The Transformation of Queens Boulevard, Block By Block from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
Jan. 27, 2016 Staff Report
A block-by-block video that details all the changes made to Queens Blvd since last summer has been released.
Ryan Russo, the Deputy Commissioner for the New York City Department of Transportation, discusses the agency’s goal to redo the entire 7-mile Queens Blvd stretch, which it has broken down into three phases.
The video focuses on those changes that have already taken place on Queens Blvd between Roosevelt Ave. and 73rd St, which represents phase 1.
At a press conference last week, Mayor de Blasio said that there were no fatalities on Queens Blvd in 2015, the first time in a quarter century.
The mayor attributes this to Vision Zero.
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35 Comments
and please make sure that their are hundreds of police to summons the bicycle riders that disobey every infraction.
Hate to say it but im selling my house and moving, i can get good money and its time to get out. Woodside has been ruined for years, and sunnyside is over priced and over rated and over populated. Too many illegal apartments,cars,bikelanes ,too many cars, just too much aggravating issues here now
How can you have a fatality when theres so much traffic cars are topping out at 2 miles per hr. Theres a better chance you’ll get killed by a speeding bike than a car now. This was a stupid idea from the beginning. They should call it the bikeless lane, you can stand there for hours and not see a bike. They should have used the bikeless lane/pedestrian lane for parking like they did in rego park. Now there going to have to maintain the bikeless lanes every year and waste more money. Whoever did this should be fired. Queens blvd was designed for cars,not bikes, bikes shouldnt even be allowed on the blvd. So stupid. Also more and more trucks are using the bikeless lanes for parking while delivering, motorist use it to run into stores it really is ridiculous
I think it’s great that the city is concerned about bikers but this is not a biking city. I’ve been to Montreal and THATS a biking city. I went for 4 days and we biked everywhere. Montreal is not N.Y., they don’t have the traffic, congestion and irate drivers who are so impatient like we do here. I almost got run over on 43rd Ave while crossing the street and I had the walk sign. In today’s society everyone is in a hurry, everyday you hear on the news that someone got killed crossing the street. My own grandfather was hit by a car in Rego Park many years ago, which then led to his death. Why don’t they put that money into the 7 train, now that is a REAL PROBLEM.I lived in Manhattan for 26 yrs. with very few transportation issues. I’m in Sunnyside for
over 8 yrs and no matter what time I leave for work there is always a problem.Just the other night I was able to leave work at 8:25PM, It took me almost an hour to get home because of signal problems at 59th st. I am 5 stops from work! THATS A PROBLEM, SORRY BIKERS!!!!!
We should eliminate all sidewalks, bike lanes, parks, and green spaces to eliminate automobile congestion.
I think that if we can eliminate sidewalks we could increase the amount of cars on the roads and not have to worry about those pesky pedestrians. Maybe we should just pave over the entire city. Make it one paved surface from the northern most part of The Bronx to the bottom of Staten Island.
That video is a crock of shite!!! They put a stoplight at the entrance of the BQE near 7-11 to “connect neighbors” ?! What neighbors are those?
Maybe it’s to make it easier for the homeless residents of the Pan Am motel & the Mets motel to stroll into Woodside & Sunnyside?
1 term mayor, this crap will stop soon enough!
PS: I’ll be waiting to collect the souls of all the cyclists that are run down this summer… Grim
Whoa. You just earned a new fan. My favorite part of crossing east bound to go to 7-11 is seeing the discarded hypodermic needles, near the clothing donation bins.
First of all biking should not be allow in rush roads, especially queens Blvd. These bikers are maniacs and they don’t give a damn regulations on road. Go ahead and try Manhattan Ave at Greenpoint. Second thing, fix a a damn potholes in fucking roads.
In the past 25 years New York’s population has increased by more than one million people. That means more cars. We can not continue to increase the capacity of our roads to accommodate the increase in cars. Solutions need to include mass transit, walking, AND bicycles. Additionally, people adapt to changes slowly if they have been doing things the same way for decades. We need to monitor how these bike lanes impact Queens over an extended period. Yes, bikers and walkers need to accept responsibility as well with regard to safety but we can not continue to accept cars as the solution. Studies going back decades all say the same thing – when you increase capacity for cars on roads you invariably increase the number of cars that use those roads and the traffic continues to become congested. Furthermore, regardless of current low oil prices the world is running out of oil and we need to prepare for a very different future. This is all going to take time and it is going to be painful for everyone but we need to think about transportation alternatives.
| haven’t had an opportunity to ride my bike on the new lanes, but have driven down QB several times since they were installed. As a driver, I like them. Lots of bikers use QB, and the street is way less chaotic and more predictable with the lanes. Sure, drivers need to take a few extra moments merging between the main and service roads, but in return everyone is safer. Doesn’t seem like an unreasonable balancing of interests.
