Official Hears Demand For Safe Crossing

By Carl Glassman
POSTED DECEMBER 1, 2007

Refusing to take no for an answer, Friends of Washington Market Park board members met face to face last month with the city official who turned down their demands for a safer crossing at Duane and Greenwich Streets.

At a meeting of Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee, Charles Komanoff, of the Friends group, stood before Luis Sanchez, the Department of Transportation’s Commissioner for Lower Manhattan, and argued that his agency miscalculated the dangers at the intersection. The crossing is used by many children going to and from local schools and Washington Market Park.

Komanoff, the author of a 1999 study of pedestrian traffic deaths in the city, said the DOT’s review of the intersection assumed an unrealistic pace for people—many of whom are children and seniors—crossing Greenwich Street at that intersection. He also said that he believes the study did not consider the dangers posed by cars that turn left on Duane Street and do not pass through the crosswalk at the south corner.

“You can see how that would change the equation very considerably,” Komanoff said.

“All I can tell you,” Sanchez replied, “is that we’ve been spending some time at the intersection observing conditions. We were out there Halloween, a peak day of activity. We saw kids crossing the street and, yes, you have to cross the street carefully. You have to look. But people are able to go across the street safely.”

Over the years, the DOT has repeatedly determined that a “traffic calming device” was not warranted at the intersection, despite CB1 insistence that southbound drivers, at times gunning it to make the Chambers Street light, imperil pedestrians at the crosswalk.

In its most recent resolution, passed last month, CB1 called on the DOT to relax federal criteria it uses to make their judgment and to look at the intersection as a special case. “I think the traffic study may not have taken into consideration the sensitive aspect of this corner,” said CB1’s Albert Capsouto.

Holding a copy of Sanchez’s letter denying the park board’s request, CB1 member Peter Braus waved it at the commissioner, saying that it was only a matter time before a child would be killed or critically injured at the intersection.

“I hope you deliver this letter to those parents,” Braus said. “I hope it makes them feel a lot better.”

Asked later if he was swayed by the community’s arguments, Sanchez told the Trib his agency would continue to study the intersection, but he offered little hope of any major changes. 

“Maybe a traffic signal is out of the question today but maybe we can do some additional signage,” he said. “We’ll look at other alternatives that will make the intersection operate better.

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