114 Precinct To Hold Traffic Forum As Street Safety Concerns Rise

ASTORIA-LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — The 114 Precinct, which covers parts of Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside, and Jackson Heights, is hosting a community traffic forum on Wednesday night, amid growing traffic safety concerns from local residents.

The Zoom forum, which will kick off at 6:00 p.m., is being hosted by several police officials from the precinct, including Sgt. Sansai Hongthong, who oversees the area’s traffic safety office.

Local residents have continued to raise concerns about traffic safety this year, especially after a series of high-profile pedestrian and biker deaths in the area, and growing complaints about ATVs, dirt bikes, and street drag racing.

Although the 114 Precinct did not immediately respond to Patch’s inquiry to provide more details about the length and format of this event, many locals have already taken to social media to share what they hope will be discussed at the forum.

For some, pedestrian and bike safety is top of mind, since the forum is being advertised in partnership with Vision Zero — the street safety project that Mayor Bill de Blasio adopted for NYC in 2014.

Notably, 2021 was deemed the second-deadliest traffic year under the mayor’s administration — a statistic that’s played out in Astoria, too.

At the beginning of June a woman named Kelly Killian was fatally hit by an e-bike rider while crossing the street, and at the end of April a father-of-two named Xing Long Lin was in the bike lane during a delivery shift when an SUV driver hit and killed him.

The police have not identified the person who killed the pedestrian or biker, even though in the case of Lin one report named Maro Yerolemou as the driver, and a letter suggests that she’s hired a private investigator for the case.

One local said on Twitter that the forum sounds like a “perfect time” to inquire about Lin’s death, as well as other pedestrian and bike-focused concerns, like police blocking sidewalks and bike lanes, which Streetsblog reported is worse in the 114 Precinct than any other precinct in the city.

Others hope to discuss the use of ATVs and dirt bikes in the area, as well as drag racing — all of which Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is “really concerned” about, after many locals spoke to NY1 and CBSNY about their experiences with the vehicles.

On the official 114 Precinct Twitter post advertising the traffic safety forum, one resident asked if drag racing would be addressed at the event. “Residents are in danger of getting killed walking out of their own house,” they said, adding that many hear “noise in the middle of the night.”

Similarly, a post about the event in a community Facebook page attracted more than 70 comments, many of whom were people sharing their experiences with ATVs and drag racing.

One said they’ve become accustomed to dirt bike riders driving down local avenues at “all hours. The noise is off the hook,” they added.

Many others lamented that drag racing, which increased amid the pandemic while streets were relatively empty, has persisted in the area for many years.

More information about how to join the forum on Wednesday night can be found here.