BFK Letter of Support for the Streetscape Project on Broadway

BFK is proud to support the City of Kingston's Streetscape Project. Here is our submitted comment. 

The preliminary designs are available online at www.kingston-ny.gov/KingstonOnTheMove and comments can be submitted by March 24thto Broadway@kingston-ny.gov or mailed to City Hall, 420 Broadway in Kingston, N.Y. 12401.

Mayor Steve Noble said this 5.5 million dollar project will be the largest investment in the midtown corridor since 2001.

This will be an opportunity to improve safety for everyone who uses this main road. In this project area, 11% of the traffic accidents in the City of Kingston happen around the Sunoco on Broadway. To combat this safety issue, the four lanes will be reduced to three with a turning lane in the center. Reduced travel speeds will calm traffic making it safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. But travel will be more efficient with the new signalization of traffic lights, so that it will take less time to travel through this area because the lights will be synchronized. Because of this, there will be less stop-and-go traffic which reduces vehicle emissions. 

New pedestrian signals, crosswalks and sidewalks will be ADA compliant. New benches, bus stops, plantings and trees will give midtown an inviting facelift. With those plantings are storm water drainage systems that prevent chemicals from the road to go into the Esopus Creek.

Did I mention the bike infrastructure yet? A protected two-way bike lane will go from St. James to Grand St. with bicycle signals and left turn boxes. It will be protected by a line of parked cars and possibly vertical tubes to mark the boundaries. This bike lane should be on Broadway so that cyclists are encouraged to frequent those businesses. It will also connect with the larger Greenline System that the Kingston Land Trust and others have been developing. 

Please submit a comment by March 24th to Broadway@kingston-ny.gov or mailed to City Hall, 420 Broadway in Kingston, N.Y. 12401.