The
Downton Brooklyn Traffic Noise Disaster
Root Causes & Possible Solutions
Kathie
Keegan
Brooklyn Borough Commissioner
New York City Department of Transportation
40 Worth Street
New York, New York 10013
On behalf of Honku.org, our rapidly growing group of Brooklyn residents
concerned with traffic noise issues, I would very much like to add some
feedback and suggestions to the overall Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming
Plan. The current plan fails to address traffic noise issues in a specific
way.
Below I have outlined six discreet traffic noise problems and ideas for
possible solutions to these problems. The list of problems moves from micro
to macro, specific to general. The first three problems that I address are
very immediate, tangible and, I believe, solvable in the near-term. The
last three problems I address are most likely beyond the scope of the current
Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Plan. They are worth mentioning, however,
because Brooklyn's traffic problems are not going to go away until we begin
to address these bigger, macro issues.
Our traffic problems have, in many ways, moved from the level of quality-of-life
issue to become a health, safety and economic issue. On a weekly basis we
see motorists on Clinton Street, blaring horns, screeching to a stop and
fighting with each other as moms walk by with their kids. Researchers at
Cornell University recently published a study about the detrimental effects
of steady, ongoing, low-level traffic noise on the health of children. I
have enclosed an article about that study and, even though I'm not a child,
I'm probably already living proof of the study's validity. Since starting
my Honku project I have received numerous e-mails from out-of-towners who
say they will not visit New York again as tourists simply because the traffic
noise they experienced while here was so awful and shocking to them.
As a Clinton Street resident, pedestrian and driver I have spent a great
deal of time studying our neighborhood's traffic noise problem from all
three perspectives. The questions I ask are: Why do motorists blast their
horns at this corner so frequently? What exactly is the traffic flow problem
that drivers are having here? Is it possible to fix things so that the drivers
don't need to blast their horns at each other so much?
Having observed this chaos for about five years now, here's what I've found
the Clinton-Pacific honking is about. And below are some ideas for how we
might go about solving the problems that drivers are having here on Clinton
Street and all throughout Downtown Brooklyn:
Problem 1: Uncoordinated traffic signals on Clinton Street south of Atlantic.
The light timing at Atlantic-Clinton and Clinton-Pacific virtually ensures
confused, upset drivers and their inevitable response -- horn-blasting.
Here is what happens:
During morning rush hour, starting at about 6:00 am and going until 9:00
am, the bulk of our neighborhood's traffic is moving northward along Clinton
Street towards the Brooklyn Bridge.
Northbound Clinton Street traffic stops at the intersection of Atlantic
and Clinton for Atlantic's very long east-west green light. While traffic
is stopped there, the lights on Clinton Street south of Atlantic continue
to cycle.
When the northbound drivers at Clinton-Pacific see that their signal is
green but the signal a block ahead at Atlantic is red, they are forced to
make a difficult decision. If they move forward, they will block the intersection.
If they don't move forward the drivers behind them inevitably go ballistic
with their horns. Most drivers move forward and block the intersection.
A few seconds later the blocked west-bound Pacific Street traffic goes insane
with their horns.
This problem of uncoordinated signals and blocked intersections ripples
down through Cobble Hill anywhere from two to six blocks south of Clinton-Pacific.
Each intersection gets blocked as traffic waits for the northbound signal
at Clinton-Atlantic to turn green. When a smart, mindful driver decides
not to block the intersection, the drivers behind him go berserk with their
horns. When careless drivers do block the intersection, the east and west-bound
traffic on Pacific, Amity, Congress and other neighborhood streets go ballistic
with their horns. These east and west-bound neighborhood streets, keep in
mind, feed the Long Island College Hospital. They can be busy streets during
the day.
The traffic signals south of Atlantic create a no-win situation for drivers,
residents and pedestrians of this neighborhood. I'm not a traffic engineer.
