Copyright Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Department of Transportation recently presented plans for a total redesign of a critical road on Staten Island’s East Shore. After redesigning a nearby stretch of Seaview Avenue, the DOT is now turning its attention to Mason Avenue, between Seaview Avenue and Delaware Avenue, in Midland Beach. The design would adjust the layout of Mason, which currently features three lanes heading toward Seaview Avenue and one lane heading toward Delaware Avenue. The new plan would leave one travel lane in each direction on Mason Avenue. On both sides of the road, small buffer zones would separate parking lanes from new protected bike lanes that border the curb, similar to the new layout of Seaview Avenue. The remaining travel lanes would be repainted to a narrower “standard width,” according to the agency. A new crosswalk would also be installed at Alter Avenue as part of the project. This location would be near the area where the highest number of pedestrians are crossing to get to the hospital, according to the DOT. The plan would also add pedestrian islands on Mason Avenue, near Seaview Avenue and Alter Avenue, to shorten the distance pedestrians have to cover when crossing the road. The DOT said the design aims to fix an “unnecessarily wide street” that lacks pedestrian crossings -- aside from the one at Seaview Avenue. To support these views, a DOT presentation on the plan pointed to the fact that Mason Avenue sees a peak of 415 vehicles each hour. This stretch of Mason, according to the DOT, is 20 feet wider than a nearby section of Hylan Boulevard that sees a peak of 1,731 vehicles an hour and has a similar number of travel lanes. The agency also said the changes would add four overall parking spots to the area, mainly by removing four current electric vehicle-only spaces and making them general use. To accommodate the S52 bus, which has looped around on Mason Avenue since December, the agency has re-established a bus turnaround at the end of the road, near Delaware Avenue. Community opposition DOT officials recently spoke about the project at a Community Board 2 meeting in Travis, but were met with opposition to the plan. While board members said they are in favor of making changes to increase pedestrian safety, they objected to the inclusion of bike lanes and the removal of a travel lane as part of the redesign plan. Joseph Torres, chair of the Community Board 2 Transportation Committee, asked if the redesign should defer to a smaller number of cyclists on Mason Avenue at the expense of a greater number of cars. “So that utilitarian argument is, you know, you’re yielding to possibly 10,000 individuals in favor of 77 [cyclists] who would be using that corridor recreationally,” Torres said. “I realize that part of the design is to improve pedestrian safety, but it raises the question whether or not eliminating a lane of traffic is the appropriate course of action,” he continued. During the meeting, Community Board 2 voted against the redesign project. Board members also voted to adopt a policy to automatically oppose future projects that “involve removing vehicular lanes for bicycle or other non-vehicular use.” When given the opportunity to speak about the Mason Avenue redesign, DOT officials said the ultimate goal of the new design is to increase pedestrian safety. The agency said it wants to add a new crosswalk on Mason Avenue, and, as part of that, the distance for pedestrians to cross must be shortened by removing travel lanes. According to agency representatives at the meeting, the bike lanes are part of the design to take advantage of surplus space after the road is narrowed. “The bike lanes are really just byproducts of space that’s left over from the treatments that we use,” William Deautriell, chief of staff for the DOT’s Staten Island borough commissioner, said at the meeting. “So everyone thinks ‘oh, we’re getting rid of a whole travel lane,’ but really what we’re doing is narrowing the roadway. When you narrow the roadway, cars tend to just drive slower and be more safe,” Deautriell continued. “When you’re driving down a more narrow street, you’re just more safe.” As Community Boards only have an advisory role on certain local issues — like matters of land use, liquor licenses, and traffic and transportation matters — the project could still proceed. Changes on Seaview Avenue The Mason Avenue plan was originally part of the Seaview Avenue redesign, but was spun off as a separate project in 2024. Announced in June 2024, the redesign of Seaview Avenue reduced the roadway to only one travel lane in each direction. Previously, each side of Seaview had two, 11-foot wide travel lanes, a 9-foot wide lane for parking, and a 5-foot bike lane in between. The road now features one 12-foot travel lane, a 10-foot-wide parking lane, a new 5-foot buffer zone, and a protected bike lane bordering the curb. The plan also brought a new traffic signal and crosswalk to the intersection of Seaview and Nugent Avenue, near the main entrance of Staten Island University Hospital.
