New Austin Street Crosswalks, Parking Rules Posed In DOT Plan

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- After years of brainstorming, transportation officials believe they've come up with a way - or rather, ways - to calm the traffic frenzy that is Austin Street.

Department of Transportation representatives unveiled a five-part plan for the downtown Forest Hills road to Community Board 6's transportation committee on Wednesday. More crosswalks, costlier metered parking for longer stays and additional loading zones were among the changes posed to reduce the congestion.

A DOT study of downtown Forest Hills - namely between Austin Street and Queens Boulevard from Yellowstone Boulevard to Ascan Avenue - found a lack of parking, unsafe pedestrians conditions and trucks unloading packages in the middle of the street were among the area's main traffic culprits.

"There’s a lot going on in this limited space, so we’re trying to figure out what we can do to mitigate it," said Matthew Garcia, a project manager for the DOT's parking and planning division.

Among the proposed ideas was extending the two-hour limit on downtown parking meters. DOT representatives posed allowing drivers to park an hour longer at the meters for an increased fee in hopes it would encourage people to turn over the meters faster and free up more parking spaces, Garcia said.

"We all know how in-demand those parking spaces on Austin Street are, so we want to get people in and out as fast as possible," he said.

In a single day, Garcia said the DOT saw 41 vehicles stay parked along Austin Street for more than six hours.

"These spaces are effectively taken out of your entire neighborhood," he said. "Imagine getting 41 spaces back along Austin Street."

But some board members argued imposing higher costs to park longer could drive people away from downtown or unfairly punish the very businesses along Austin Street they're trying to help.

"My assumption is if somebody’s parking there for that long, they probably work in the store and they're very likely the store owner," said Christopher Collett, a member of the board's transportation committee.

In hopes of helping local businesses who stay open into the night, the DOT also proposed extending parking hours to 10 p.m. on all downtown Forest Hills meters, which currently close at 7 p.m. in some areas.

Along with not having enough parking spaces, Garcia said many Austin Street business owners complained there weren't enough places for pedestrians to safely cross the road.

In response to those complaints, the DOT is looking into adding four new crosswalks along the street at 70th Avenue, 72nd Avenue, 72nd Road and 71st Road, Garcia said. The marked crosswalks would include pedestrian ramps and signage, but no stop signs or traffic lights.

The DOT's study found delivery trucks tend to crowd the area most during mornings, so the 12 loading zones would only be limited to commercial use from 7-11 a.m. on weekdays. After that, the designated loading zones would drop down to eight and then to three between 1 and 3 p.m., Garcia said.

"At certain hours, they'll revert back to customer parking," he said of the proposed loading zones. "We're trying to maintain parking but still provide (delivery drivers) space to do their business."

The last proposed piece to the plan could also make more room for trucks to unload by swapping parking spots along 70th Road. Right now, the road has parallel parking on one side and angled parking on the other, causing trucks to unload in the middle of the street and block traffic, Garcia said.

Switching the angled and parallel parking to opposite sides would make the curbside loading zone a parallel lane, making trucks less likely to stop traffic.

Garcia and his colleagues stressed the plan wasn't set in stone, but simply a set of options for the community board to pick from and fine-tune as they please. David Stein, deputy director of the parking planning group compared it to an a-la-carte menu.

"If there are some elements of the plan that do go through, we're making a commitment to the community board - and the community as a whole, really - to monitor and evaluate and see what's working," Stein said.