Major Traffic Calming Changes Coming To Prospect Avenue

N. Prospect Avenue in 2016 when closed to traffic. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Driving on N. Prospect Avenue is about to change. A lot.

The Department of Public Works (DPW) is poised to add four raised crosswalks, less pronounced versions of speed humps, to the street this summer. Concrete bump-outs will also be installed to encourage slower driving speeds and block illegal parking.

It follows a wave of pedestrian collisions, including one death, in 2022 and a February 2023 community meeting about reckless driving and the dangerous condition of the street. The street is a key corridor through the Lower East Side, but also has several high-rise residential buildings and must be crossed to access the lakefront.

Area aldermen Jonathan Brostoff and Robert Bauman support the changes. The latest improvements will come approximately six years before a full reconstruction, a much larger project, occurs for N. Farwell and N. Prospeect avenues.

“Quick fixes were done. They were in our immediate discretion and authority,” said Bauman during Thursday’s Public Works Commtitee meeting. The speed limit was reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph and speed signs were added.

Now approximately $350,000 in concrete improvements are coming.

The raised crosswalks will be installed at E. Albion Street, E. Royall Place, E. Windsor Place. and E. Kenilworth Place. The project covers the area between E. Ogden to E. North avenues.

The raised crosswalks will require drivers to slow to the speed limit to avoid jostling their vehicles. The concrete crosswalks are less pitched than a speedhump and, unlike a speed hump, are also designed as a pedestrian crossing. A similar raised crosswalk was installed on S. Howell Avenue near Humboldt Park last fall, part of a push to build raised crosswalks near schools.

The pinned-on curb bump-outs are designed to shorten the pedestrian crossing distance by placing a raised concrete pad in the parking lane. Starting in 2021, they were deployed in targeted locations across the city to prevent illegal right-hand passing. On Prospect Avenue they will also fill places where people illegally park, blocking sight lines.

Bauman said almost 300 postcards were returned from a survey, with the majority in support.

“I have gotten overwhelming feedback,” said Brostoff. “They want these traffic-calming improvements immediately. Some are very upset it’s taken so long, even though that’s the process, and we have sped it up as much as we can.”

Citizens who attended the meeting offered their feedback.

“I want to say thank you very much,” said Jenine Kent, who was nearly hit while walking across the street with her granddaughter and her dog. She asked for an additional raised crosswalk to be installed further south at E. Knapp Street. “We really need something further south from E. Ogden Avenue to stop them.”

Bauman and Brostoff said they supported a southern raised crosswalk, but encouraged DPW to proceed with construction of the initial crosswalks while planning another. “We don’t want to hold up this project for that,” said Bauman.

“This is a good step in the right direction,” said Michael Soderling. He said he often sees drivers going 60 to 70 miles per hour and believes safety concerns are pushing people away. “We are going to continue to see people leaving and they’re not going to come back unless we deal with this issue.”

But there wasn’t universal support. “This is kind of a fool’s errand in my opinion,” said John Doherty, whose family used to own a transportation company in the city. “It’s not going to solve the problem.” He said more enforcement was needed and tougher laws.

The committee unanimously endorsed the proposal. It will go before the full Common Council on June 11.

Area residents will pay for a portion of the costs: approximately $118,000 will be raised via special assessments from adjoining property owners. The city will also use some of its remaining American Rescue Plan Act to cover the cost.

Design work on the $40 million reconstruction project has yet to begin, but Bauman, Brostoff and DPW have all publicly suggested there is community support for substantial safety and transit-focused improvements.

Prospect Avenue traffic calming flyer from the Department of Public Works.