Manhattan Beach might be one step closer to remaking Oriental Boulevard this week following a special meeting with Department of Transportation (DOT) Brooklyn Commissioner Joseph Palmieri.
Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo, District Manager Pearl Burg and two members of the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association (MBNA) met with Palmieri at his Court Street office last week to discuss implementing new safety measures along the mile-long thoroughfare.
Kingsborough Community College student Youzdjan Bekir was killed in a motorcycle accident at the intersection of Oriental Boulevard and Irwin Street on May 8.
Three weeks later, two motorists where injured in a serious automobile crack-up just two blocks away from that deadly scene.
Over the last month, Highway Patrol officers and cops from the 61st Precinct combined in issuing 47 speeding summonses on Oriental Boulevard.
MBNA spokesperson Edmund Dweck, who attended the Palmieri meeting along with fellow MBNA member Ronald Biondo, described the talk as “extremely positive.”
The DOT is already conducting a study to determine if a new traffic light is warranted at Oriental Boulevard and Irwin Street.
But as a result of last week’s meeting, Dweck said that the DOT would be taking a fresh look at upgrading the flashing signal at Ocean Avenue and Oriental Boulevard, revamping the so-called zebra lines to prevent motorists from driving over them and determining if the Parks Department’s decorative planters now lining the malls obstruct drivers’ views.
Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel promised to reconsider the planters after listening to complains from Manhattan Beach residents at last week’s MBNA meeting held at P.S. 195 on Irwin Street.
“Our plan was approved by the DOT,” Spiegel told residents, who maintained that the potted plants and shrubbery installed along Oriental Boulevard as part of an almost $1 million beautification project were obscuring their view of the road. “We hoped it would have a calming effect. Speeding has always been an issue [on Oriental Boulevard].”
“It seems like the idea has gone a little wrong,” homeowner Howard Prussack told the commissioner. “You can’t see traffic on the other side of the street.”
At the same meeting, 61st Precinct Captain George Mastrokostas conceded that Oriental Boulevard was a source of trouble.
“Obviously there is a speeding problem on Oriental Boulevard,” he said. “Long term, you’re going to need to look at traffic lights and speed bumps.”
According to Scavo, speed bumps wouldn’t work on Oriental Boulevard because it’s a bus route for both the B1 and B4.
Biondo suggested that speed bumps might be used on the zebra lines to prevent impatient motorists from using the demarcated areas as a passing lane.
The DOT could install plastic pylons or “flexible curbs” across the zebra lines which would restrict motorists to a single lane of traffic.
Pylons were installed on parts of Oriental Boulevard shortly after the DOT originally narrowed the roadway a few years ago. They were later removed, however.
Said one longtime resident, “Oriental Boulevard needs an exorcist.”
