Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
De Blasio said that Queens Boulevard “offers the best and most dramatic proof that our efforts at Vision Zero are working.”
By Forum Staff
Queens Boulevard has seen zero fatalities since 2014, and the City will further extend the redesign of the expansive borough artery beginning in June, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week.
Community Board 6 earlier this month voted 34-3 in favor of the administration’s plan for the third phase of the redesign of the “Boulevard of Death.” The City Department of Transportation is set to add major safety improvements to the thoroughfare – including new protected bike lanes, more crosswalks, and expanded medians – through Rego Park and Forest Hills via a 1.3-mile stretch between Eliot Avenue and Yellowstone Boulevard.
“Queens Boulevard offers the best and most dramatic proof that our efforts at Vision Zero are working,” de Blasio said. “What was once a ‘Boulevard of Death’ is no longer – as pedestrians, cyclists and motorists all have become accustomed to enjoying a more vital, welcoming and safe street. As changes come this year to Forest Hills and Rego Park, we thank Councilmember Karen Koslowitz for her leadership and Community Board 6 for its recognition that a new Queens Boulevard is a win-win for all of the community’s businesses, children and seniors.”
All of DOT’s changes to the boulevard will cost approximately $4 million. Starting next year, the City Department of Design and Construction will begin major capital work – for which the de Blasio administration has committed $255 million – to transform the boulevard, making all three phases permanent, including by widening medians and adding new amenities such as trees, landscaping and benches.
In the first two phases, DOT transformed 2.5 miles of Queens Boulevard through Woodside and Elmhurst. In addition to the absence of fatalities, DOT statistics show that since work began, crashes in the Phase 1 corridor have declined by 14 percent, with pedestrian injuries down by 49 percent and cyclist injuries down by 42 percent, yet cycling participation increased by 120 percent.
“This is a momentous day, for Queens and for all of New York City. Local residents have spent decades calling on officials to fix what has long been known as the ‘Boulevard of Death,’ and now even more Queens residents will benefit from the newly re-designed ‘Boulevard of Life,’” said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “We thank Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner Trottenberg and the City Council for continuing to make life-saving improvements on Queens Boulevard a priority. The redesign of Queens Boulevard can serve as a model for how we improve our most dangerous corridors across the five boroughs in order to make Vision Zero a reality.”
The administration noted that the boulevard, which had 22 traffic fatalities as recently as 1997, has not had a single traffic fatality in two and a half years, the same time DOT began the street’s conversion into a Vision Zero Priority Corridor.
“The transformation of Queens Boulevard is among the greatest achievements of the Vision Zero era,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “In just a few years, what was once a forbidding highway-like street bisecting communities has started to become a grand and welcoming boulevard worthy of Queens. But we have much more to do – and so we gratefully acknowledge Councilmember Koslowitz and Community Board 6 for embracing the next phase of these exciting changes.”
