Hi Neighbor,
I was intrigued the other day when I heard a voice accompanying a snippet of video on SILive.com.
“They can’t come up with a plan for any issue on Staten Island that doesn’t involve bike lanes,” said the voice.
“Bike lanes.” Grrrrr. They send me into a tailspin the way “Niagara Falls” does in the old Abbott and Costello skit. (With apologies to the non-Baby Boomers. I know you have no idea what I’m talking about. YouTube it.)
“They” is the Department of Transportation. Surprised? The voice belonged to our mid-Island city councilman, David Carr.
David, along with three state elected representatives – Sen. Andrew Lanza, Assembly Michael Tannousis and Sen. Jessica Scarcella Spanton – were so outraged they staged a press conference on a stretch of Capodanno Boulevard between Midland Avenue and Miller Field, where southbound autos can make a right on Lincoln Avenue, enter Miller Field (when the gate’s open), or jug handle back north toward the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. And they brought two members of the Midland Beach Civic Association along for support.
What has them so twisted is a Department of Transportation initiative to create a bike lane along the short stretch, reducing the roadway from two lanes to one.
As any occasional reader of these weekly missives might recall, this is my childhood stomping grounds. I was unaware of the department’s latest plan to sabotage Staten Island drivers and had to see it for myself.
Sure enough, the Department of Transportation painting crew had a cluster of white lines all over the roadway. Straight lines. Horizontal lines. Curved lines fashioned into arrows. Lines on an angle. Solid lines. Broken lines.
Some lines even form the word “ONLY,” ordering us to keep moving, or turn left. Our choice.
I’m no rule-breaker, so followed the lines and arrows as ordered, opting to keep moving toward the bridge.
Move on I did, into the middle lane at Midland Avenue, with a bus lane to my right, until I reached a red traffic signal at Hunter Avenue and Capodanno.
As I sat there for five, perhaps ten, seconds, I could hear a vehicle approaching on the left.
A gray SUV, it blew by me and through the steady red light, going at least 60 mph. My SUV rocked a bit from the wind gust it created.
I don’t disagree with our city and state representatives. The Department of Transportation experiment on the little-used, short section of Capodanno is ridiculous. And they better not be thinking of extending it to the rest of Capodanno.
But we’d all be better served if we turn our attention, and press conferences, to lunatics like the driver of the gray SUV, who should be charged with attempted murder when they blow through red lights in their 4,000-pound deadly weapons.
There was an old joke about New Jersey drivers: Red lights are only a suggestion. On Staten Island, it’s not a joke.
Take this, traffic camera-haters: If I was in charge, there’d be a cop or red-light camera at every Staten Island traffic signal from Tottenville to St. George.
If it’s the layout of our roadways that rankles us, there are plenty of streets on Staten Island that need more attention than the stretch of road at the end of Capodanno.
Let’s consider Seaview Avenue between Capodanno and Hylan boulevards, just a mile-or-so away. The street serves the South Beach Psychiatric Center and Staten Island University Hospital.
Have you seen it? Have you tried to drive it? The Department of Transportation really went berserk on this mile-long stretch.
There was a time, pre-1980s, when Seaview Avenue was a low-lying two-lane road between Capodanno and Hylan, which was just fine because the land where the hospitals now sit housed bungalows or swamps.
Transportation experts back then realized a lane in each direction was not a good idea with two major hospitals within a half-mile stretch. So they doubled the size of the road.
Those planners still around must be scratching their heads.
Each direction of the 2025 Seaview Avenue now features one travel lane, a parking lane, a five-foot buffer zone, and the Island’s first protected bike lanes bordering the curb.
The parking lane is practically in the middle of the street. One reader told us he witnessed an ambulance with siren blaring heading to SIUH, blocked by someone trying to parallel park in this ridiculous setup
Which brings me to a new traffic initiative called “universal daylighting.”
In a nutshell, some in our city want to ban parking within 20 feet at the corners of every intersection in New York.
And get this – it’s not the Department Transportation. It’s the progressives in the City Council, and they are pushing a bill to prove it.
Most of Staten Island’s elected officials think it’s a dopey idea because it will eliminate 300,000 parking spaces citywide, cost a fortune to put in place, and make it even more dangerous for pedestrians because that gray SUV driver will see an open space to turn and take it as opportunity to speed up around the corner.
I don’t buy it. But I don’t buy universal daylighting either. The keyword being “universal.”
Daylighting at tight corners and busy intersections is a good idea. It works, no matter what critics say. Our neighbors across the river in Hoboken, where parking is banned at corners, haven’t seen a traffic fatality in eight-and-a-half years.
Have you tried to get onto a busy Victory Boulevard – either in a car or on foot — with a massive Caddy Escalade parked at the tip of the intersection? Have you tried to turn into a skinny Laconia Avenue by Staten Island University Hospital with the rear end of a parked car sticking into the intersection, and a car coming in the opposite direction?
Staten Island Council members are split on the plan. North Shore’s Kamilla Hanks is against it. So is David Carr. New South Shore Councilman Frank Morano supports it, while BP Vito Fossella is not fan. But Vito does say daylighting corners on an individual basis can work.
Fact is, it already exists on Staten Island.Take a look at Old Town Road and Hylan Boulevard in Grasmere. There’s a bus stop at the corner on Hylan, which prevents parking, and parking is banned for about 20 feet at the corner of Old Town.
Will we lose parking spots, even under a limited plan? Of course.
Really, though . . . is asking people to look for a parking spot for another few minutes, or walking an extra block, too much to ask?
If saves a life?
Brian