The NYC DOT appears uninterested in developing long-term plans to redesign Queens Boulevard to be safer and more people-friendly. City transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall told Newsday last week that "We didn't need to throw the whole thing out and build a new road." She said lower speed limits, more pedestrian crossing time, additional parking in service roads and a strong police presence have reduced car-pedestrian crashes on the boulevard by 21% during the first half of 2001. 

But the city has undertaken a much more comprehensive overhaul process for the Bronx' Grand Concourse, which suffers from many of the same ills as Queens Boulevard. The Concourse project will address not only safety issues, but also the quality of life problems that the street's transformation into an urban highway over the past few decades poses for the communities that flank it.

It's also not clear that the crash reductions along Queens Boulevard will be sustained, or are enough to satisfy Queens communities. "Everything about Queens Boulevard encourages speed," University of California planning expert Allan Jacobs told Newsday. Jacobs says the boulevard still has no worthwhile "pedestrian realm," and recommends wider medians, many more pedestrian amenities and narrower service roads.

Transportation Alternatives' John Kaehny said the city should be working now to get a boulevard reconstruction project into the funding pipeline. "It would be very sad if Queens Boulevard was the same five years from now as it is today," he said to Newsday.

Mayoral candidates agreed. City Council Speaker Peter Vallone told the newspaper that Queens Boulevard should be submitted as a candidate for Federal funds. Republican Michael Bloomberg said that,"Clearly, the long-term solution is to redesign the boulevard." NYC Public Advocate Mark Green has maintained since March that the City should pursue a Queens Boulevard make-over (MTR #307). 

Queens Boulevard: Avenue or Highway? - August 7, 2000

Safety Advances on Queens Boulevard - March 19, 2001

NYC's Deadliest Avenues - March 12, 2001

Weinshall is New NYC Transport Chief - September 11, 2000

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