A May 10 rally outside P.S/I.S. 89 highlighted growing community concerns about traffic safety in the wake of two recent incidents in which children were struck by cars on West Street. The rally featured local school kids pointing radar guns at passing traffic, which registered speeds of up to 49 miles per hour in a 35 mile-perhour zone. "Drivers think this is the West Side Highway," noted Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth and chair of Community Board 1's West Street Task Force, "but it's not supposed to be a highway -- it's name is West Street." One of the children clocking speeders was Battery Park City resident Kayla Green, 15, who was recently hit by an SUV turning left from Chambers onto southbound West Street. Ms. Green escaped significant injury, but a young boy (whose name has not been released) was seriously hurt in a separate incident while crossing West Street on his way to a Little League game. Brooke Dubose, a spokesperson for Transportation Alternatives (which helped stage the rally) noted that "communities all over New York get speed limits cut to 15 miles per hour and have special ‘school zones' created based on the presence of a single school." She added that the intersection of West and Chambers streets is the location of four schools (P.S. 89, I.S. 89, Stuyvesant High School, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College), while several others are just a few blocks away. "We need a reduced speed limit here," she said, "as well as other aids, like a flashing amber light that is turned on while school is open, and high-visibility signs painted on the road alerting drivers that they are entering a school zone." Ms. Dubose added that the students who took part in the rally had another request: Adjusting the traffic lights to allow more time to cross the many lanes of West Street. Battery Park City residents have also voiced concerns about a recent decision by the City's Department of Transportation (DOT) to remove stop signs from three locations on River Terrace and North End Avenue. Two of these are at mid-block crossings that connect the ballfields to Tear Drop Park (across North End Avenue) and Tear Drop to Rockefeller Park (across River Terrace). The third is at the corner of Murray Street and River Terrace. A source within the DOT who asked not to be identified contended that the agency decided to remove the signs based on federal government formulas that were applied to data compiled by the Battery Park City Authority's traffic consultant. But Authority spokesperson Leticia Remauro, discussing the issue at a May 1 meeting of CB1's Battery Park City Committee said that "our traffic plan calls for stop signs there." She added that a competing plan by DOT deemed these signs "illegal." Committee chair Linda Belfer said, "We need to get whatever kind of variance or ruling is necessary to recognize the fact that many children are using these crossings."