Accident #47: Saturday, April 26,12:30 p.m.

This one appears to be a collision between a police vehicle and a civilian automobile

Accident #46, Thurs.,4/15/08, 3:55 p.m.

This one took place in my absence. It was witnessed by Rita as follows:

3:55 p.m., Thurs., 4/17: Two grey sedans, two drivers standing outside of them apparently arguing, at the usual accident spot.

4:25 p.m.: cars and drivers still there, drivers standing outside of their cars, using cell phones.

Accident # 45, Sunday 12:02 a.m., April 13, 2008

Middle of the night. How would you like to be part of this accident ? Tell the Governor !

Accident #44

Same spot. Accident #43, Friday, April 11, 1:15 p.m.

Accident # 43

Wednesday, 4/9/08, 10 p.m.

Second accident this evening !

And here is Accident # 41. It is the second accident, at the very same spot, this evening. And please remember that I cannot watch the spot all the time. I can only document the accidents that I happen to see. Time for this one: about 11:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Accident #41

And here, once again, the t-bone: accident #40, Tuesday, April 8, about 8:45 p.m. When will the State see fit to do something ? Traffic lights, though they may slow traffic a bit, would seem to be the most feasible solution.

Third accident of day

Accident #39; third in day. Monday, April 7, 2008, about 3:30 p.m. This one involved at least one school bus. Mr. Governor, I know you're new on the job, but ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ????

Accident #39

Just a couple of hours after the previous accident, here is #38. About 3:10 p.m., Monday, April 8, 2008.

Accident #38

Monday, April 7, 2008, ab. 12:30 p.m. Yet another t-bone accident, same spot. The installation of traffic signals would seem to be the most practical solution for avoiding this constant mayhem.

Another accident

Accident # 36. Friday, April 4, 2008, 10 a.m.

New Mayhem on the BQE; Accident # 36

Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 9:30 p.m. This appears to be a multi-vehicle event. Same t-bone.

Accident #35

Thursday, March 20, 2008, 12:35 p.m. Same spot, same t-bone. A system of traffic lights, controlled with sophisticated software to regulate traffic, seems the most cost-effective way to stop these constant accidents at this t-bone and at the many others on the BQE here and the FDR Drive in Manhattan.

Accident #34

Observed by my wife Rita in my absence:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008.

12:30 p.m. Immediately past the t-bone entrance. Huge semi stalled there, with grey station wagon behind it. Police car arrives, man in brown suit talks to police officer. Police car leaves.

12:50 p.m. Two men with tow truck appear to prepare to remove the grey station wagon, but do not do so.

1 p.m. The truck drives away. Now another car, a black sedan, is visible; it had been behind the truck. This car also drives away.

1:03 p.m. The grey station wagon drives away.

Accident # 33: March 8, 2008, about 3:20 p.m

I was away from March 3 to March 9. My wife observed the following on Mar. 8:

Two vehicles stopped at t-bone entrance; the first a dark purple station wagon, the other a green sedan. Three men are outside these vehicles, speaking with one another.

New Incident, Mon., 3/3/08

New apparent accident at the t-bone, today, Monday, 3/3/08, about 10:30 a.m.

Accident #31: Second accident of day

Here is the second accident of this Leap Year Day at the usual t-bone site. This picture was taken at 6 p.m., Friday, February 29, 2008.

Accident #30: Three-Car Pile-Up, Fri.,Leap Year Day, 3 p.m.

Chinese scholars propose use of traffic lights for highway entrance ramps

Highway ramp control via fuzzy logic Shing-Fei Lee You-Wei Teng Wen-June Wang Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Central Univ., Chung-Li; This paper appears in: Fuzzy Systems, 2000. FUZZ IEEE 2000. The Ninth IEEE International Conference on Publication Date: 7-10 May 2000 Volume: 1, On page(s): 274-278 vol.1 Meeting Date: 05/07/2000 - 05/10/2000 Location: San Antonio, TX, USA ISBN: 0-7803-5877-5 References Cited: 15 INSPEC Accession Number: 6622913 Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/FUZZY.2000.838671 Posted online: 2002-08-06 23:07:08.0

Abstract Utilizes the fuzzy control concept to design a highway on-ramp control (HORC) such that the traffic light in the on-ramp works well to maintain the smoothness of the traffic flow on the highway. The HORC includes a fuzzy decision base (FDB) to estimate the probability of the light change and a decision function to decide the change making of the light. In this HORC, we only need one sensor to measure the speed and the speed change rate of the vehicles on the highway. Our simulation shows that the HORC has a good performance

Accident # 29: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Another accident at the t-bone. Reminder: I can only report accidents that my wife or I see, so there are obviously quite a few that go unreported on this blog.

I wasn't home for today's incident, so I give my wife Rita's report. She does not use the SLR, so there is no picture. Here is her report:

12:35 p.m. Feb. 27, '08
red car bumps into gray station wagon waiting to get on BQE; both pull over, check damage to rear. red car makes a call; g.s.w. keeps checking through hatchback (people inside ?), kicks back of car several times, closes back.
12:56 police car appears, drives away ..
1:03 another p0l. car appears, drives away
1:16 tow truck arrives, parks in "triangle"
1:17 2 police cars, one leaves.

Saturday, Feb. 23., 2008, 5:15 p.m.

