[Artists Conception of the Traffic Signal Future on Gerritsen Avenue]
Traffic signals are always a major issue in Gerritsen Beach, we only have a handful, and residents want them.
You may remember one major battle is Channel Avenue next to 277. The fight for a light there has been going on for at least 25 years. The main reason why we cant have a light is because DOT says we don’t meet the federal requirements, and cant get one until we do.
The only way we can meet the requirements is to get new data through a traffic study, which the study can only be requested every 18 months. The study’s usually include people with counters and the small traffic counter devices you see with the black strips across the road. However. in almost typical GB behavior every time DOT installs counters, without fail, those devices are destroyed, within hours or overnight. We’ve posted about it before. Some argue that they should be destroyed we dont need a light. The same people also argue that the community is split because of the devices are constantly destroyed.
Lew Fidler on behalf of the property owners, and residents concerns, have requested numerous locations for traffic signals. Including:
Seba Avenue – Constant green with push button to cross at a cross walk
Florence or Gotham Avenue – St. James Church location.
George Broadhead, President of the Propery Owners Association, has promised that he would work with whomever it may take to get a light while in office. State Senator Marty Golden has also promised to get a traffic light. If you remember, during the Green Streets meeting, after it died Marty opted to turn it into a town hall,the main issue was a traffic light at Channel Avenue, a petition was passed around and collected hundreds of signatures. Nothing came of that.
All that that being said I believe that we will never meet the traffic requirements, not because the devices are being destroyed, but because there isn’t enough traffic. I do believe at least a painted cross walk is needed at Seba Avenue Park. There are just to many people who use that location to ignore that they have to cross a street.
Skipping past the obvious–we still do not have a traffic light–to a crosswalk to the Seba Avenue Park. GBPOA Board member, Diane Sullivan, on behalf of parents, like herself, and others, (including the handicapped and seniors) proposed the dire need for a crosswalk at Seba Avenue Park, at two recent meetings. Councilman Fidler wrote to the Commissioner and we were copied on his correspondence. Once again, it is in the hands of the “traffic engineers”. Why they did not paint a crosswalk where it was obviously needed, while they painted up a line storm along Gerritsen Avenue recently, boggles the mind….
Back to the obvious: We will follow-up with the location of a traffic light that was requested and conveniently placed near the home of one of our representatives. We have already suggested that anyone of the elected officials move to Frank Court, and we would see the end of flooding as we know it.
By the way: if the developers and realtors get their way, we will surpass the requirements for a traffic light on Gerritsen Avenue. We may need a few on Everett Avenue as well.
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@George Broadhead, A traffic light sounds good but will anyone actually stop? What many people don’t understand is that a STOP sign means just that. I can count on one hand the number of cars that stop at Cyrus Ave, or any of the other streets going onto Gerritsen Ave. A stop sign means that you stop ten feet before the sign then SLOWLY proceed. This does not happen here in the Beach. Maybe if some tickets were given out people might remember what a Stop sign means. The worst are parents with kids in the car racing to get them up to PS 277 on time. You can get killed crossinng Cyrus Ave.
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I like the common sense approach taken in some small towns on long island:
they paint a crosswalk and put up a small sign reminding drivers that it is a state law that they must stop if a pedestrian is in the crosswalk. It might not work on gerritsen, but it would work on other smaller streets.
It’s like the green-always-light-with-pushbutton – only cheaper.
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That there was no crosswalk painted to a Park where children play was idiotic planning; that there still isn’t is just poor follow-up on the part of our representatives. I’m all for lights, crosswalks, speed-bumps, etc. There are way too many teen drivers in this neighborhood who don’t know the first thing about driving responsibly. We also need traffic ENFORCEMENT in this neighbor – like tickets being dished out to those who speed past by driving in the meridian where kids and the elderly stand to go to the park or take a bus because there’s no crosswalk.
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I’m with Jeff. Put up some lights, speed bumps, etc. but what’s the point when there is no enforcement?
The maniac racing drivers are not going to stop cause there is someone in a crosswalk. They probably won’t stop for a traffic light down the old section either as there is no traffic enforcement. Speed bumps – they don’t care about damage to their cars as we know from the nightly donuts.
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YEAH GOOD IDEA PUT LIGHTS U DUMB THAT WILL JUST BE THE LINE AND ONCE THE LIGHTS TURN GREEN GUESS WAT 120 DOWN THE AVE RETARTS…………..
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@theEMAnOFgB, I always thought a retart was a reheated pop-tart.
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@theEMAnOFgB, umm, what? A full and complete sentence would be appreciated here.
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@theEMAnOFgB, they speed like that anyway a hole. so at least the school kids will get a chance to cross safely with the light without running for their lives.
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J:ust a comment about crosswalks ans speed bumps.