But watching the discombobulated timing of these lights with the naked eye
and having experienced the results as a resident, pedestrian and driver,
I am certain that DOT engineers could come up with better, more holistic
signal coordination for Clinton Street just south and north of Atlantic
Avenue during the morning rush hour.
Possible Solutions to this problem:
- Re-time the signals along Clinton Street during the morning rush
hour so that the disparity between Atlantic Avenue's lengthy east-west
green signal and the local streets' east-west green signals is not so
great. Time the lights so that there are smaller traffic delays at four
or five points along Clinton Street rather one gigantic bottleneck at
Clinton-Atlantic.
- A dedicated right-turn signal at Clinton-Atlantic and another dedicated
left-turn signal at Atlantic-Boerum Place to give traffic a better route
to the Brooklyn Bridge off of neighborhood streets.
Problem 2: Traffic signals
hang too high and too close to the front of the intersection.
The Clinton-Pacific
traffic signal and other signals along Clinton hang almost directly above
the front of the intersection. This means that the first driver in line
at the Clinton-Pacific intersection and other Clinton Street intersections
often can not see the traffic signal unless he leans forward over his
steering wheel and peers up through the windshield.
The result of this is that, rather than strain to look at the signal,
the first driver in line often just waits until the drivers behind him
or her start honking. That's how drivers on Clinton Street have learned
to know when it's time to move. They use the horns behind them as the
traffic signal rather than the light that is hung too high and too much
on top of them. I'd estimate that at least 10% of Clinton-Pacific's horn-blasting
is of this variety.
Possible Solution to this problem:
- Move the signals
to a place where the drivers can see the lights without having to strain
or wait for honking to know the light has changed.
Problem 3: Friday morning trash
pick-ups on Clinton Street during rush hour.
On Friday mornings, the Department of Sanitation picks up trash along Clinton
Street south of Atlantic Avenue during the middle of the morning rush hour.
Bluntly put, this is insane. As the truck slowly makes its way up the street
blocking the entire single lane of northbound Brooklyn Bridge traffic, the
seething motorists behind the truck go ballistic on their horns. This is
a horrible situation for drivers, residents, pedestrians and, most of all,
the poor guys who work on the truck.
Possible Solution to this problem:
- Pick up trash on Clinton Street during another time, not during weekday
morning rush hour.
Problem 4: The horns on newer motor vehicles in New York City are illegal.
I have read McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York, Vehicle and Traffic
Law, Chapter 71, Title III, Article 10, Section 386, which outlines Motor
Vehicle sound limit levels in New York State. I have also read New York
City's Department of Environmental Protection Noise Code, March 1998, Subchapter
5, 24-232, outlining sound limit levels for vehicles operating in New York
City.
The state and city codes vary slightly but they are pretty close to identical.
Essentially, they mandate that the typical vehicle you'd find driving down
Clinton Street - manufactured after 1978, weighing less than 8,000 lbs.
and moving at 35 m.p.h. or less - may not make noise louder than 78 decibels.
Though I have not yet gone out and done decibel measurements myself, my
initial research into the topic has uncovered three interesting facts:
§ The typical car horn blast measures between 90 and 120 decibels depending
on the distance of the measuring device from the vehicle.
§ The horns on newer
model cars have gotten louder in recent years. The horn being used in the
new Ford Crown Victoria yellow cabs is the same more powerful horn that
is used in Ford's big SUV's.
§ In the 1950's some car companies offered two different types of horns
in vehicles - country horns and city horns. Back when cars were still a
somewhat new phenomenon in the urban setting, auto manufacturers and public
officials recognized that vehicle noise was a real problem. This is something
we seem to have forgotten as the car has taken over more and more space
in our urban life.
It is likely that most of the vehicles operating on the streets of New York
City today are in violation of our noise codes. And it is certain that the
city, state and auto manufacturers have no mechanism in place to measure
or enforce these regulations.
Possible Solutions to this problem:
- Compel the Taxi & Limousine Commission to change the horns in all
of the cabs and limousines currently operating in New York City to meet
current noise regulations with plenty of room to spare.
