A concentrated effort by local residents and city Council Members to stop drag races along Maurice Avenue in Maspeth paid off this week as the city Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled new speed humps on the street.
Last November, Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) held a press conference at the corner of Maurice and Tyler avenues. They noted that numerous residents have complained about drag races and demanded the DOT take action to make the streets safe.
“Residents have been living in fear for far too long. For decades there have been dangerous drag races at all hours of the night,” Van Bramer said. “It was a tragedy waiting to happen.”
On Tuesday, Van Bramer declared victory against the drag racers.
“A checkered flag has been raised on drag racing on Maurice Avenue,” he said.
Joining Van Bramer to unveil the new speed humps was DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. She emphasized that the DOT was doing everything in its power to make city streets safer—the agency has already installed 102 speed humps around the city this fiscal year, and she said the department is poised to surpass 160, which would be a new record.
“Traffic fatalities have reached an all-time low in the last four years but speeding drivers remain a danger to themselves and to all New Yorkers,” Sadik-Khan said in a statement. There were 131 pedestrians killed or serious injured within Community Board 5 last year, Sadik-Khan said, and speed humps will help lower that number.
Crowley, who has been working on traffic concerns throughout her district expressed her thanks for the DOT’s support.
“We’re here today to thank the DOT. We’ve been burdened by traffic-related problems, and in recent months the DOT has been very responsive,” Crowley said. Besides the speed humps on Maurice Avenue, the DOT changed Grand and Flushing avenues from through truck routes to local truck routes to mitigate truck traffic in Maspeth, and the DOT is working on finalizing the Maspeth Bypass Plan, which would route trucks away from residential streets, Crowley noted.
Also at Tuesday’s press conference was Council Member Jimmy Vacca (D-Bronx), the chair of the Transportation Committee. He said the DOT designs’ where speed humps and yellow lane markers that restrict the road to one lane has helped in areas in his district where speeding was a problem.
“My committee has made a priority of addressing speedways and sending a message to drivers in all five boroughs that everyone needs to take a deep breath and slow down. Whether it’s a stop sign or a speed hump or a complete road redesign, we need to use every tool in the toolkit to make our streets safe for pedestrians and motorists,” Vacca said in a statement.
Community activists who gathered for the press conference received a firsthand look at how the speed humps will improve the area. Just before the conference started, a Ford Mustang turned onto Maurice Avenue. As the engine roared and the car started gaining speed, the driver reached the new speed hump, put on the brakes and slowed down.
