LOHO 10002

Jump to: Home | Events Calendar | Archive | Local News | Images | Web Alerts | Entertainment | Links | Discussion | Contact
Produced by a bunch of smart, opinionated, dishy, nosy, funny New Yorkers
who love to run around Lower Manhattan eating, going to movies and plays, listening to music, taking pictures, and sharing all the dish




This Divider Will Cost Lives

by Yori Yanover

This is going to be a major I-told-you-so: As you know, this month the all-knowing sages of the City Dept. of Transportation solved all our traffic problems down here by pouring a concrete island at the intersection of Grand Street and the FDR Drive. We had told them it would be the wrong thing to do, as cars turning into the street from the highway chart a wide arc which would, inevitably, lead one of them, late on a rainy night and at highway speed, smack into the stupid thing. Last week I took a few shots of cars making the turn from the FDR, realizing at the last minute they were going to hit the divider and veering back into the lane. But you don’t have to be a prophet to realize one of them will not be so lucky.

Labels:

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the fact that cones have been put up indicates to LES residents that this was a dangerous idea. The other day I saw a truck turning from the service lane having a rough time with the turn. This is supposed to help traffic? It's making things take longer, and it's making things more dangerous. My suggestion is that if you hit this thing SUE THE CITY. If you get into an accident with someone because of it, SUE THE CITY. That's the only language that these lowlifes understand.

We must do something, my suggestion is a few thousand letters to:

Iris Weinshall
Department of Transportation
40 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013

If you give a damn about the lives of your neighbors and yourself, write letters.

12/21/2006 1:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the concrete island is a good idea. Drivers need to be more careful. If they hit the divider it is their own fault. As a driver it is your responsibility to be aware of the road.If you are making a right turn from the left lane at the exit you are in violation. If you make the turn too fast it is your fault. You should not be at highway speed when exiting onto the Street, again your fault.The cones do not mean it was a bad idea it is justalerting drivers. It is helping pedestrain traffic by slowing things down and hopefully making it safer to cross the street. The person that suggusts that if you get into an accident that you sue the city is wrong. Sue the person that caused the accident by not being observent to the road and other traffic. At least they are tring something to make the traffic slow down.

12/23/2006 7:17 PM  
Blogger תיקון ישראל said...

The divider separating the FDR Drive and the service road is too long, forcing cars to chart an arc that leads them into the divider. This has nothing to do with drivers' fault, it has to do with bad design.

I've submitted to the CB3 Transportation committee satellite images of this intersection which clearly show tire marks leading from the highway into the median. The DOT is far too arrogant to pay attention. At this point I believe it's time to exhibit some good old fashioned LES anger.

12/23/2006 7:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is a totally different issue. The exit is poorly designed but the concrete island on Grand St is something else. The end of the concrete island on the service road just needs to be shortened and traffic rules need to be enforced.

12/24/2006 9:57 AM  
Blogger תיקון ישראל said...

True enough, and until that happens I suppose we'd start counting the casualties?

What strikes me as most infuriating about the DOT attitude regarding the divider and the new bike lanes is their stated refusal to allow for cases in which the majority of people are behaving illegally. They said as much at the CB3 meeting. They operate and create structure in an ideal world in which the laws are obeyed by everyone -- and when people start paying with life and limb for this stupidity, the DOT cannot be blamed.

They're the worst kind of idiots -- they're idiots with degrees who view the rest of us like peasants.

12/24/2006 10:03 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home