- Compel the State to conduct noise emissions tests on private vehicles
when owners go for their annual emissions inspection stickers.
- Compel auto manufacturers and dealers to offer "city horns" again
and to stop producing horns that break New York State and City noise
codes and endanger the health and safety of consumers and citizens.
Problem 5: New York
City's culture of honking.
New York City's honking problem is, fundamentally, a cultural problem. We
can re-time traffic lights, better enforce the noise laws and build new
traffic calming systems, but none of that really gets at the place where
the honking problem starts and ends - the driver's seat.
New York City drivers like to use their horns. A lot. Ensconced in the cozy
private space of their cars' increasingly luxurious cockpits, drivers forget
- or don't even begin to consider - that they are navigating several tons
of steel through, crowded, vital public spaces filled with pedestrians,
bicyclists, residents and businesses. Honking is not so much a technical
or engineering problem. It is basically just a bad habit.
Possible Solutions to this problem:
Greater enforcement of No Honking penalties. We have a $125 penalty
posted at the corner of Clinton and Pacific and it is rarely enforced.
If the city dealt with honking in the same we dealt with the squeegee
man problem a few years back - by instituting a period of hardcore, consistent
enforcement - driver behavior might change.
Add a traffic noise awareness component to the training and education
for cabbies, limo drivers and other licensed commercial drivers who use
New York City streets frequently.
Add a traffic noise awareness component to the training and education
of all drivers licensed in New York City.
Develop a public relations educational campaign about safer, quieter
driving in New York City similar to Sub-Talk on the subways and the Recycling
campaigns.
Problem 6: Too many
cars.
The bottom line is that there are just too many cars operating on the 19th
century street grid of New York City here in the 21st century. This is causing
us problems on many levels - from micro-environmental issues such as noise
and air pollution, to macro-environmental issues such as global warming
and oil conflicts.
In the city and in the world as a whole, the economic, social and political
cost of sustaining our car-centered way of life is becoming increasingly
expensive and problematic. As the world's greatest urban metropolis, New
York City has an opportunity to lead the way in developing viable and innovative
new public and private transportation systems. It is increasingly clear
that New York City's future growth and health depends on moving away from
our car-centered transportation system. With the car as our city's primary
unit of transportation, New York City has neared its limits of possible
growth.
Possible Solutions to this problem:
Continued enforcement and incentives for car-pooling and single-occupancy
vehicle bans.
Fast, efficient tolling on East River bridges. Why should cars get a
free pass when the rest of us have to pay at least $1.50 to get in and
out of Manhattan?
Greater emphasis on building and improving subway, bus, ferry and taxi
systems - particularly in the outer boroughs.
More bicycle lanes, bicycle parking areas and other incentives to enable
bicycle use in New York City. See how it's done in Amsterdam and other
crowded European cities.
Development of tax and toll incentives for city residents and commuters
to use smaller cars and hybrid gas-electricity vehicles. There's just
no need for New Yorkers to have such gigantic vehicles. But if lots of
drivers have huge SUV's, other drivers feel the need to have them as well
for safety.
Moving transportation issues higher up on the overall civic agenda.
Our transportation networks are the veins and arteries of the city. We've
got to keep things flowing. The SUV is cholesterol.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I would appreciate it if you
would add at least the first three problems and possible solutions to the
scope of what is addressed in the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Plan.
And if you think that there is anything we can do to address the larger
issues, please let me know. I'd be interested in working on them and I know
that there are many others in our neighborhood who are concerned and interested
as well.
Sincerely,
Aaron Naparstek
Brooklyn Chair
Honku.org
cc:
Hon. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor
Hon. Marty Markowitz, Borough President
Hon. Bill DeBlasio, City Council
Hon. David Yassky, City Council
Craig Hammerman, Community Board 6
DOT Captain Thomas Harris, 76th Precinct
Traffic Safety Sergeant Frias, 76th Precinct
Andrew Wisdom, Ove Arup
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