(PHOTO: Rye BOE Prez Nathan and Rye Mayor Doug French)
MyRye.com's tweets from Tuesday night's joint Board of Education and Rye City Council pedestrian safety meeting are listed below in reverse chronological order.
The meeting, scheduled for two hours, ran 3.5 hours with about 20 public officials and city staff and 40 residents in attendance. The meeting was taped for broadcasting on Rye TV (see the agenda, see broadcast times, see streaming video (video is not posted as of Wednesday evening)). View MyRye.com's photo album of the joint meeting.
It was clear out of the meeting there will be several follow-ups including an educational push through the PTOs and a separate meeting with the Rye PD on enforcement. BOE member Bob Zahm pressed officials on several issues (see Zahm's MyRye.com guest column on enforcement).
Several people including citizen Bertrand de Frondeville suggested the media have an important role to play in education including the listing of bad actors – those that drive and talk on their cell phone, drive and text message, violate traffic rules, etc.
Mr. de Frondeville, MyRye.com is ready to publish this information. If you, Mr. Zahm and others can encourage Rye City to record and make this information, MyRye.com will gladly publish it.
If you do not already, follow MyRye.com on Twitter.
BOE Nathan – enforcement and education next
BOE Nathan – enforcement and education next
meeting over 3.5 hours it is a wrap
a high risk of one texter hitting another texter – BOE Prez Nathan
work with POs/PTOs to get messages out
@13 people in audience left including most of Rye press corps
snow field as a possible parking spot – but there are issues – Pickup
Presbyterian Church is a good neighbor (to Rye High) – Pickup 200+ traffic movements each morning in church lot
we have maxed out with available parking (at high school) – Pickup (rising school population)
Nathan "I promised city council this would be a 2 hour meeting" (3 hours, 5 mins into meeting)
Rye Middle School and High School up next
citizen Ted Carroll – in 60s students were crossing guards at Milton and other schools "it was a positive"
March 16 AAA coming to Milton to educate students
crowd has thinned out, still on Milton, high school and middle school up next
crossing guard Martha gets a plug by resident
Zahm – questioning if sidewalk rules / maintenance are followed (in some cases property owners are responsible)
one way road on Fairway? more signage? 2 issues being looked at for Milton – Pickup
Milton a true neighborhood school – no issues of thru traffic – Asst City Manager Pickup
Milton up next, meeting is already 20 minutes over
drivers… it is time to remind them of their duty – citizen Bertrand de Frondeville
"SUVs w ladies at the wheel are particularly negligent about these things" – citizen Bertrand de Frondeville on cars not signaling
Nathan makes joke @ white rocks / laughter / things were getting amped up about enforcement issue
We need to have a public discussion on enforcement – Councilman Peter Jovanovich
Mayor French – we will speak with Rye PD Commissioner
I'm not sure I heard you right (are you saying) the city is waiting to enforce the law? Zahm to Mayor French
Rye Record, Rye Soundshore Review, LoHud (Journal News), AOL Patch, Rye TV all here – no lack of coverage on this one
resident – trucks come down Playland Parkway, left onto Midland, see light at Apawamis & try to jump light – recipe for disaster
citizen Charmian Neary teach cars to avoid children (vs just teaching children to avoid cars)
resident boulders on Forrest Ave creating hazard – white rocks are back as issue
Midland PTO co-presidents both speaking
Mayor French – we did not invite Rye PD Connors tonight, focused on 4 locations, will get to enforcement later
Amico – "the public needs to hear from him" (Rye PD Commish Connors) "he needs to be part of this"
Amico – Helen Gates "could not be more right" on need for education
Jim Amico talking – why not more flashing lights, disagrees with speed studies
I know we have used the unfortunate incidents as teachable moments in the schools – BOE Prez Nathan
talking @ access to Midland School from back of school (Ann Lane)
discussing other signals and lights in Midland area, Laura Slack asking about this
French on Midland Avenue – if we change specs for STOP sign we lose fed stim cash, so we wait. will revisit at future time.
Pickup on possible Midland cross walks
Pickup talking about how to connect various areas – for walking and biking. studies going on.
