THE ASSEMBLY Sepury apeaKen STATE OF NEW YORK warrees ALBANY veterans Aas June 17, 2019 Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner ‘New York City Department of Transportation 55 Water Street ‘New York, NY 10041 Dear Commissioner Trottenberg, Thave received a great deal of feedback from the community in response to the Department of Transportation’s proposal regarding the changes to Fresh Pond Road as part of its Better Buses Action Plan. There are differing opinions as to the best strategy for solving the congestion issues in the corridor; the community is not in full agreement as to which measures should be taken to improve the traffic flow on Fresh Pond Road. One of the most prevalent suggestions voiced by community members has been for the Department to study and subsequently redesign the signal timing on Fresh Pond Road, particularly for southbound traffic. There has also been support for the consolidation of the bus. stops, and the implementation of strategies which will allow buses to tum more easily into and out of the depot, such as jump queue signaling. A bus lane alone does not address the issues bus ‘operators continue to face when attempting to enter and exit the depot, due to the large tuming radii of the buses. Ithas also been suggested that we may be able to ease some congestion by reexaminiing the directions of traffic flow on surrounding streets, for example on 64th street, which currently flows south. Currently, motorists attempt to tum left off of Fresh Pond Road onto Traffic Avenue, drive south for a few blocks on 64th Street, and then re-enter the corridor at Woodbine Street, creating a bottleneck of drivers attempting make a second left turn on to Fresh Pond Road. There are many left tums which are encouraged by the direction of traffic on the spurs, and this creates the predictable issue of too few vehicles being able to proceed through the green light during each cycle. A bus lane will not mitigate this cause of congestion, but may actually serve to increase it, as vehicles will no longer have room to pass a left-turning car waiting in the intersection, without illegally entering the bus lane to their right. 4, DISTRICT OFFICE — 47-40 21+ Sree, Rog 810, Long sand Cy. New York 11101 UW ALBANY OFFICE — som 758, Lagitatve Onc Guldng, Alby New ors 12008 met nolan assert go ae srase-sber‘The proposal of creating a bus lane has been met with many objections, among them, the times that the bus lane would be enforced. This has been the subject of scrutiny because of its proposed duration — from 2 to 8 pm. Before 3 PM only a single bus line, the Q58, is operating on Fresh Pond Road, and after 7 PM the buses have already - as indicated in the Department's report - retumed to their noontime speeds. Totaling six hours a day, the bus lane times which have been ‘proposed do not seem to correlate with the times of greatest demand for faster bus service, and represent a significant portion of the average Fresh Pond Road business's operating hours, as well. Finally, if in the area being discussed, the median stay at a 2 hour parking meter is 18 minutes, then the reduction of the maximum duration for the meters from two hours down to one hour should not effect a greater turnover for those parking spots. It may, however, put economic pressure on our service-industry storefronts and restaurants, which rely on patrons’ routinely staying for more than one hour at a time. The possible economic impact of a bus lane on, of changes to parking rules for, Fresh Pond Road is of great concer for the local community, who do not want to trade better traffic movement on the Road only to see empty storefronts there as a result. I will to continue to monitor these proposals, and am happy to work with DOT to ensure that the greatest possible number of community members is heard from during this period of public engagement. I look forward to hearing from your office with an update on this project. Sincerely, Catherine Nolan ¢: Nicole Garcia, Queens Borough Commissioner, Department of Transportation; Gary Giordano, District Manager, Queens Community Board 5; Geoffrey Elkind, President, Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association