life in the sonic age

TEA stands for Traffic Enforcement Agent. They are the folks who are supposed to speed you through an intersection. In fact, their job is often to break what the DOT has set up. Sometimes it works, some times it doesn’t. Here’s what they’re doing at the corner of Tillary and Adams Street (below are some snippets from emails of people who live at Concord Village).

“Today, June 27, at 3:05 p.m., I waited for the pedestrian signal allowing me to cross Tillary from the NE to the SE corner.  After the traffic signal turned to “Go” and I began to cross the WB section of Tillary, the traffic agent standing off the narrow divider between NB Adams service and main roadways began to direct motorists (at full speed) from SB Adams into EB Tillary while two pedestrians were on the crosswalk of EB Tillary. They could barely jump aside to avoid being hit by the cars.”

From a June 25th email:
“On 4 separate occasions including yesterday, traffic agents were standing under the canopy of the Celeste diner on the corner while vehicles repeatedly made illegal left turns from east bound Tillary and other vehicles turning from the bridge onto east bound Tillary sat far out in the intersection after the light had turned red.

In addition, I have repeatedly observed vehicles with official plates (both city and state) making illegal turns and even being aided in making illegal turns when agents have been in the intersection.”

July 31st:
“Today, at 3 p.m., I tried to cross from the NW corner to the NE corner of the Adams/Tillary intersection.  The pedestrian signal changed to “walk” and approximately 15 individuals crossed from the NE to the NW corner while I and others headed to the NE corner. When we reached the center median (bridge walkway terminus), the red hand-signal began to flash.  But at the same moment as we stepped off the median, the TEA standing at the NE corner began to direct motorists from westbound Tillary into northbound Adams, and we were forced to retreat to the median.”

(published in the Brooklyn Heights Press)

As a member of the Transportation & Safety Committee of Community Board 2, I am the person who brought the resolution to ask the DOT to go back to the drawing board. The resolution passed (7 in favor, 2 opposed). I thought I should explain why I am opposed to the current plan. I write this is a private citizen, and I am not speaking for the Committee. To begin with, this is a major change in traffic patterns in a heavily traveled part of Brooklyn, The plan, I was told, was never brought to the community for discussion. It was brought to the Transportation & Safety Committee of Community Board 2. I was shocked at how little real planning DOT had done. For example, they estimate that 275 cars an hour go up Clinton Street to the Brooklyn bridge. They expect exactly half to turn left onto Cadman Plaza, and the other half to turn left onto Jay Street. They told us this would happen on its own. No study, just a wild guess. They did not take into consideration the traffic currently on either Cadman Plaza or Jay Street. On Cadman Plaza there is always a backup where cars exiting the Brooklyn Bridge are heading to the BQE. On Jay Street cars and bicyclists are exiting the Manhattan Bridge. This is already a dangerous intersection now made much worse. Several people on the committee estimated that it will take an additional 5 minutes to get onto the Brooklyn Bridge from Clinton Street now. This will cause more pollution, more congestion and more potential accidents - not less as the DOT states. When the public, in a stakeholders meeting, was told about the plan, it was basically a done deal.

Another major change is forcing traffic to turn left onto Joralemon Street instead of on Tillary. This is another situation where the DOT did not think it through. Tour buses regularly made a left from Adams onto Tillary to get to Fulton Ferry landing. Now they are going to turn left at Joralemon (another heavily traveled street already). Will it work? The DOT says it should work and that they’ll watch it for 6 months. Is this really how a major traffic change is supposed to happen? Throw your hands into the air and say “let’s see what happens if we do this?”

Councilman Yassky is correct to say that pedestrian safety is important. But by causing more traffic, more pollution, and more potential accidents, is this really a good and properly thought out plan? It’s politically correct to say that we are glad that DOT are trying. But I would ask this question: is a poorly thought out plan, that causes more problems that it corrects, worthy of any praise at all? In essence, is a bad and dangerous plan better than none at all? I would say “no”. This is a flawed plan and the pilot program should be ended as soon as possible. The DOT should gather the stakeholders and ask what they want and give them options. They did not do that, and that is why this plan is so flawed.

Kenn Lowy Brooklyn Heights