Its pretty amazing to see the positive changes already. I suspect those making all the negative comments have never been to a public meeting or watched the video at all. The Boulevard works so much better now (well at least the service roads)
Yes, Tom!
If the city can make Queens Boulevard safer for walking and bicycling, they can do the same great, safe design on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and many more major avenues in Manhattan!
To achieve Vision Zero (zero deaths in traffic) we need to continue moving ahead with ambitious, safer street redesigns.
Did this guy come back and check the condition of those bike lanes in last few days? 1st problem: They are impossible to plow, and snow is just piled up there. 2nd problem: Cars were parked there because cars couldn’t park on the other side of the street. 3rd problem: On eastbound service road starting from 48th street all the way to BQE entrance ramp, some plow simply mowed all the little barriers this guy installed, now do we have to pay for those stupid barriers to be re-installed because some nutjob plow driver simply didn’t care and drove right over those?
I agree with others, since they were installed I haven’t seen that many bikers, plus why so wide? This guys shows some random guy walking on the pedestrian section of the bike lanes, while there is a perfectly walkable sidewalk on the same side. What’s the point, seriously.
Lastly, SHAME on city, did you see how bad the snow removal was? People had to cross the street next to cars on 58th street, and that place was already narrow due to bike lane barriers or cones or whatever those plastic stuff are called.
Oh my god, the guy compares Ocean Parkway to Queens Blvd. Ocean Parkway is strictly residential buildings, there aren’t that many stores (almost non, actually) on Ocean Parkway, and there are big tall trees for people to sit under with benches. How is our nasty queens blvd compared to ocean parkway? I don’t see it. Not only that, Ocean Parkway has raised sidewalk, unlike this extremely unsafe lane. They botched this project and you and I have to pay for this. If they want to do something drastic, get rid of the center sidewalks, narrow the dividers and give more space to drivers. Ocean Parkway’s service roads are three lanes with cars parked on two lanes of those. Queens Blvd in certain areas are simply down to one lane for drivers. Where do you think they will swerve into when they see someone stop short in front of them, either into pedestrians or bikers.
I agree with you that we need to do a better job of snow removal for bicyclists and pedestrians!
In great bike cities like Montreal, the municipalities do much better at clearing bicycle lanes with the same interest as motor vehicle travel lanes.
To clarify about the design, this is the initial phase, and it will be a more permanent, safer concrete bike lane when it is fully built out in years to come.
My two cents to reduce congestion and keep the balance between pedestrians and drivers…
Raise the speed limit back to 30mph on the non service road drop the service road to 20mph for pedestrian convenience.
Reprogram the traffic lights during rush hour so they turn green one after the other.
Put red light cameras on most intersections
In the mean time delay all yellow signals on traffic lights by two seconds to give drivers time slow down.
Increase police enforcement for right of way and speed
A reduced speed limit means reduced severity of crashes, and with that, reduced incidence of death and serious injury for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.
I agree that we need more red light cameras and more police enforcement.
Ok i understand but what about congestion? There has to be a balance..
Queens Boulevard & Vision Zero: The Road to Ruin
Our elected and appointed officials were too busy patting each other on the back last week with the overflow of statistical data regarding the version zero programs to mention even one negative impact it has had on the communities and commuters it affected. At best, they failed to realize its impact on the commuters (including bus riders) and the community. At worse, they knew of the problems and still plowed through with it while wasting millions of taxpayer’s dollars in the process.
To begin this saga, Politicians needed a punch line to get the campaign started. The labeled Queens Boulevard the “Boulevard of Death” by simply citing the total number of deaths over 35 years and implying it was just speeding motorists that caused it. The accumulation figure and one year high 13 years ago is a piss poor attempt to justify these ill conceived programs.
First, Queens Boulevard is not the most dangerous roadway in New York City. Accidents, injuries and deaths are not solely from the actions of car drivers. A closer review of all the facts including jaywalking (crossing against the traffic light, not crossing in crosswalks, crossing between cars or in the middle of the block instead of at the corners), inattentive pedestrians (cell phones), intoxication of both drivers and pedestrians, unlicensed drivers, etc… would show a more complete and clearer picture on how these accidents occurred.
They used the same excuse with the Queens Boulevard bike lane program in order to waste $100 million dollars for (at most) 100 bicyclists. These officials mislead the public by saying that no vehicle lanes were taken away to make bike lanes. The fact is that the true “Phase I” of the bike lane project started when the DOT took away the left lane of the east and west service road under the ruse of “safety” by striping over them. The DOT confiscated these lanes in order to put in bike lanes. Besides these areas being empty and unused most of the year, this weekend’s snow storm is another clear reason we need the lanes back for plowing and emergency vehicles.
