The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has responded to concerned citizens and the Scajaquada Corridor Coalition (SCC), who recently held a public press conference asking for public transparency regarding plans for the downgrading of the expressway.
On Wednesday, September 16 (5pm-8:30pm) the DOT will host a public information meeting at Frederick Law Olmsted Public School 64, located at 874 Amherst Street at Lincoln Parkway. At the meeting, citizens can expect a formal presentation, a panel discussion (7pm), a public comment session, and will provide answers to questions.
At a public meeting in April of 2014, the DOT was asked to consider two additional alternatives to its findings, one which would see the expressway downgraded to a one lane-boulevard in either direction (30mph), and another that would see the removal of the expressway altogether between Elmwood and Parkside. The DOT has researched both alternatives and will present its findings at the meeting. Hopefully, the DOT will come back with plans that reflect the community’s urgings to see some radical downgrading changes, and will not use the excuse that the 2014 options are too radical, thus were scrapped and not thoughtfully modified.
The DOT is moving forward in the process to reclassify the Scajaquada Expressway Corridor, which will help to ensure that many of the traffic calming measures that the public is asking for are enacted.
In a recent email, the DOT included the following short term measures, which have been implemented to assuage the community’s cry for immediate results in traffic calming measures.
- Guide rail was installed in June to separate vehicle and pedestrian traffic. A permanent guide rail system is being designed that will be more in keeping with the aesthetics of the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Delaware Park.
- To calm traffic, the roadway was restriped in August to create narrower lanes, hatched striping on wide areas of the shoulders was added to provide additional visual cues to motorists, and “stop” signs were installed to replace “merge” signs at ramps.
- Temporary, flashing speed notification signs were installed in June. Permanent “Reduced Speed Ahead” signs with flashing beacons will be installed this fall to provide advanced warning of the lowered speed limit.
- New signal controlled pedestrian crossings with raised, high visibility crosswalks will be installed this fall. New pathways also will be constructed connecting these signalized crossings to existing pedestrian and bicycle paths inside of Delaware Park.
Photo: Scajaquada Corridor Coalition press conference