Tag: traffic

There’s a lot to say about last night’s Traffic Town Hall — 175 neighbors, five elected officials, DOT officials and engineers all getting together to address the problem made for a successful meeting. But nothing’s fixed yet, the problem is growing, and we need to keep the pressure on. So we’ll have more to say later.

PIX11 provided good coverage:

Department of Transit Manhattan Borough Commissioner Luis Sanchez took questions for an hour at Wednesday night’s meeting of the 7th Precinct Community Council from residents concerned about the increased traffic on Grand and Clinton Streets.

Sanchez said DOT has looked at a bunch of different options — traffic signal timing, changes in signage on the FDR, banning a right turn onto Clinton from Grand — to alleviate congestion in this residential corridor, but has not settled on any solution. Construction, said Sanchez, at Essex Crossing and the Houston Street on/off ramps has caused major headaches and make any analysis subject to change as soon as the construction zones shift.

Bottom line: DOT does not yet have any recommendations to alleviate congestion on Grand and Clinton.

Here’s a live view of traffic in our neighborhood from Waze:

But the hundred or so neighbors who came out Wednesday were not ready to take “no” for an answer.

Several community members asked if there is nothing to do about the number of cars, can the police do anything about the honking, often late at night? Honking tickets, it turns out, are particularly difficult to issue — and create even more congestion while drivers are pulled over.

How about cameras at East Broadway and Clinton to fine drivers who block the box? It turns out there is state legislation about how many traffic cameras can be installed in New York and in what areas.

Many people had specific suggestions about how to re-route traffic to the Williamsburg Bridge. How about opening Suffolk Street northbound so there are three ways to get from Grand to Delancey? Or turn Delancey Street under the bridge into the main access point, bypassing Grand Street altogether? What if the whole neighborhood were blocked off from through traffic so that cars are pushed up Essex or even Allen? Each option got a lukewarm response from DOT’s Sanchez, with assurances that every option is still on the table.

So what will it take to get the DOT to make some real changes? We plan to continue putting pressure on DOT officials to make sure they know just how disruptive this problem is to our residential community. Right now we are working with Councilmember Margaret Chin to hold a Traffic Town Hall on Thursday, January 11, where we’ll have a chance to make clear to DOT officials that the traffic madness has to stop.

The Department of Transportation has been dragging its heels on the traffic problem on Grand & Clinton. That’s why showing up at the NYPD 7th Precinct Community Council on Wednesday at 7:30 pm is so important.

7th Precinct Community Council
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
7:30 pm
19½ Pitt Street (between Broome and Delancey)

Our local NYPD Community Council has gotten DOT Manhattan Commissioner Luis Sanchez to attend its monthly meeting this week. These Community Council meetings are a great neighborhood resource but are usually lightly attended. We urge you to attend on Wednesday to make sure Mr. Sanchez knows how important this issue is to our quality of life.

We also continue to work with Councilmember Chin to get a larger public meeting in January. We need to push this from as many angles as possible to get DOT to address this problem.

When Councilmember Margaret Chin called on Tommy Loeb last night at the mayor’s town hall she called him “The man with the pink sticker.” That’s because Tommy — a long-time resident of East River Coop — was there at Caroline and Lee’s request to ask the Mayor for a traffic agent to be stationed at the intersection of Grand and Clinton to help alleviate the dangerous driving and incessant honking that comes from this access route to the Williamsburg Bridge.

This is what can happen when everyone works together — local elected officials who have already raised the issue with the Department of Transportation, almost 600 local residents who have signed a petition to close the Clinton Street approach to the bridge, and then one local resident to push the issue right to the mayor.

DOT Commissioner Polly Trachtenberg acknowledged there is a broader study underway to examine the entire traffic pattern from the FDR to the Williamsburg Bridge, which is absolutely necessary. But that sort of study and implementation can take years. It’s already been years since the traffic on Grand became intolerable. Caroline and Lee thought there was something that could be done right now, and asked Tommy to bring their request to the mayor.

At tonight’s District One town hall with Councilmember Margaret Chin and Mayor de Blasio, the Mayor pledged to dispatch a traffic agent to the Clinton-Grand intersection to alleviate the problems of pedestrian safety, congestion, and incessant honking while a Department of Transportation traffic study gets underway on this over-used approach to the Williamsburg Bridge.

Last night’s action was prompted by a question at the Town Hall by East River cooperator Tommy Loeb, representing Grand Street Democrats at the town hall. The Mayor, Steve Hellman from NYPD’s 7th Precinct, and DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg all agreed with Tommy’s suggestion.

This troubled intersection has been the focus of a local petition that now has almost 600 signatures and a letter from local representatives urging the DOT to study the issue.

The traffic issue at Grand & Clinton — resulting in grid lock all the way east on Grand Street, with cars honking and jockeying for position — has a been a problem for years. In 2012 the street patterns were changed to alleviate congestion on Delancey that had resulted in serious pedestrian accidents. Since then, Grand Street residents have been saying that Clinton Street was never designed to be a major approach to the Williamsburg Bridge, which is what it has become. With Essex Crossing construction, the problem has become more acute and is likely to get worse.

Pressure needs to be maintained on city officials and local representatives to make sure this problem finally gets solved.