed. Kregler is a former housing cop turned firefighter who went on to become a fire marshal and current president of the Fire Marshal’s Benevolent Association. He also spent 10 years on the Community Educational Council as a representative of the borough president.

Kregler emphasized that he believes in the bike lanes, but that their location was poorly conceived and this is affecting the quality of life along the boulevard in Woodside.

Big long bus route proposed

From the Daily News:

The city’s most ambitious plan to speed bus travel to date — an approximately $200 million, 14-mile super route through the heart of Queens — was unveiled by the de Blasio administration Tuesday.

The design features bus-only lanes, curbside fare payment and wireless technology that activates green lights for approaching buses between Woodside in the north all the way down to the Rockaways on the southern coast.

A six-mile segment in the center of the route along Woodhaven and Cross Bay Blvds. will be the most dramatically altered, with separate lanes for local and through traffic, turning restrictions and wide, landscaped pedestrian islands for riders getting on and off buses, officials said.

Construction is expected to start in 2017 and take about one year, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. The entire project is estimated to cost $200 million, officials said.

When finished, the seven Select Bus Routes created by the city since 2008 will pale in comparison, Trottenberg said.

Potholes a-poppin'

From the Daily News:

Spring temps have sprung — and so has the city’s annual crop of bone-jarring potholes.

New Yorkers are complaining vociferously about the car-busting craters that proliferate every winter, wrecking rims and blowing out tires.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg acknowledged repairs this year were slower than usual because of the prolonged blasts of Arctic temps.

New technology has improved the Department of Transportation’s ability to make quick-fixes to the worst potholes even in frigid temps — but serious road repairs wait until spring.

It’s not just the weather slowing things down. The city’s also hampered by a longstanding policy of laying off roughly 200 assistant highway repairers every December — and hiring them back in March when pothole season hits its peak.

Queens Blvd speed limit to be reduced

From Sunnyside Post:

The DOT tweeted that Commissioner Polly “Trottenberg anticipates reducing the speed limit to 25 mph by the end of the year.”

Queens Boulevard was not included as part of the 25 mph city wide speed limit that went into effect Nov. 7 since it was deemed a big street designed to accommodate faster speeds.

You'll probably still be overcharged for parking

From the Daily News:

A proposal to spare drivers extra charges if their time on a meter runs out shortly before parking regulations expire for the day is a nice idea, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the City Council on Wednesday.

The city has 10 million reasons why it can’t give motorists a break on parking meter charges.

A proposal to spare drivers extra charges if their time on a meter runs out shortly before parking regulations expire for the day is a nice idea, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the City Council on Wednesday.

But she said it would cost the city big bucks.

“While I sympathize with motorists who may be overpaying at our meters, this bill raises serious financial and technical challenges,” Trottenberg said — adding that the city could lose $8 million a year in parking revenue, plus $2 million to reprogram the meters.

Currently, drivers have to pay for an entire 15-minute increment, even if there are only a couple of minutes left until parking regulations end. Parking costs 25 cents for every 15 minutes at most outer-borough meters, and more in central Manhattan.

Under the bill, a driver who parked at 6:39, for instance, and paid for 15 minutes would have meter time extended until regulations end at 7, instead of having to drop in another quarter for the last six minutes.

Polly want a crapper?

From Capital New York:

Transportation commissioner Polly Trottenberg firmly believes New Yorkers need more in the way of public lavatories than the city's Starbucks, hotel lobbies and McDonald's can provide.

Today, during a City Council hearing on the transportation department's budget, Trottenberg said she's not giving up on a Bloomberg-era plan to install 20 public toilets in New York City.

"I think we really need to get that done and it's something we’re going to focus on," she told the Council.

“One thing I’m certainly interested in is getting the rest of the public bathrooms that are in the contract up and built," she said. "And I’ve actually asked our team at D.O.T. to figure out how we expedite that."

DOT not too keen on City Council's proposed legislation

From Capital New York:

City Council members on Wednesday considered for the first time a massive package of 22 bills and resolutions that seek to prevent traffic fatalities and bolster Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative.

But the bills are a bit of hodgepodge, targeting various issues affecting traffic safety, and not all were written in consultation with the administration. Indeed, city officials expressed concerns about a few of the bills. And some of the legislation, particularly measures that target taxi and limousine drivers. will face opposition from unions and industry leaders.

Council members and others who filled the chambers for the hearing applauded when Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced the Senate vote. But she and council members disagreed about some of the particulars in the Council bills.

A bill that would require side guards for trucks has some “implementation and enforcement and legal issues,” Trottenberg said, while saying the department would like to work with council members to improve the legislation.

