Jackson Heights

In February, we presented our plan to reverse 37^th Road between 74^th and 75^th Streets to Community Board 3 and the board approved the change. The reversal is scheduled for this Thursday, April 5^th, weather permitting. Following the conversion, the street will run one-way westbound.

Reversing the street’s direction involves:

• Creating 14 new on-street metered parking spaces
• Replacing the Class I striped bike lane with a shared bicycle lane
• Relocating the bus layover space one block east

Last night, we presented Community Board 3 with a plan to reverse the direction of 37^th Road between 74^th Street and 75^th Street from one-way eastbound to one-way westbound. The Community Board approved this change. Please click here for a copy of our presentation.

Reversing the street’s direction involves:

• Creating 14 new on-street metered parking spaces
• Replacing the Class I striped bike lane with a shared bicycle lane
• Relocating the bus layover space one block east

This change will address a number of issues that the community and merchants have raised with us. They were concerned about a lack of parking and we will be able to provide parking on both sides of the street.  They were concerned about access to 74^th Street and reversing the direction will improve traffic circulation and access to the shopping district. Finally, a bus layover space is more appropriate on 37^th Road between 75^th Street and 76^th Street because this block does not have any businesses.

As you may have seen, the pedestrian plaza has received temporary street furniture.  The blue tables/seats will allow residents and visitors to use the plaza while a more detailed plan is developed.  Please stay tuned with NYC DOT and your local elected officials regarding planning and development for the next phase of the pedestrian plaza – coming in Spring 2012.

While the majority of improvements have been implemented, the Commercial Delivery plan is still upcoming in November and will primarily affect 37th Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 76th and 82nd Streets.

NYC DOT will soon be posting a detailed monitoring program (including evaluation metrics such as vehicle speed, pedestrian and bicycle volumes, resident and merchant questionnaires) to this Portal website for comment.

Although the formal, large-scale monitoring program will not kick off for a few months, initial monitoring has led to adjustments.  Specifically, the green time at 77th Street approaching 35th Avenue has been lengthened.  In addition, signals have been better coordinated at Broadway/Roosevelt and Broadway/73rd Street to alleviate congestion.  Next up is detailed monitoring of 75th Street and 35th Avenue.

Please do keep providing feedback on how the improvements are doing.  Thank you very much for being our eyes on the street.

Initial monitoring of the changes in Jackson Heights will begin this week.

Based on comments, we will start with 73rd Street/Broadway, 77th Street and 35th Avenue, 75th Street, and the new crosswalks on Roosevelt Avenue.  A comprehensive technical data collection and monitoring program will be undertaken in the next few months.

Painting on the 37th Road and 73rd Street Plazas is planned for this week, as well.  Thank you for your patience as we continue with implementation and begin monitoring.