Windsor Terrace Parents Continue Efforts to Calm Traffic Around P.S. 154

WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN —The PTA of P.S. 154 will hold a traffic safety meeting Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in their efforts to calm cars and trucks travelling around the school.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 30. P.S. 154 is located at 1625 11th Ave.

The meeting will include an open discussion where parents can share ideas and ask questions. The school's After School employees will babysit kids throughout the meeting and provide them with pizza for $5.

In the past few months, Windsor Terrace parents and the school's administrators have drawn increasing attention to speeding on 11th Avenue in front of the school.

The street is a long, wide road that runs one-way, straight off the Prospect Expressway. It connects the expressway to Prospect Park and Park Slope via Prospect Park SW, so it's a fast and easy way for vehicles to get to Park Slope, P.S. 154 parent Anne Lainer told Patch.

"The lights are also set to time together which allows big trucks, even 18 wheelers, to come down the hill, charging straight to the park, gaining speed all the way," Lanier said. "There is no way a truck could stop in time if a child ran out into the street."

Lanier said for years, Principal Eric Havlik has filed complaints and asked for traffic surveys from the city's Department of Transportation (DOT).

In recent months, parents and the school's administration have been "desperately trying" to get immediate attention paid to the situation, Lainer said.

To that end, they've held meetings with school crossing guards, DOT representatives, the NYPD, the community board, Council Member Brad Lander's office and Assemblymember Jim Brennan's office.

Parents also started a traffic calming petition, which has been signed by 515 people in person and online.

Lainer first requested a report/survey for speedhumps in May, yet the DOT told her they couldn't provide her with the information. Lander's office also tried to get copies of the reports in both May and Sept., and their requests were denied. Lainer finally filed a freedom of information act request in Sept. The DOT told her it will take 90 days to fill.

In late Oct., the DOT sent a special vehicle to test speed and video problems at the school. Parents were told the city clocked over 30 cars speeding and several cars running the red light at Sherman Street, Lainer said. Parents and administration are still waiting for a copy of this report.

At a Nov. 4 PTA meeting, Principal Havlik requested the following actions on behalf of the parents and the school community:

• Add a stop sign on 11th Avenue at Sherman
• Stop light timing on the 11th Ave corridor
• Designate 11th Ave as a school zone, which will reduce the speed limit to 20 MPH
• Add signage once the school zone is established
• Add a speed hump on 11th Ave. between Prospect and Sherman
• Narrow 11th Ave. by adding parking line indicators and a bike lane, and establish angled parking on one side of the street

The DOT is currently studying those requests:

"DOT is currently investigating the feasibility of a stop sign at 11th Avenue and Sherman Street, as well as re-evaluating signal timing along the 11th Avenue corridor in proximity to the school, and louvering the light at Windsor Terrace and 11th Avenue," a DOT Spokesperson told Patch. "We anticipate these investigations to conclude by mid-winter. Establishing 11th Avenue as a school slow zone is also under consideration."

Parents were ecstatic when it seemed like progress was picking up after Lainer spoke to a DOT representative on the phone who told her the possibility of adding a speedhump was "looking very good."

But a few days later at the Nov. 14 meeting, parents were told the speed hump was denied in the final hour because the street is allegedly too short.

That pace of change is far too slow for Lanier.

"Our school community is exhausted and deeply saddened to learn from other local activists that it will take a tragedy to force action," she said. "That does not sound like VISION ZERO to us."

Traffic safety remains a major issue in the neighborhood. Earlier this month, residents complained about speeding problems related to nearby Seeley Street. The DOT had offered a plan to turn Seeley into a one-way street as a way to combat its narrowness, but residents turned down the proposal at the Community Board 7 committee meeting Nov. 15. Many residents believed that drivers would be encouraged to speed if two-way traffic was eliminated, and asked for the problem to be studied more closely.

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