On October 24, the Department of Transportation(DOT) held a presentation to unveil preliminary findings of the traffic problems that plague the Woodhaven corridor, including congestion, transportation issues, and pedestrian safety concerns. Just five days later, a 32-year-old woman was struck by a 2000 Mercedes Benz and killed on Woodhaven Boulevard and 63rd Avenue, within the same corridor.

No one can say whether the death could have been averted, but the tragedy has put the spotlight squarely on the traffic problems and increased pressure on the DOT to implement some of the short-term fixes that have been discussed thus far.

“It is a sad irony that a woman was killed last week just as the DOT completed the preliminary aspects of the Woodhaven Traffic Study,” Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley said. “It is imperative that the DOT expedite the study and implement the changes immediately before another person is hurt, or worse, killed.”

“The DOT has to step up and take a good hard look at this issue,” Frank Gulluscio, district manager of Community Board 6 said. “Speeding, volume, timing of the lights, pedestrian refuge islands. These all need to be looked at. There are lots of long-term plans, but what about the short term?”

Another issue is the way pedestrians interact with traffic and obey the laws. Councilman Eric Ulrich, remarked on the death and the unfortunate circumstances.

“This is obviously a tragedy for the victim and her family. But she was also crossing in the middle of the street which is dangerous,” he said.

And Ulrich wants to borrow an idea from what was done with Queens Boulevard, as Woodhaven Boulevard comes to resemble its infamous neighbor more and more. “We need to implement the same barriers, the metal gating, that was put on Queens Boulevard,” he said. “It discourages people from crossing in the middle of the street.”

“They’re going to have to make a policy decision and decide if they want to maintain traffic levels or provide total safety to pedestrians,” said Vincent Arcuri, chairman of Community Board 5.

Arcuri said that there are inherent design flaws on Woodhaven Boulevard and rattled off a list of the problem intersections and the changes they need. He said that the DOT is aware of all of them.

“They have been discussed as possible fixes, but they need to done right now,” he said. “This is going to open the city to lawsuits. The problems have been identified they could easily be ameliorated.”

David Quintana, board member of Community Board 10, has his thoughts about what needs to be done. He would like to see a dedicated bus lane because he said that one bus takes many more people through the area. But he said there’s a more pressing issue.

“The biggest problem is that Woodhaven is a local truck route, it's not made for thru-truck traffic,” Quintana said, noting that Woodhaven is used as an alternative to the Van Wyck Expressway. “Half – probably more than half of the trucks on Woodhaven don’t belong there.”

For his part, Gulluscio thinks the time for preliminary fact-finding is over. “I don’t know how long we have to study something when it’s right in front of your face,” he said.