ROAD WARRIOR:
Peter Vallone (right) revs up Queens Boulevard safety.
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Forget bike lanes and pedestrian plazas: It’s time to accommodate emergency responders navigating Queens’ deadliest road, a lawmaker says.
City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) is calling on the Department of Transportation to create an emergency-services lane along the entire length of Queens Boulevard, once dubbed “Boulevard of Death” for its high rate of pedestrian fatalities.
Vallone — chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee and a potential candidate for Queens borough president next year — wants one lane in each direction of the boulevard marked “Emergency Lane,” so motorists know to get out of the way for flashing lights and sirens.
“In Manhattan they have these lanes and when you hear sirens you know exactly what lane to leave open, but as you sit on Queens Boulevard, where the traffic is just as bad, motorists have no idea what lane to leave empty,” Vallone said.
“I spoke to one ambulance corps who said an emergency lane would cut their response times and I’m not sure why the city thinks emergencies only occur in Manhattan and not in the outer boroughs.”
The councilman sent the DOT a letter last week requesting the lane markings.
“We’d consider a request for this or other street changes in conjunction with FDNY,” said a DOT spokesman.
Vallone said Queens Boulevard — which runs 7.2 miles from Long Island City to Jamaica and is 12 lanes wide for most of its length — suffers from congestion due to out-of-sync red lights installed to combat pedestrian fatalities.
“I think that with all the efforts they’ve made to slow traffic down or stop it entirely, it’s about time they made an effort to speed up our emergency response vehicles in the outer boroughs.”