Editorial

Service Road Parking
Meters Solve Nothing

Much has been said about the city Department of Transportation plan to slow down the slaughter on Queens Boulevard by installing parking meters on the left side of the service roads leading to the traffic artery in several neighborhoods. We find ourselves in agreement with the chorus of opposition to this idea.

Has the DOT somehow failed to notice that this is New York City? In many other less densely populated locations, highway approaches are long, lonely stretches of road which see either little or no traffic for much of the time or have brief periods of peak use followed by long interludes of low volume. That is definitely not the case here. Almost every service road leading onto or off Queens Boulevard is lined with businesses, stores or homes, sometimes a combination of all three. Many of these service roads see as much traffic as the boulevard itself much of the time.

It doesn't require much logic to postulate what will happen if the service roads feeding onto Queens Boulevard are suddenly choked with traffic because parked cars and trucks are occupying one lane. Once drivers get through the bottleneck and onto the relatively open stretches of the boulevard itself they will speed more than ever to make up for lost time. The boulevard will become more lethal. We expect the number of lives lost on the roadway, most of them through motor vehicle versus pedestrian accidents to increase almost as soon as the service road parking meters are installed.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the Queens economy, and many of those small businesses line boulevard service roads. Several have made their apprehension over the coming traffic nightmare known in a number of forums and we agree with their sentiments. A number of businesses intentionally located along service roads because they felt that their customers or clients would find such locations made popping in and out or being able to park for long periods for meetings and consultations easier and more efficient. Restaurant owners were delighted to set up along service roads because they not only had space for customers but also could accommodate delivery or private carters' trucks

Many service roads are also lined by apartment buildings or private homes. Without driveways or garages, often the case, the residents of these dwellings must park on the street. The additional meters will make this even more difficult.

Many individuals, home and business owners alike, have written to us to express their unhappiness at the loss of business and possible danger resulting from the installation of parking meters along service roads. They point out that the resulting parking congestion would only add to the problems posed by traffic on Queens Boulevard. Several business owners face a severe loss of income if metered parking becomes part of the streetscape. With one lane of traffic occupied by parked cars, motorists will have no choice but to double and possibly to triple park, delivery trucks will not be able to park while trucks are loaded or unloaded. The difficulty sure to ensue for emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks and police cars poses a serious threat to the safety and quality of life of customers as well.

The major problem on Queens Boulevard is the combination of speeding motorists and badly set up traffic signals and the jaywalking that results. The best way to alleviate these problems is to lengthen crossing time on the boulevard so that even small children and senior citizens can get from one side to the other without having to wait on a median strip for a light to change and to set--and enforce--speed limits. Under the present circumstances giving someone a ticket for jaywalking across the boulevard is a little like court-martialing a soldier for being wounded in battle, especially when one considers that in some other boroughs jaywalking out of necessity is a part of daily existence.

Parking meters on Queens Boulevard service roads where they do not exist today--on the left side of the eastbound service road--and closing one lane of traffic on the eastbound service road, leaving only one lane of traffic open, will only create more problems and seriously impact on the businesses and homeowners whose properties line those roads. It makes no sense to complicate a situation further when simple and obvious solutions are at hand.