Reclaiming the Streets
T.A. Calls on DOT to Make Atlantic Ave. Medians Safe

DOT Tells NY Times "It is shameful and disingenuous for T.A. to try to seek publicity from this tragedy."

On February 6, the day after seventeen-year old Nery Mejia, and Yaritza Santos and her 11-month-old son, Manuel Villot were killed by a heroin-addled motorist on Atlantic Avenue, T.A. wrote to DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall imploring her to prevent future tragedies by placing posts and other car-stopping barriers on Atlantic Avenue and other dangerous median strips.

"No one could have stopped the heroin-addled motorist from careening down the street at 60 mph-but if that median strip had had bollards or a concrete wall installed on it at the nearby intersection, the young women and their babies would have been unharmed. On Queens Boulevard you showed that you will act decisively to save pedestrian lives. Transportation Alternatives urges you to move with the same forcefulness to make the median strips and pedestrian waiting areas on major New York City streets, including Atlantic Avenue, safe for pedestrians.

To this end, Transportation Alternatives urges you to take three actions:

• Protect pedestrians waiting on existing medians on major streets by installing inexpensive, heavy duty, protective bollards, concrete walls, planters or any other effective, quick and inexpensive car-stopping devices.
• Enlarge pedestrian waiting areas or "refuges" at intersections to a minimum of six feet, as recommended by the federal Americans with Disabilities Commission.
• Make sure that the medians on busy streets have planters or high curbs to stop motorists from mounting the curb and driving along the median. Good examples of this are Route 9A/West Side Highway, Park Avenue and Broadway […]

"It would be a huge mistake to view what happened on Atlantic Avenue and Milford Street as a random, not-to-be-repeated event. It is well known that motorists mount medians everyday in New York City-median strips are marked by tire tracks and broken headlight glass. This is why the pedestrian refuges on streets like Broadway and Route 9A are protected by stout concrete walls and large steel bollards. Unfortunately, they are the exception.

You are rightly proud of what you accomplished on Queens Boulevard. Because of your leadership and personal involvement, at least ten people are alive and well and many more are safe and sound. I urge you to move with the same urgency and determination to make pedestrian medians safe."

T.A. followed this letter with an Internet "Action Alert" that asked our members to urge the DOT to take action. They did. T.A. members sent 400 faxes to Commissioner Weinshall. T.A. also issued a press release to publicize the fact that these deaths could have been prevented if the pedestrian waiting area on the Atlantic Avenue median strip had been protected by the same kinds of walls, bollards (steel posts) and planters that Park Avenue South and Upper Broadway (both in Manhattan) already have. The DOT's response to T.A.'s urgent call for protected medians was printed in the February 16th New York Times:

"Our roads are not designed for heroin users,'' Mr. Cocola said in an e-mail response to questions. "It is shameful and disingenuous for Transportation Alternatives to try to seek publicity from this tragedy."

Unfortunately, the "DOT's" roads, and "its" medians, have to be designed with heroin users, drunks, speeders and reckless drivers in mind. Motorists jump the curb in New York City all the time and frequently strike pedestrians on the sidewalk.

According to an authoritative Oregon DOT study, streets with medians are 15 times easier to cross. Likewise, the planners and engineers at the Association of Pedestrian Bicycle Professionals say that medians reduce both motor vehicle and pedestrian crashes and make big streets easier to cross for slow pedestrians, like seniors, children and the infirm. On Queens Boulevard, Park Avenue and Upper Broadway, the NYC Department of Transportation has clearly recognized the vulnerability of pedestrians waiting on median strips. On those streets, the pedestrian waiting areas on the median are "capped" by sturdy walls able to stop an out-of-control motorist.
City streets are filled with miscreant motorists, and if the DOT does nothing, you can bet that motorists will end up "accidentally" driving onto the unprotected Atlantic Avenue median, hitting whoever is unlucky enough to be standing there at the time.

Making Atlantic Avenue Safe Step-By-Step

The DOT needs to take quick action to protect pedestrians waiting on the Atlantic Avenue median. An out of control driver could easily mount the median there at any time. It is alarming that a month has passed and the DOT still shows no signs of doing anything. Below is an illustration of a three-step process of immediate, short and permanent changes that the DOT should make to the median to keep cars off and pedestrians safe. The recommended designs and materials are ones that are already in common use in New York City.

Now. Place Jersey barriers lengthwise on median strip to prevent motorists from driving along it or crossing it. At pedestrian crossings, place large concrete planters to deflect motorists from head on collisions. Time: under a week. Cost: $410,000/mile.

Six months to a year. Replace the jersey barriers with large, attractive planters. Ideally, these would be planted with bushes or small trees as part of the Parks Department's "Green Streets" initiative. Cost: $500,000/mile

One to five years. Rebuild the median with long planters similar to those on the Broadway Mall median in Upper Manhattan. Time: will require a longer planning period; add to list of out-year capital projects. Cost: $1 million/mile.

Anatomy of a Horror: Women, Infant Killed On Median Strip, Not in Street

On February 5, 2003, a heroin addled motorist struck and killed 17 year-old Nery Mejia, 19 year-old Yaritza Santos and her 11-month-old son, Manuel Villot, as they paused on the median strip of Atlantic Avenue to wait for a break in traffic. The heavily-used pedestrian crossing near Milford Street in Cyprus Hills Brooklyn is a legal pedestrian crossing.

• 1. Heroin-addled motorist mounts three-inch curb and crashes through light post and drives on median strip for 60-100 feet.
• 2. Legal pedestrian crossing
• 3. On the median, the motorist kills women and strikes infants in strollers, killing one and critically injuring another.
• 4. Motorist plunges back into street and drives another eight
  blocks before crashing into a truck.

Median's Three-Inch High Curb is Easily Mountable

It will not take a heroin fiend to run down the next pedestrian on the Atlantic Avenue median. Pedestrians on the median are only protected by a three-inch high curb.
The State DOT considers curbs shorter than six-inches high as "mountable" or "traversable;" it recommends them for locations where service vehicles or the
police need to be able to drive on or across medians.

Chapter Three of the New York State Department of Transportation Highway Design Manual.

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