Forest Hills Crosswalk Raised By Four Inches To Slow Down Traffic

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Residents in Forest Hills woke up to a new bump on the road last month.

The white-striped crosswalk on Queens Boulevard and 70th Road was raised four inches to try to slow traffic and make pedestrians more visible in the heavily-transited area, according to the Department of Transportation.

"Mobility is a fundamental part of making our city function for everyone, and the raised street is a positive step in that direction," Council Member Lynn Schulman said.

The move is part of the department's mission to make Queens Boulevard a safer roadway. The roadway was granted the moniker "Boulevard of Death" several years ago, leading former mayor Bill de Blasio to establish a redesign of the corridor through the Vision Zero initiative in 2014.

DOT redesigned Queens Boulevard between Roosevelt Avenue and Union Turnpike, adding protected bike lanes and pedestrian paths to slow down vehicles.

The redesign led to a 33.7 percent drop in injuries and a decrease of 42 percent in pedestrian injuries in 2021, DOT said.

Mayor Eric Adams said he wanted to raise hundreds of crosswalks across New York amid a surge in traffic violence during the pandemic. Citywide, traffic crashes killed 112 people in the first half of 2023, 6.7 percent higher than the Vision Zero-era average for the same period, according to Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets.