On Saturday, May 13, 2006, members of the Stapleton Coalition Against Reckless Speeders launched a month long "slow down" sign campaign to build local awareness about the traffic speeding problem along St. Paul's Ave. and Van Duzer Streets.
The idea for campaign came from SCARS vice chairman Mike Tannenbaum who suggested that lawn and fence signs of the type commonly used in political campaigns might be an effective way to demonstrate the neighborhood of Stapleton's united concern about this single issue. After running the design by the group, Mike ordered 125 signs from a discount printer and had them shipped to his house.
The signs arrived in the second week of April. Since then, the group has been busy recruiting neighbors to meet an early goal of 100 unique addresses participating in the campaign. SCARS has a core membership of roughly 25 members, so that meant bringing in three additional neighbors for every one person attending group meetings.
By the time of Saturday's sign rollout, the group had recruited a little more than 50 residents, giving it the campaign a total of 75 participating addresses. The final 25 addresses came quickly, however. As soon as the first signs started going up, curious neighbors enquired about the effort and requested their own signs. As of yesterday, the group had less than a dozen of its original 125 sign allotment left for last minute participants.
As noted in a May 12 press release, the primary goal of the project is to remind drivers that although St. Paul's and Van Duzer offer some of the island's longest stretches without a traffic light, drivers need to remember that they are driving through a residential neighborhood with a posted 25 m.p.h. speed limit. The secondary goal, however, is to send a signal to the island's political establishment that the neighborhood is united on this issue. Rich, poor, renter, owner, longtime resident to recent newcomer -- almost every resident encountered during the course of this campaign had some horror story or personal tale of aggravation to relate about speeding drivers. Almost half involved damaged cars and personal property
The "slow down" campaign is the third step in an ongoing effort to fix this problem. Step One was to gather together enough local residents willing to do something about it. Step Two was to communicate our problem directly to the police and politicians via local community meetings and a letter writing campaign. For the third step, meanwhile, SCARS members decided to communicate the problem to the drivers themselves and to other members of the community who may not yet know about the organization.
The next step will be determined at the next SCARS meeting.Thomas Curitore, the Dept. of Transportation's commissioner for the borough of Staten Island, has expressed a willingness to sit down with the group's membership and discuss potential speed calming strategies.
Not every option is available, of course. Both St. Paul's Ave. and Van Duzer are emergency routes and subject to city, state and federal regulations when it comes to minimizing congestion. Common sense solutions such as adding a stoplight or stop sign at a particular problem corner take months, if not years, to justify and speed bumps are off the table entirely given the potential wear and tear on city service vehicles. More creative solutions such as road narrowing and restriping, meanwhile, impose automatic quality of life trade-offs and should therefore be subject to a community-wide review.
SCARS will be using the address list built in the course of this campaign to make sure resident who have shown an interest in this problem keep up with the potential solution. If your name is not on this list yet and you would like an update on the next SCARS membership meeting or the next meeting pertaining to Stapleton's traffic situation, please send an email to news@lookingnorth.com.
For those who don't live in the neighborhood, consider "Slow Down" a friendly but firm reminder. The two main thoroughfares of Stapleton serve as a convenient short cut, yes, but they also sit at the heart of a resurgent neighborhood noted for its growing number of kids, pets, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Please take a moment to reflect on that fact when driving through our neighborhood. In fact, you might even take a moment sometime to get out of the car and to explore the place on foot. Once you do, we think you'll get a better sense of what we're trying to protect here.
The Sign
Recruiting potential participants
SCARS member Willie Chu
The Architect: Mike Tannenbaum
The Treasurer: Marjorie Ryan
The gentle zip of fresh cable ties
Teamwork
A driver's view.