The City's Most Dangerous Street

I understand that this lady wants to do some good in her daughter's memory but how is one overpass going to solve the "Boulevard of Death" problem? There are already numerous subway stops where you can safely cross UNDER Queens Blvd., but people don't use them much.

Also, BTW, when you travel it by car and get the other perspective, you see countless pedestrians taking stupid risks and endangering themselves.

I think the following would be helpful here:

* There should be more clear, obvious signage directing pedestrian traffic across the boulevard, including pathway signs to crosswalks, subterranean walkways, and potential overpasses.

* The timing of the lights should be tuned well on the boulevard to allow for a pause between a stop signal and a crossing signal. This can reduce the risk that an early-crossing pedestrian will enter into the path of a late-crossing vehicle.

* If late-crossing vehicles or illegal crossings are too common, perhaps the traffic signal placement and/or intensity can be tweaked for improved road safety.

* And yeah, build a couple of overpasses. Queens Boulevard is tough to cross; I'd prefer to use a safe overpass in cases that one would be accessible nearby. I'd assume that few people would walk more than half a block out of their way to get to one, but the overpasses can be placed at key intersections where there's the most potential pedestrian traffic. Also, the signal timings on the boulevard usually leave people waiting for a long time to use the street-level crossings, and there's a very good chance in this case that pedestrians would frequently choose to use an overpass.

Pedestrian passageways at a different grade than the road are the wrong answer for several reasons.

Isolating pedestrians in places that are not visible to the public makes them breeding ground for crime. Imagine the personal safety issues of walking through a dark tunnel, alone.

More importantly, grade separation is tantamount to simply giving up. It doesn't address the real causes of Queens Blvd's danger -- too many cars at high speeds due to the roads inherent anti-urban design. Think also of the social damage high-speed roads do to neighborhoods. High-speed roads depress property values, drive away pedestrians and businesses, and eat away at communities. So, building a pedestrian bridge is a step backwards, and signals to drivers that they are on a highway, instead of a boulevard.

Instead, short-term, QB should be redesigned with traffic-calming foremost in mind. This means more than the usual traffic-calming tools like neck-downs, bulbs, lower speed limits, painted lines, etc., but more natural methods that make drivers instinctively slow down due to perceived danger. These include: narrowing the roadway, making sure that active, attractive buildings line the street, eliminating blank street walls, lining the blvd with trees, etc.

The long-term solution of course is to work to reduce car usage in Queens in elsewhere. How about a light-rail line and physically separated bike lines down the blvd?

Admitedly, this is more complicated than just building a bridge, but ultimately more effective.

bfried: I totally understand about the DoT -- nowhere did I claim that it'd be easy! I'm sure that TA is fighting the good fight on this, and it looks like PPS is doing some work on it too.