Now talking @ Midland corridor
Robin Jovanovich – any discussion of enforcement tonight? French – not really. No Rye PD here. Focused on 4 locations
citizen Bertrand de Frondeville – have media report on violations (MyRye.com is ready, let's go, give us a feed / info)
Maureen Gomez PTO co-prez at Osborn speaking
Rye City Schools Closed Wednesday (February 10, 2010) http://bit.ly/awyrfF
Pickup – staff reco not to put an officer at Sonn, Zahm pressing, how long would it take to put an officer there?
Zahm asking @ Sonn Drive (see Zahm's article on MyRye.com)
Keith – make sure public understands hard work of city – Scott, Brian. thanks to Gregg and Helen and YMCA
modified diet program to be presented on 24th, will require more $$ funding
recos at council meeting on Feb 24
oppty to have traffic light at Sonn Drive – consultant looking at this
BPR diet discussion
BPR and Sonn Drive
Osborn Road – water co needs to do work, may be able to work on road, sidewalk at that time. open schedule, depends on their capital sched
Pickup speaking @ Osborn School issues – Osborn Road jammed – veterans that park here turn their mirrors in
Pickup – Christian Miller (city planner) important
Pickup – Brian Dempsey – very important, his expertise "appreciate everything he brings to the table"
Pickup is an Osborn parent
Pickup – we meet with PTOs, others, we meet with parents, in the field
Pickup – hear from parents "nothing has ever been done" – these parents are new to the "cycle" there are constant improvements
Scott Pickup – Presentation by City of Rye Staff on School Pedestrian and Traffic Concerns
Nathan: get kids to educate parents. It worked for car idling
Pedestrian Safety Marathon, Tonight (February 9, 2010) 6:30pm – AGENDA http://bit.ly/b9KP0n
Feb 23rd library next safe routes to school meeting
media can play role in safety education – Helen Gates Rye record donating ad space
Engineering, Enforcement (PD also self enforcement), Evaluation (measuring impact), Education and Encouragement – Safe Routes
Safe Routes to School Presentation – Helen Gates / started in Denmark
"safe routes to school" requires community – Gregg Howells Rye YMCA
Estimating 40 citizens here, 20 officials (elected and city)
We welcome public comment but also require public commitment – Rye Mayor French on pedestrian safety
Rye Mayor French and BOE Prez Nathan doing intros
MyRye.com is at joint BOE – City Council meeting on pedestrian safety
Having a public meeting on enforcement is giving an open invitation to the complainers of the town. Do we need more enforcement – of course we do. You wouldn’t tell an accountant how to do his job why is this city so eager to tell the police how to do theirs? You complain when Whitby doesn’t give you the numbers you want but then you let the public almost order Whitby to give discounts. You let Brian Dempsey talk about his recommendations and then you still have to discuss if you want to follow them up. I say let the professionals do what they know how to do and support them.
Honest,
We don’t have leaders now. Otis was a leader who did the right thing even in the face of disgruntled citizens. Now we have the tail wagging the dog. It’s turned to total chaos with 15,000 Council members. Joe Sack writes about a Midland stop sign to placate Mr. Amico then a week later a kid is hit over by Ressurection. Crazy. Zahm wants enforcement when speed played no part in the last 3 accidents. These people are barking up the wrong tree. One of the key things to solving a problem is to correctly identify what the problem really is.
“real deal” – maybe I need to be clearer, but what I’ve been after is first to understand what’s really happening and then to see action taken. Enforcement data and its analysis to understand what’s caused the downward trend with no apparent improvement in traffic behavior are critical to figuring out root causes.
If you’ve paid attention to the discussion, enforcement is only one component of pedestrian safety. As Helen Gates reminded us all on Tuesday night, SRTS identifies 5 Es (Engineering, Enforcement, Encouragement, Education, and Evaluation) as being critical to the problem. While enforcement should be an action area (no capital costs, no engineering studies), it alone will not achieve the sustainable behavior change which is what is really needed.
Real Deal,
I won’t bother commenting on the Otis factor, he is gone so it would be a waste of time!
