Clinton/Hells Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition

HIstory of Traffic related Issues

March 2004 - Traffic presentation to city agencies

We started our current efforts in November 2003 after the DOT decided to erect a pedestrian barrier at the Ramp C entrance of Lincoln tunnel on 9th avenue between 36th and 37th street, over the strongest and repeated community objections. THE DOT never produced the pedestrian accidents statistics to buttress the need for a barricade.

Few months later our suspicions that the barrier was in fact intended to accelerate the flow of cars in the tunnel was confirmed. The Port Authority announced a "test " of new access routes to the Lincoln tunnel, which closed many entrances in pedestrian free areas with the unintended effect to put more traffic pressure and back up on 9th avenue, a main pedestrian thoroughfare.

After 6 months, the Port Authority declared that the new access system had improved the tunnel throughput significantly (over 10%). However, the effect on pedestrians was never studied. Their contention that the flow on 9th avenue had been improved was based on a one-hour, one-day survey, and hotly challenged by the community - To no avail.

In the ensuing two years, 11 intersections on 9th avenue have experienced sharp increases in pedestrian injuries, few of them doubling or tripling of these accidents. At the same time the Ramp C barrier forces pedestrians to walk on the Avenue, directly in the flow of traffic, a disaster in waiting.

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March 2004 - traffic presentation to city agencies