Speeding Hotspot In Astoria To Get New Safety Improvements Soon

ASTORIA, QUEENS — New street safety measures will soon go up on a corridor near one of the city's speeding hotspots, according to a new report.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) approved four requests for speed bumps on Astoria's 14th Street between Broadway and 30 Avenue, reported the Old Astoria Neighborhood Association (OANA).

The speed bumps are the DOT's most recent attempt to make the Astoria thoroughfare safer following a handful of serious crashes on the street last year, as well as a surge in complaints about drag racing and speeding.

Last July, the city converted the street from a one-way street to a two-way street, in an effort to combat speeding.

"We determined that 14th Street was an excessively wide one-way street, encouraging high speeds that endangered pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists," a DOT spokesperson told Patch in an emailed statement last year.

OANA President Richard Khuzami said that the direction change was a step towards getting a traffic light installed outside a school at the 14th Street and 30th Avenue intersection, but at the time the DOT said they had "no plans" for further changes on the street.

Now, the DOT is planning to install the speed bumps, and is still reviewing requests for all way stops at 14th Street and 30th Road as well as 14th Street and Broadway, according to OANA.

While the neighborhood group appreciates the DOT's speed bump plan, it pointed out that installation could take "quite a while" — as long as a year or more.