I Really Want a Stop Sign on My Block - full circle

Almost a year and nine months ago, I started Best View in Brooklyn with this post about wanting a stop sign on my block.  That post came about eight months after I helped collect signatures for the Friends of Sunset Park's petition to have traffic calming measures installed on 41st and 44th Streets at 6th Avenue, two heavily used entrances to Sunset Park itself.  An on-line petition was also created to collect signatures for a stop sign and/or other traffic calming.   Now, two and a half years after those initial (at least to me) petitions, there's still nothing but speeding cars, fearful street crossers, and disgruntled residents - some of whom have been hit or come too close to being hit by cars at that intersection.

Look Both Ways on a One-Way Street

The irony, of course, is that I do look both ways on one-way streets. It's just habit, and good sense, really. And don't worry, I feel an immense amount of guilt about what happened yesterday. No one needs to lecture me about being more careful. Go ahead, if you must, I'm a traumatized mother right now.

Here's the short version:

Yesterday afternoon, I and my two cherubic imps were crossing 44th Street at 6th Avenue to enter Sunset Park at its main entrance. As we must because of the steep incline, I poked my head around the parked cars to look for on-coming traffic. Thanks to a double parked car loading items and another car backing up into a parking space down the street, it looked even more safe than usual. Phew. Then I looked up the street and saw an Elegante car service car backing up at 6th Avenue.

They often idle by the fire hydrant or the entrance of the park, so I figured this guy was backing up to the hydrant. I waited. He stopped, took it out of reverse, and sat there. Okay, so he's staying at the entrance. I looked back down 44th - all clear - and I started across the street.

When we were almost across the street, the Elegante car started backing up again. Into my stroller-bound kid. The handle of the stroller was pushed into my other kid (who was strapped to me), and the bumper of the car and the wheel were pushing my stroller and my son's legs along.

Now, I promised my husband a while ago that I would watch my language in front of my children. Sorry, honey. As I was tried to pull the stroller out from under the bumper, I started screaming about the car hitting my kid. (That was probably the most terrifying second and a half of my life. You can imagine what flashed through my head.) Then the palabrotas began.

With a crying baby strapped to me and a stunned toddler sitting in the stroller, I yelled in a colorful manner various versions of: car service cars are always backing up down the street, what does he think he's doing backing up on a one-way street, I was crossing at the crosswalk, my kids had better not be hurt, car service guys don't care about the residents they serve, blah blah blah.

I don't think the car service man was malicious. I don't even think he was particularly negligent. He explained he has children as well. He was so sorry. Are they alright. (In his nervousness he was smiling and trying to stop the baby's crying. Don't do that.) He was doing what the car culture of this block does. Yeah, I'm pissed off at him. Yeah, I think he was being careless. However, as angry as I am (maybe was) at this guy, I realized that mini-versions of this happen all the time. It's not a unique situation, and it's not something we cannot change.

That brought me back to the traffic calming issues we've been dealing with forever. A stop sign would not have changed this particular situation, but perhaps a painted crosswalk would have been a visual reminder to the driver that people cross into the park here. Look again.

So this morning, while my baby girl napped, I wrote to my friend Marty Markowitz to remind him about the traffic calming we have desired for so long. Perhaps a brush with injury will be enough to get something for our street here. Let's hope that it's not something more serious that draws attention to the need for traffic calming around the park.

So anyway, is anyone up for painting a few crosswalks ourselves?

Enjoy the weather, enjoy the park. Cross with extreme caution.

And, for good measure, here's the link for the traffic calming petition.

Tonight's CB 7 Meeting Has a Stop Sign on the Agenda

And really, that's all you need to know. The folks at Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights want a three-way stop sign at the intersection of 6th Avenue and 23rd Street. That issue will be on the agenda at tonight's CB 7 Transportation Committee meeting.

The meetings are at 6:30 PM, at 4201 4th Avenue (entrance on 43rd Street).

Stop Sign Petition for 23rd Street

I'm a big fan of stop signs. Even though Brooklyn is known for the rolling stop - or just blowing through a stop sign - at least it's a deterrent. It's going on two years of the latest attempt to get a stop sign on the 6th Avenue edges of Sunset Park (41st and 44th Streets). The last "traffic study" yielded disappointing results that "did not warrant" any traffic calming measures. I think they came to check out the intersections at about 3 AM.

