Community Board 10 has yet to get behind the DOT plan to save lives on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.
Safety improvements on deadly Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard could be in place by September, the New York Times reported yesterday, despite continued resistance to the redesign from the local community board.
Three people have been killed while walking on Adam Clayton Powell this year; 12 were killed by drivers since 2006. The road’s wide, straight lanes lead motorists to approach highway speeds: the average speed after 8:00 p.m. is 50 miles per hour, according to the Department of Transportation.
Though Community Board 10 has repeatedly stated that it understands the seriousness of the safety problem along the corridor, it has for years opposed the most comprehensive proposals to fix Adam Clayton Powell. In 2009, CB 10 voted against a plan to add a buffered bike lane to the street. CB 10 opposition forced the road diet proposed for the street this time around to be shrunk to cover only half the distance initially proposed, and the board still hasn’t signed on to the plan.
Breaking from its usual procedure, DOT is ready to move ahead with or without the community board’s firm approval. Construction is set to begin in August, according to the Times, and last a month.
“We just don’t understand it yet,” transportation committee chair Deborah Gilliard said of the plan to extend medians and narrow traffic lanes. Instead, the Times reported that her committee wants to see “more left-turn traffic signals, 35-miles-per-hour speed-limit signs, and pedestrian crossing signals that give those on foot a head start.”
That a safer Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard has been more than three years in coming and that DOT is set to to step in and save lives even against the community board’s preferences can at least be partially explained by that last quote. Apparently, neither Central Harlem’s designated representative on transportation issues nor the New York Times reporter relaying her position to the nation knows that any new speed limits signs on Adam Clayton Powell should say 30 miles per hour, not 35.
As an entire series of public service announcements has reminded New Yorkers since 2010, 30 is the speed limit citywide. A pedestrian hit at 40 miles per hour, according to DOT, has a 70 percent chance of being killed, while at 30 miles per hour, the pedestrian has an 80 percent chance of survival. If those tasked with understanding transportation don’t understand road safety, it makes it a lot more difficult to make streets safer.
Marc Gené Elmer George Bob Gerard Gerino Gerini Peter Gethin
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