She was also concerned about a bill that would require the city to repair traffic signals within two hours, noting the city already repairs critical devices within two hours but that an across-the-board requirement “would require a real increase in resources,” doesn't account for extreme weather situations and “could create a difficult legal standard and open the city up to costly litigation.”

Even on the items the council and administration do agree on, there was room for disagreement. Trottenberg raised concerns about legislation seeking to lower the speed limit on one-way city streets to 25 mph. While de Blasio wants to lower the limit on all city streets to that speed, she said doing so on certain streets would present challenges. She also said the city isn't quite ready for reducing the speed limit.

Woodhaven Blvd may get Select Bus Service

From The Forum:

Implementing express bus service along Woodhaven Boulevard, from Ozone Park to Elmhurst, would alleviate the traffic congestion that has long plagued one of the busiest, and most dangerous, corridors in the borough, area leaders said of the plan pushed by city Department of Transportation officials during a meeting at JHS 210 in Ozone Park last week.

Calling implementing select bus service – or SBS – on Woodhaven Boulevard, as well as Cross Bay Boulevard, a “big priority,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg has said such a plan could make life much safer – and easier – for residents who use the corridor that is time and again named one of the most dangerous spots for pedestrians in Queens. City officials kicked off their public meetings on the proposal at JHS 210 last Wednesday, during which they said they have a short-term plan to implement targeted bus lanes and a long-term proposal of installing SBS.

According to a plan presented at the meeting, the city aims to dedicate one lane for buses and right turns from Metropolitan Avenue to Eliot Avenue along Woodhaven Boulevard from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Additionally, officials said they would like to install a curbside bus lane northbound approaching Liberty Avenue and southbound approaching Rockaway Boulevard, which would also be in effect 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking would still be allowed in the curbside lanes when they are not in effect.

DeBlasio, DOT blind to Maspeth street safety

"de Blasio has got to be kidding ?

His Vision Zero Action Plan to make streets safer must not include Queens, or at least the town of Maspeth. E-mails about a major on going safety problem, to his office, Queens DOT commissioner Dalila Hall's and NYC DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg's offices go ignored and unanswered.

Almost 3 years ago, a group of residents along 70 St between 54 and 51 Aves asked the city to convert 70 St to a one way northbound. Our major concern after seeing parked vehicles being sideswiped and their mirrors torn off, as well as a number of fender benders, is for the safety of the children at IS 73. You see, many children, teachers and staff share the street with speeding school buses, racing TLC cars, parents dropping their kids off and the local citizens trying to get out and go to work. This is a narrow tertiary street. It runs from Queens B'lvd. to 54 Ave. where it ends at the entrance to IS 73. Someday, someone missing the stop sign, is going to drive through this "T" intersection and straight into the front entrance of this school !!! The city, in all its wisdom, moved the left turn lane on Queens B'lvd from 69 ST ( a secondary roadway ) to 70 St because of the volume of accidents. Drivers have discovered that they can avoid 6 or 7 traffic lights on 69 St by racing down our block.

On November 2, 2012, Community Board 5 received a letter from Maura McCarthy, former Queens DOT commissioner, responding to an October 18, 2011 request by the board for a one way conversion. Ms McCarthy responds by stating that traffic counts, street measurements, traffic circulation, area parking and the school congestion studies conducted by the DOT show that this area, and its pedestrians would be better served and safer as a one way street. The DOT recommends to the board that this conversion take place.

THREE YEARS LATER.......

We are still a two-way street. Someone was hit by a car on 70 St one block before the school. 5 students were hit by a car that jumped the curb at 71 St and Grand Ave. One child later died. 70 Street ends at 54 Ave and the traffic funnels down 71 St to Grand Avenue.

Our local council member Crowley - useless in getting the DOT to get moving.
DOT stated in the past it was a budgetary issue....we are talking 6 blocks here people !!! NOT all of Maspeth.
CB 5 notifies residents by mail that the conversion will take place week of 4/14/2014...DOT now denies this.

Where is the action, Mr. Mayor?

You know the area well having filled potholes a few blocks away.
You demonstrated that our local streets make great speedways.
Are you waiting to visit an injured or dead child and their parents before acting?
Has your "vision" gone blurry ? or don't you care about Queens?
You can take action here with much better results - in a much shorter time span.

The DOT states that it will not convert this street while school is in session. Makes NO sense. Spring the change on drivers all at once on a Monday morning after spring vacation, or on bus drivers, parents, and taxis who will NOT travel through here all summer!!! DOT workers can NOT work outside if the temperature is below 45....poor guys. Take a look at the faded, missing, and falling street signs in the area. Watch the next pothole patrol...how hard they work....and my point will be well made." - SKI