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| Pushing 'no honking' signs in Gramercy Park
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Location: Blogs 23rd Street Association |
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| Posted by: Program Director |
6/26/2008 |
By Esther O. Perez-Quesada
The traffic on 21st Street, between Third Avenue and Park Avenue South, is unbearable, not just to commuters but to the residents of Gramercy Park North, who according to Arlene Harrison, president of the Gramercy Park Block Association, have to live with cars honking at all hours of the day and night.
"For years traffic on Gramercy Park North has been a major quality of life issue," said Harrison, representing the Association's Traffic Committee that pushed a request to have "No honking" signs placed along that corridor.
Currently the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is conducting a series of tests that measure noise levels throughout the day, which will determine if their requests for the signs are warranted.
According to Toni Carlina, district manager for Community Board 6, the highest noise decibels allowed for the Gramercy Park area is 87, which is equivalent to the sound of a bus passing by at night. Although Harrison is sure that noise levels surpass 87 decibels, Carlina knows from experience that testing takes time.
"It usually takes three months to a year for those studies to get done, but the DEP happens to be very efficient in these matters, so I'm sure I'll be hearing from them soon," she said.
"The problem is that 21st Street is the first street off the bridges and tunnels," said Harrison, who blames the growth of bars and nightclubs in the Chelsea/Flatiron area for the increase in vehicles seeking to enter the neighborhood.
"This district is the most heavily saturated district with restaurants and nightclubs in the city. People can't sleep at night because the honking will go on until 2 or 3 in the morning. The night club life is all night," she said.
Harrison said that the horn honking is at its worst Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, when there's gridlock that gets backed up all the way from Third Avenue to Park Avenue. She also noted that some people get out of their cars and yell, and in the warm weather rseidents in the community who have their windows open have to hear all the commotion.
"I don't have much hope for the signs to be successful," admitted Harrison, "Because it has been my experience that people do not read signs. If you are about to honk your horn, do you look up and say 'no I can't?' But we are willing to try anything, because there is a desperate need."
Source: Town and Village newspaper |
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