What kid getting hit by Resurrection are you referring to?
Are you referring to the Connors incident which happened in front of Lesters not by Resurrection?
You say we need to identify the problem, most of us believe there are several.
What do you identify as being the problem?
Well said below Bob.
BTW, the Rye City student crossing guard program I was in was called The Safety Patrol. Lots of training, strict (very) adult supervision and full school student recognition of duties and responsibilities were prime characteristics. Somewhere in the BOE files are likely the lists of Safety Patrol members and honor awards for exceptional service by year. And the patrol’s tenure was not confined to the 1960’s baby boom period. Rye old timers told stories of their Safety Patrol days during WWII and before.
tedc – you and I are on the same page regarding the safety patrol issue – truth be told, I was captain of the patrol boys at St. Cletus in Chicago in 8th grade!
A quick google search of “8th grade safety patrol” shows that this concept is alive and well here in NY and across the country.
Steve Mochel
Right Steve.
I told the joint meeting that you could apply for safety patrol in 5th grade but I applied and was accepted in 6th grade at Milton.
If you Google “5th grade safety patrol” you’ll see it’s alive and well at grammar schools throughout the country.
I googled “pre-school safety patrol” and it is alive and well in NYS.
Jim,
The problem? Well it certainly isn’t enforcement else all the accidents would have involved cars cited with traffic violations. Whether the enforcement is increased or not how do you explain that traffic violations weren’t involved in any of the accidents? Since we can’t explain it we’ll just interrogate the cops about their enforcement procedures. I guess trashing the cops is still the way to go in this town and it starts with the Council, especially Jovanovich.
Real Deal,
Thanks for your opinion on what you “don’t” think is part of the problem.
Unless you do not have one, you have not answered the question…
“What do you identify as being the problem”?
Jim,
I’m not positive about exactly what the problem is but I would say the mixing of company between motor vehicles and kids is a bad idea especially an army of kids. That is why I favor busing.
I was thinking about how cars obeying the traffic laws are the ones doing the damage. How could that be? I came up with this explanation…… Could it be that cars that are accelerating or running at higher RPM’s are noisier than ones doing the speed limit? Could it be the tires of a speeding car make more noise? If you think about it, out of the 5 senses we have, you use 2 to cross a street, sight and sound. If for some reason you’re not looking in the correct direction your hearing will alert you if there is something wrong. It’s a survival instinct all animals have. We rely on our hearing. Well, cars have gotten quieter over the years and when electric cars are more commonplace this town may have a problem on it’s hands. Throw in a few ipods and it gets even uglier. While I know much has been done on site lines and blind spots but, has anyone discussed the growing presence of silent cars? That is why putting in a foundation of busing is the real deal.
Real Deal,
I do not disagree with the busing analysis as I think many would also agree.
Problem is, Rye eliminated busing 12-15 years ago for the lack of use and we were essentially pissing money away.
If what Bob Zahm and Steve Feeney say are true, and I believe it since there is nothing to dis-credit their facts, there is no way we can afford to put busing back in Rye for the cost of million$$$$$$ along with not enough riders!
Unless you know something we don’t I don’t see that ever happening.
I, as much as you and the next guy would love nothing better than for us to find a solution to this nightmare of kids vs cars!!!
If not busing then what???
It’s been great seeing some of the pedestrian safety issues being addressed around town. The striping along Purchase street by SOME of the cross walks to improve line of sight has been great – although a glaring omission seems to be the cross walk almost immediately in front of Cosi so people are still parking up to and on the cross walk there.
Also, some noticeable sidewalk improvements have taken place. But I’m a little confused by what looks like an incomplete job on the new Oakland Beach sidewalk as there’s still some pretty treacherous going from Hix over to Milton road; e.g., road and sidewalk are one and the same macadam.
Other good news is that it looks like the crosswalk and road-narrowing at Palisades is just about done. What do you think about that, Jimmy?
Bob,
Let me bring you up to speed!!!
1st let me just say I will hold my entire opinion until the job is “COMPLETE”!!!