Now, the Greenwood Heights folks are trying to get a traffic study to start the process of getting a three-way stop sign put in on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue. Here's the link to the petition, and the body of the petition is below. After you've signed that one, go ahead and add your e-signature to the 6th Avenue and 41st/44th Street petition!

The petition

Re: Installation of 3-way stop signs at the intersection of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215

We the undersigned request that Brooklyn Community Board #7 (CB7), and related agencies and elected officials, advocate on behalf of the residents in CB7's district, including Greenwood Heights, South park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Sunset Park, for the installation of 3-way stop signs at the intersection of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue to the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT).

While there is currently a stop sign located on the south west corner of the intersection on 23rd Street, recent new construction of 716-718 23rd Street, a four-story building on the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue (diminishing the sight lines along 6th Avenue), along with an increase in pedestrian and car traffic in the area, has created hazardous conditions for both pedestrians, cyclists and drivers passing through that intersection.

Several car related accidents have occurred in the past 12-18 months and we are calling for the immediate remediation of the unsafe conditions at this intersection.

We are recommending the installation of a 3-way stop sign system to the DOT:

>One sign on the western approach towards 6th Avenue on 23rd Street

>One sign on the southern approach towards 23rd Street on 6th Avenue

>One sign on the northern approach towards 23rd Street on 6th Avenue

We respectfully request the DOT complete an new traffic study of the intersection at the soonest available time period and make this intersection safe for the residents of the neighborhood and all communities within CB7.

Bicyclist Killed in a Collision on 54th and 7th

Sadly, we've had another fatality on the streets of Sunset Park. The most recent update to this story, which happened Thursday night at about 10 PM, is from the NY Post's Police Blotter. It sounds like a bicyclist didn't stop at a stop sign, and he was hit by a livery cab. The cyclist, Pedro Fernandez-Pacheco, was pronounced dead at Lutheran Medical Center. The driver of the car was issued a summons for an improper license, but he stayed at the scene and wasn't ticketed for the accident.

There is a bike lane on 7th Avenue, but apparently the cyclist was riding on 54th, which has a stop sign. 7th Avenue doesn't have any signs or lights at that intersection.

Stop signs, when heeded, do work! Seems like a good time to remind any interested readers to sign the petition to have stop signs installed at the 6th Avenue intersections around Sunset Park. Anyone who has tried to cross 41st or 44th at 6th Avenue to enter or leave the park understands why we need them! Read first, then sign here.

Another pedestrian hit in Sunset Park

Well, it's happened again. It seems that this time the accident occurred, not from any kind of driver incompetence or maliciousness, but from simple bad luck and bad timing and bad intersections. The driver stayed at the scene (unusual these days), and no tickets were issued. The hit 11-year-old was treated at Lutheran Medical Center for injuries to his leg and head.

Sunset has had more than its share of pedestrian accidents. Thankfully, this ended up being one of the less tragic examples of the dangers some Sunset Park streets pose for pedestrians. Seems like the perfect excuse for me to shamelessly plug the petition to get a Stop Sign on the corners leading into the park. I've been told that petitions don't get a lot of attention from the City, but it can't hurt, right? Right?

In a letter from Jeremy Laufer of CB7, this explanation for the methods of the DOT regarding how to determine the need for a Stop Sign shows City Wisdom at its finest:

"DOT conducts traffic studies using federal criteria to determine if a particular intersection merits a stop sign or traffic light. If traffic volume reaches a certain level, a sign or light may be required. We understand this fact and, also understanding our local community, asked if these studies could be conducted over the summer, given a park will have higher usage, especially one with a large pool, in the summer. DOT, in their wisdom, conducted the study in February of last year and, not surprisingly, it seemed that not many people wanted to use the park in the middle of winter."

Also, studies are only conducted every 18 months; the next one will be in late July or early August, apparently. At least that will be in high season. How 46th and 6th got a four-way stop sign, and the busy shortcuts from New Utrecht and Fort Hamilton Avenues didn't, I'll never understand. There are so many near misses at these park-side intersections, that I dread the truly busy park season.