But happy as the Q is for friends three blocks to the north, the victory feels bittersweet, for the Q knows that Clarkson Avenue (tween Flat & Bed) will never know such sweet dolce traffic calmness. For we live on a bus route, a mid-Brooklyn thoroughfare that makes Hawthorne, even now, seem like a windswept meadow by comparison. Oy, and the horns! The honking, the illegal trucks, the humanity. We invested in white noise generators in our bedrooms, and now even a full throttle shootout could happen on my block and I'd sleep right through it.
Bumps, baby, bumps!
4 comments:
I don't think I'd trade the speed on Hawthorne for the noise and traffic that comes from having a bus route on Clarkson but... do you need a speed bump? I'd think that would be the one silver lining of the congestion.
If you look at the map it's pretty clear why Clarkson sucks, beyond the bus route. It's a main thoroughfare, coming as it does from the hospitals and points East. Caton, Lenox, Church and Linden suffer the same fate.
Congestion and honking are terrible in the afternoons, but the speeding happens at off hours when the jam loosense up, including scooters and (gulp) an ATV going both ways on our one-way street.
So Charles, what we need is retractable speed bumps. I'm sure some unpronounceable town in northern Europe has already installed them.
I've been wary of speed bumps in the past because our house is at the end of a one-way street and speed bumps would only speed up traffic in front of our house as they pass the last speed bump and race to make a green or yellow (or let's face it, red for some maniacs) light. That's already the main cause of speeding on our street, trying to make the light. Traffic calming should include cameras at intersections and bumps should be installed all the way to Nostrand or even New York Ave when they're put on any street. Has there been any thought to a larger proposal for the city for calming throughout PLG?
I think the DOT operates on an as-requested basis. If you complain to the DOT they will do an assessment of congestion and speed patterns and, if the street meets the criteria, they will respond. If there is a time of day that you are most concerned about, include that in your notice to the DOT so that they don't conduct the assessment at a time that would misrepresent your concerns. Don't expect immediate results but, if you make a request, follow up for the results of the assessment and then be a bit of a squeaky wheel.
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