Let’s see….hmmmmm? Oh Ya…”the job will be done early spring and be complete by the end of April” “and once it begins it will be finished rather quickly”
This is what we were all told by City Council and liasions!
So by all means lets take care of Oakland Beach and BPR sidewalks/curbings first!
These COWBOYS (Bilotta Const.) came to Midland Palisade in MAY, made some markings left for 2 weeks, came back made some cuts left for 2 weeks, concrete forms are dumped on the sidewalk taking out the ability to use the sidewalk, 2 weeks later they come and open up the road and leave again for another 2 weeks, then they return and install one of the forms, then they leave for “5 WEEKS” and did not return until I “SNAPPED”!!!
So Bob, knowing me “WHAT DO YOU THINK I THINK”?????????
Would you like to read the NASTY email they got from me or have you already read it and know all this which prompted you to address me at the bottom of your post???
Jimmy – my query was not meant to elicit the response you provided. I’ve not read the message to which you refer. While I am honestly pleased (and think we all should be) that some progress has been made, I am sincerely disappointed with
> cross walks at Old Post Road over Playland Parkway remaining unpainted throughout the Winter and Spring despite Westchester County saying, “Do what you think is right, Rye”.
> the sequence of the sidewalk replacement work
> lack of completion of many identified sidewalk issues documented in photos sent to the City last Fall
> lack of publication of enforcement statistics AT ALL despite public discussion and commitment to do just that on a regular basis.
So, while I am pleased that some action has been taken, there is a lot of “low hanging fruit” that seems to be rotting on the vine. Not sure why – I am hopeful that it’s not because the police are being asked to hunt coyotes.
Bob,
As you can I see I am very disappointed in the approach at Midland/Palisade.
I’m baffled at how an intersection which 1 child was killed and another could have been gets the least respect!
How was this intersection not made a priority???
The sequence which I described to you is ridiculous and UNACCEPTABLE!
You’ll have to excuse me for taking your question as sarcasm, unfortunately that is how it landed!
Several observations:
1) There’s only one man working at a time at Palisade Road – I think it’s in their contract.
2) An important part of the road safety project on Midland Avenue from what I’ve seen is the new road paving, which is being facilitated by Con Edison routinely ripping it up for some unknown reason.
3) The Con Ed guys abide by the rules too – only one man works at a time.
The rest stay in the truck they leave idling to run the AC. It’s in the contract.
Jim,
I know this is a very personal cause for you but if they came in may and have delayed for 13 weeks as your post says, wouldn’t we be in August?
Larry,
LMAO! I think you get the point.
My calculations might be off a bit.
BUT…..
This is how it was handled and it is not acceptable for an intersection where a child was killed and another near killed!
Pedestrian (especially children) Safety is at the front of every conversation in Rye yet we allow these Cowboys (Bilotta Const.) to create further danger as they perform their work.
Larry, do you have children?
Take a look at the crosswalks where the Police Booth is across from Lesters, would you be comfortable letting your child cross there???
Now, I’m being told Bilotta is meeting Federal Guidelines and they are not responsible for how people get across the street.
With that being said, it is our responsibility and still yet we do nothing!!! Oh Ya, don’t forget this is also an intersection where a child was struck by a car…
A POLICE CAR!!!
Tell me how any of this makes sense?
Had a chance to drive ( a few times ) past the work at Palisades and Midland. Looks like the fundamental work is done, but the center line on Midland needs to be repainted to balance the driving space on both sides of the bump out. Additionally, no parking stripes should be painted on the side of the street opposite from the bump out.
Robert, what are your thoughts on the city eliminating the three traffic lights downtown?
Not sure – need to see what’s what. But the current strange light system is clearly not working – along with the way people hold up traffic when waiting to pull into a “soon to be open” slot.
Bob,
No need, it falls in line with “the federal guide lines”!
It doesn’t matter if making that right hand turn puts you over the double yellow and into a position to be injured in a car accident….the work is well within “the federal guide lines”!
The crosswalks that are temporarily taken out at the police booth (lesters) are okay because the work being done is well within the scope of “the federal guide lines”!
This is the new term for “process”!