POLL: Should Prospect Heights Become a "Slow Zone"?
Designation could cut down on accidents and through traffic using speed bumps and 20 mph speed zones, but it would also mean the loss of some parking spots.
In the two days it's been live, more than 250 people have signed an online petition to turn Prospect Heights into a “Neighborhood Slow Zone.”
The designation would be granted by the Department of Transportation.
The Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council is spearheading the effort, saying that drivers are speeding down the side streets, which they're using instead of Flatbush and Atlantic in order to avoid Atlantic Yards construction.
The intersection of Prospect Place and Underhill right at the playground is particularly dangerous, with at least three accidents there in the past three years.
The slow zone would mean a reduction in the speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph and speed bumps every few blocks on every street except Flatbush, Atlantic, Vanderbilt, Washington and Sixth avenues. (The cross streets of Carlton and Underhill would be included in the zone).
But there is a downside: there would also bea loss of several dozen parking spaces where signs and striping would alert drivers to the zone.
CH Deniz
8:32 pm on Monday, March 5, 2012
I think this is a really good idea. I cringe every time I walk by the corners of Classon/ Sterling and Classon/ St. John's because of the obvious evidence of cars jumping the sidewalks and slamming into things: the traffic light post that was knocked down and laid on the corner for months; the iron fence with a huge dent in it around St. Teresa's de Avila church, the strange little red post with the pretty graphic bent and warped from being crashed into. All I think is what if people had been standing on those corners when those vehicles jumped the curb? People who treat Classon Avenue like a speedway and wield there car like it's some god-given right to be reckless should remember that they could be only a second away from killing themselves (which matters less to me, frankly, if they drive so recklessly) but more importantly committing manslaughter. I mean, come on, this is a residential area in the middle of a huge city with kids playing on the sidewalk, parents and strollers, bikers, skateboarders, people just walking around. Classon is NOT Atlantic Avenue but people go hurtling down the street like it is, thinking that they're in total control of a few tons of steel. But, corner after corner of Classon Avenue tells a different story, the story of a lot of overconfident drivers making lots of reckless and PREVENTABLE mistakes. Have some respect for human life and SLOW THE EFF DOWN.