Welcome to a 'Slow Zone'

We spotted the first of the new "Neighborhood Slow Zone" signs the other morning ... this one on St. Mark's Place just east of First Avenue.

To recap! The Alphabet City-Tompkins Square Slow Zone is the community-based program that reduces the speed limit within designated zones from 30 mph to 20 mph. (Read the background about all this here.)

The map below shows the designated Slow Zone — First Avenue east to the FDR, and from East Second Street north to East 14th Street.


[Click image to enlarge]

In addition to the 20 mph speed limit (15 mph near schools), a Slow Zone area features speed bumps (21 here) and new striping and signage to slow drivers.

CB3 member Chad Marlow helped put the plan in motion for the East Village early last year.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)

More about the timing of the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone

Alphabet City-Tompkins Square Slow Zone to take effect in August

Alphabet City-Tompkins Square Slow Zone to take effect in August

[Click image to enlarge]

The Alphabet City-Tompkins Square Slow Zone is on its way.

Department of Transportation reps provided Community Board 3 (CB3) committee members with an update last Thursday night about the incoming (officially named) Alphabet City-Tompkins Square Slow Zone, the community-based program that reduces the speed limit within designated zones from 30 mph to 20 mph. (Read the background about all this here.)

For starters, the zone is expected to go into effect in August, according to CB3 member Chad Marlow, who helped put the plan in motion for the East Village early last year.

The above map shows the designated Slow Zone — First Avenue east to the FDR, and from East Second Street north to East 14th Street.

In addition to the 20 mph speed limit, a Slow Zone area receives speed humps (21 for East Village) and new striping and signage to slow drivers. (You can find a PDF of the DOT's presentation here.)

This is a particularly personal issue for Marlow. In 1995, a drunken driver struck Marlow's father on Harlem River Drive, an accident that left him with quadriplegia and a severe brain injury. His father died 13 years after the accident.

"I actually almost started crying when I got the DOT plan printout," Marlow told us. "This is a very emotional issue for me. I feel great and grateful."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)

More about the timing of the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone

More about the timing of the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone

[Click image to enlarge]

On Friday, CB3 member Chad Marlow learned that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. (Read the background about all this here.)

Here's an update. According to StreetsBlog, there were 74 applications for slow zones citywide. In total, the DOT selected 15 of the zones to be rolled out over the course of the next three years. Turns out the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone is in the highest priority group, and is set for implementation next year. Other neighborhoods receiving a slow zone next year are Norwood in the Bronx, Clinton Hill/Bedford Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights, Queens.

The DOT says the applications were evaluated on criteria including crash history, community support, and proximity of schools and senior or daycare centers, as StreetsBlog reported. Slow Zones will include signage, a 20-mph speed limit and speed humps.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)

City approves Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone

[Click image to enlarge]

Back in April, CB3 member Chad Marlow, and the group that he founded in 2011, the Tompkins Square Park & Playground Parents’ Association (TSP3A), kicked off a neighborhood safety initiative.

The group applied to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to have them create what the group is calling the "Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone" (TSACSZ).

The TSACSZ, in short, is an effort to improve pedestrian safety for children and all others who live/work/play in the proposed 0.38 square-mile zone by reducing motor vehicle speeds. Per Marlow, the slow zone program takes a well-defined, relatively compact area, and reduces its speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour, with further reductions to 15 miles per hour near schools.

Now that I've buried the lead Marlow just learned today that the DOT has approved the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. Per a DOT letter to Marlow, the implementation will take place some time in 2014.

In an op-ed in The Villager last spring, Marlow also revealed a personal reason behind this proposal. In 1995, a drunken driver struck Marlow's father, an accident that left him with quadriplegia and a severe brain injury. His father died 13 years after the accident. (Read the entire op-ed here.)

We asked Marlow via email for his reaction to the DOT's decision:

"I am beyond grateful to the Department of Transportation for approving the Tompkins Square/Alphabet City Slow Zone. I am equally filled with gratitude for all of the community groups, elected officials and members of Community Board 3, whose support for the proposal was instrumental in making it a reality. Most of all, I find myself thinking of my father, Richard Marlow, and how something positive has finally come out of the years of terrible pain and suffering he endured after being hit by a speeding, drunk driver in 1995. I dedicate this effort to his memory."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Call for an East Village 'slow zone' (34 comments)