Another misconception is that these bike lanes were meant for everyone, including bike riding families. This perception was portrayed by the staged bike trip with kids and parents (along with elected officials) in the summer and put on Youtube for all to see. The fact is that these bike lanes are meant for commuters outside of community (Manhattan, Astoria. Rego Park, Forest Hills, Jamaica, etc…). It was specially designed to be the most direct bike route in and out of Manhattan into Queens.
By the way, the tan colored buffer zone in the DOT plans are slated to be filled in with concrete to widen the traffic dividers between the main and service road. These widen islands were designed to be used by both pedestrians and bicyclists. This concentrating of pedestrians and bicyclists into these areas will most certainly increase accidents between them.
Because of these changes, we no longer have a rush hour problem on Queens Boulevard. We now have a rush day and rush evening problem that is affecting everyone who lives along or uses Queens Boulevard. To say that deaths along Queens Boulevard are decreasing because of DOT’s changes is wrong. The reason is the lower speed rate (25 mph) and traffic jams most of the time. So deaths by vehicles will certainly decrease for now. But with our ever increasing population fueled by irresponsible development along Queens Boulevard, accidents and deaths between pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles will eventually begin to uptick. By then, all those who will benefit financially and politically from these mega-deals will be laughing it up in their retirement mansions.
There are solutions and the space available to correct these problems now and address all concerns. Yet there seems to be more of a mentality of “circling the wagons” by those responsible in hopes to weather the storm of criticism then have to acknowledge mistakes made in order to fix them.
OMG so so very well put. Thank you!
I have a suspicion that CitiBike will soon arrive somewhere along the lines of these bake lanes, possibly one around Queens Center Mall or somewhere a bit closer to us, and another closer to Roosevelt Ave, and Citi pushed for these bike lanes assuming people will be able to use them more often so Citi can make more money. Until we can say “roads, where we’re going we don’t need roads” we need roads. 25mph is stupid on a stretch of a road where nobody crosses frequently, it’s causing rage when you drive that slow because you know there is a camera, and the other guy doesn’t. Where do those raging drivers go to? Right into queens blvd into sunnyside where there are actually thousands of pedestrians crossing every day, where there is NO CAMERA. Why is there a camera in industrial area next to cemetery but no camera on busiest areas of blvd in Sunnyside? No red light cameras, no speed cameras. Every single day someone runs red light on queens blvd, intentionally or unintentionally. Remember, always wait until every car stops before cross the street in sunnyside, some of these guys watch the pedestrian traffic light instead of theirs, they see the ped light flashing but their is Red, they go right through.
Citi pushed for these lanes? Really? Really? It’s amazing how people can just make stuff up and write it. The crazy thing is this Del Toro probably honestly believes what he has written which is a double travesty.
Tom, go ride your training wheels bike. Don’t get involved in politics.
We design a safer road for bicyclists, walkers and pedestrians alike. It means fewer deaths and serious injuries for all road users.
You make a good point that slower traffic reduces the incidence of death. That is true, which is a good reason for why the city has lowered the speed limit.
Bill your post contains a couple of facts. But at least 70% of it comes exclusively from your imagination.
Why did they not fix the roads at same time ,drive service road from 58 street to 54 street ,must be worst roads in NY
You have made Queens Blvd a disaster! Traffic is horrendous now! No one uses these bycicle lanes you freakin idiot!
The bike lane was placed in space that had not been used for car travel. It’s wonderful that since the redesign of this section of Queens Boulevard no one has been killed. Saving lives (of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists) is more important than keeping cars zooming at highway-like speeds. High speeds = more dead pedestrians.
You are wrong, the service road was a two lane road. Not is only one. So you are wrong! The only reason cars don’t speed is because they have installed speeding camaras. People don’t respect 25 miles limit. This is NY people are always in a rush. They Can’t slow down new yorkers.
I use them all the time- I live on 44th street and my dentist is on 61st- the bike lanes make it an easy trip, and I am NOT the only person using them. Start getting used to sharing the road!
The “road” is for everything over 1 ton. You’re probably under 250lbs. So stop competing with cars and trucks. The design is redic. to this: http://sf.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2011/09/6172400271_5c52093ffe_b.jpg
Seems nothing short of reasonable when fully explained in this video.
What’s great about NYC’s vision zero is that “any government official on duty is exempt from this law is not charged with a crime.” So don’t be surprised if Van Brammer and Diblasio are on their “work” commute and plow through a bunch of pedestrians.
But of course you’ll be hung upside-down on 46th Street and Skillman so don’t worry.
DeBlasio and Van Bramer are both great leaders devoted to public safety and improving safety for all people.That’s what Vision Zero is about: Saving Lives.
Even is Van Bramer or De Blasio were likely to do that, the bike lane makes it harder to do.