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⛔ Four traffic-slowing medians coming to previously excluded roads

Previewing four new traffic calming medians, and the (admittedly dry) bureaucratic details behind their approval.

Longfellow Whatever
— 4 min read
⛔ Four traffic-slowing medians coming to previously excluded roads

Though the city already built its slate of 2025 traffic calming projects this summer, the neighborhood will soon receive four more, thanks to a new effort to add the calming measures on busier roads that had previously been excluded.

Starting next week, four raised medians — meant to deter speeding by narrowing the roadway — will be installed at long-requested locations in the neighborhood. Two are on 42nd Avenue, at 32nd and 33rd Streets. The other two are on 28th Street, at 34th Avenue and 37th Avenue.

Locations of four traffic-calming islands coming to the neighborhood

Background

Warning: Descriptions of bureaucratic sausage-making follow. Proceed only if curious.

In the past few years, the city has significantly increased its spending on features meant to slow down motorists. While such projects used to be handled on a case-by-case basis, in 2022 the city introduced a new process for choosing where to build those projects, partly determined by the number of requests and complaints received through an online portal. This summer, the city built 49 such projects, including a traffic circle near Longfellow Park and speed humps on the block north of Aldi.