We celebrated the redo of the bike lanes on Chrystie Street adjacent to the Sara Roosevelt Park. Yay!! Safer for bicyclists! And better for car traffic too (I mean who wants to hit someone on a bike?).
We asked for pedestrian crossing signs for this new bike-way. To help bicyclists know to pay extra attention to the pedestrians coming out of the park. We think there should be pedestrian crossing signs at all of the Park’s ‘streetways’ (at Hester, Broome, Rivington and Stanton Streetways).
We had met with DOT (Department of Transportation), called a special meeting with interpreters for the deaf for those who live in the housing nearby, and had senior organization staff present who were fluent in Cantonese/Mandarin. We also invited the local small business community: some came in the middle of their workday (not so easy).
Here is an update on our requests:
The Coalition’s (and CB3) asks:
1) A Deaf pedestrian crossing sign – requested for Chrystie/Stanton to warn bicyclists traveling in both directions.
– The request for sign to be installed on Chrystie and Stanton has been denied “because it is located on the other side of the park which is away from the facility. The facility is on Forsyth St btw Stanton and Rivington where there is no bike lane there so it is not applicable. We install signs as close to the facility as possible and usually before you reach the facility. Therefore, we would not install one after the facility.”
We now would like pedestrian crossing signs at each of the Park’s Streetways.
Our response: Real actual people don’t just walk in front of their facility! Part of the problem with this new bike lane (as was mentioned repeatedly to DOT) is that it is a new two-way configuration. NO long-time local pedestrians will be expecting two-way bike traffic. That includes little children, a LOT of elders, Blind gardeners, and the people who live in housing set aside for the deaf. These kinds of changes take time to learn. AND we expect bike commuters through our neighborhood to be in charge of thinking about the local community – as we do drivers of vehicles. There is NO warning for bicyclists to pay closer attention to pedestrian traffic coming out of this park.
2) Speed bump – requested for Forsyth between Stanton/Rivington. The request for the study was opened last year April 2016.
Response: All speed bump requests citywide are backed up. Apparently the results for the study are not available. CB3 is asking their Pedestrian Projects group and Traffic Planning Management to take a look at this block to see if there are other potential improvements.