I believe it would be an error to paint a crosswalk unless we get the traffic light. The crosswalk might give people the idea that it is safer to cross than it actually is. I think the idea of getting the light which would be a constant green for drivers except when the button to cross is pushed is an excellent idea and I truly hope that DOT will give this to us. It may not require the same Federal traffic warrants that the other lights would.
I assure you that I will keep trying.
As to speed humps, I believe that they would be truly dangerous on a street like Gerritsen. They are for people who do not obey the traffic laws by design….so for good honest careful drivers, they just become another device to destroy your car chassis. For the speeders, they become a launching pad….endangering everyone on either side of them and on the sidewalk. For emergency vehicles, they become an impediment to proper response.
As always, I will request what the community asks for, but I think these points should be considered.
thanks.
Lew from Brooklyn
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@Lew from Brooklyn, Are there any other alternatives other than a solid green that stand a shot with DOT?
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All-way Stop Signs and Crosswalks at Seba ave (Skate Park), Cyrus ave (Little League), Everett ave (Softball Fields), Devon ave (Soccer Fields), and Channel ave (Shools Back Entrance) will slow down the cars and allow safe passage to the parkland and school. Cheap and effective.
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@Jim Donovan, Of course there should be some type of crossing device near the library. Whether it be a stop sign or light. It is unbelievable that with all the children playing sports in the fields that there are no cross walks other than at the school. We are lucky that more kids have not been hurt. The DOT should be “counting” when people are playing ball at the fields. Even as an adult, your life is at risk crossing Gerritsen Avenue, whether it be in the morning for a bus or on the weekend crossing to one of the fields. I’m not a child and can’t tell you the number of times, I have almost been mowed down crossing at Gotham in the early morning. Kids have been very lucky.
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VERY LUCKY KIDS you say? NO, very lucky community! It is pathetic when we can’t get safety issues for our children addressed properly. There is absolutely no control over DOT by any elected official. When one of our children gets hurt…it hurts all of us because we are such a close knit community. Isn’t there any elected official out there that has any clout with DOT to get a safety issue taken care of? What is it going to take? I will blame them all when the next person gets seriously hurt on Gerritsen Avenue.
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We requested, and Lew Fidler forwarded our request for a “No U-Turn” in front of the library. It’s being studied. One can only ask, what is there to study? Stand in front of the library for 10 minutes and the request is reasonable and may save some lives. If you see a van, filled with children carrying the books they just borrowed from the library, whip a U-Turn, you can’t help but wonder, how long will it be….
On speaking with Diane Sullivan on Sunday, I realized I left out the crossing light to go with the cross walk. No doubt, a necessary element for safety. Visiting a daughter in Olympia, WA, I saw crosswalks with poles topped by a STOP sign that pedestrians removed from a stand to cross a busy street. On reaching the other side, the sign was left for the next user. Would that work here? Doubtful. What is needed is enforcement against speeding.
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@George Broadhead, Enforcement of speeding could be one way to go, but I don’t think we will get it, and if we do, it might not be exactly what you might think it would be. I doubt that the enforcement agency will put one or two cars in Gerritsen just to watch for speeders. Traffic lights would be too much time and money for the city to shell out in times like these. To install traffic signals they would have to hire a multitude of contractors and design engineers to perform the work and that could take a very long time.
I believe that our only real choice would be the stop signs and crosswalks as mentioned above including the library area, which also leads to the senior field. Only two contractors and one design engineer could complete the work for stop signs and crosswalks within a month or so.
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@Jim Donovan, Hate to say it, but there should be stop signs every two blocks with cross walks. They do this in other neighborhoods all over the city (all way stops), why not here? I’m not saying that this will cure the problem but it should help. Anyone that has to commute, including children once they are out of 277, has to cross Gerritsen Avenue to catch a bus and it is dangerous. If a light is out of the question, then we need to look at reasonable alternatives. As a parent, when ever one of my children leave the house and I hear a siren, my heart stops. A couple years ago, I was coming home from work. It was about 5pm on a week night and I witnessed a young girl about 14 hit by a car. It was a hit and run. Thankfully the girl was okay, but she was hit crossing from the fields. People in the neighborhood chased the driver, but as far as I know he was never caught. We teach our children to look both ways, but face it, they are kids and it’s our responsibility to make the neighborhood as safe as possible.
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I have a simple way to get all the traffic lights, crosswalks, stop signs and more police presence in the neighborhood–just build a Yeshiva across from the skate park and turn the library into a Synagogue. It’s a sad and some would say biased remark, but you all know it’s true. Just take a look at other neighborhoods that are close by. Gerritsen Ave. only has street lights on one side of the street for crying out loud. I guess we don’t have the political connections(money and power) other Brooklyn neighborhoods do.
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there needs to be some bike lanes on gerritsen ave, it will get bikers off the sidewalks.
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