Accident #28 since Aug. 23, 2007 at this spot. When, oh when my Lord, will the powers that be take action ?

The Brooklyn Paper Covers the T-Bone

This week's Brooklyn Paper is covering our t-bone. It's worse than even I thought ! Do read this article.

Traffic Lights Can Save Lives

Photo by Kirst0714

As other jurisdictions have learned, traffic lights on the highway can save lives. If it's too expensive to provide a proper acceleration ramp, it's always possible to provide safe access through the use of traffic lights.

The State Bureaucracy: Our Ramp Doesn't Measure Up

Governor Eliot Spitzer

Commissioner Astrid C. Glynn, NYS Department of Transportation

Douglas A. Currey, Regional Director, NYSDOT

The State bureaucracy has spoken: the t-bone entrance is "below current standards." But the State also feels that to improve the lane "would require major capital work," which "is not feasible." On the other hand, some minor steps are being taken. In my view, these are no more than cosmetic.

The State position was outlined in a January 29 letter by Douglas Currey, Regional Director of the State's Department of Transportation, to Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board Six. Hammerman had previously written to DOT to express concern over the safety issues posed by the notorious t-bone entrance to the BQE near Congress Street.

Here is the text of Currey's letter:

This is in response to your recent letter regarding safety concerns at the entrance ramp from Congress Street to the westboud Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

My staff has investigated the conditions at this ramp, including a review of the accident history, and determined that the acceleration lane for entering traffic is below current standards. To improve the acceleration lane would require major captial work on the Congress Street overpass, which we feel at this time is not feasible. As such, we have recently implemented several other measures to enhance safety at this location. For example, we have installed a curve warning sign with an advisory speed limit sign on the mainline at the ramp. We have also installed solid white barrier lines between the travel lanes to discourage lane changing on the mainline, so that more gaps in the mainline flow of the right lane can occur. In addition, we are evaluating the installation of a ramp metering system for this location so that we can regulate the pace at which vehicles enter the mainline flow.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

I do understand the problem the State has: many of its highways have severe safety flaws, and not all of these can be corrected all at once. (For instance, I have noticed some very dangerous t-bone entrances to the FDR Drive in Manhattan). Here are my suggestions:

1. The public needs to know the extent of the problem at the various locations that have been implicated in the numerous accidents. I have requested such comparative data in my FOIL request, but this request remains unfulfilled. Mr. Currey says that he has reviewed the accident history here at this t-bone, but he does not disclose what his review has revealed.

2. If there is no money to fix the most dangerous conditions, the really bad ramps should be closed. If, for example, the bad t-bone here at Congress Street were closed, the inconvenience to the public would be minimal; there are a number of safer entrances to the BQE within minutes of this one. I personally never use this entrance; I find alternate routes without trouble.

One more ! 27th accident since August 23, 2007

Tuesday, February 5, 2008, about 8:45 p.m. Same spot: the on-ramp of the BQE, Congress Street entrance.

More of the same

Thursday, Jan. 31, 9:15 p.m. Picture shows scene under the Congress Street bridge, a few feet west of the t-bone entrance point.

This one is on the off-ramp

Monday, January 28, 2008, about 1:30 p.m. This accident is on the off-ramp. These accidents are less frequent than the others, but they do occur, apparently because the off-ramp, like the on-ramp, has an improper design. Where the on-ramp lacks a provision for acceleration (a deadly fault), the off-ramp lacks proper deceleration. Maybe in the time of Robert Moses this was considered acceptable, given the relatively sparse traffic at the time. But this is 2008, Mr. Governor ! Poor old Bob Moses is long dead, as is, or should be, his careless attitude toward safety engineering.

How long, O Lord !

The New York City Police Department promised to have information about my FOIL request by January 5. January 5 has come and gone !

When Will They Ever Learn ....

to eliminate this death trap ? Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:15 p.m., same spot, on-ramp, BQE west-bound, Congress Street, Brooklyn.

Major Accident -- Tues.,Jan. 8, 2008

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008, 4 p.m. Judging by the number and type of emergency vehicles, this is a major accident, at the on-ramp, same old place.

This time it's the off-ramp

Friday, December 28, 2007, about 10 a.m. This time it's the off-ramp on the same location. It's a major accident, an overturned cement truck. Obviously both off and on ramps need rebuilding. My posting of Sept. 17, 2007 ("It Can Be Done !") gave one idea of how to do it.

One more: Saturday, December 22, 9:15 p.m.

This is the second accident THAT I HAVE SEEN on this spot on this day. Obviously, those that I see can only be a fraction of those that occur.

Saturday, December 22, 2007, 9:45 a.m.

Accident at same spot !

Middle of the Night

Thursday, December 20, 2007, about 3:30 a.m. Same spot, new accident.

Tuesday, December 11, 2 p.m.

Another collision accident at the t-bone entrance. I must point out, again, that I do not monitor this spot 24-7. The accidents that I can document are obviously only a fraction of all those that occur here.

I recently took a cab drive to Manhattan and chatted with the driver about the t-bone. He told me that the frequency of accidents at this spot is notorious in the profession.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

About 8:30 a.m. While I was away, my wife (not qualified on Nikon SLR) observed the following accident scene at the t-bone: a stalled passenger car, a tow truck behind it, soon followed by a police car.

Thursday, November 15, 2007, 8:30 a.m.

Here, once again !

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Depressingly familiar. Another accident at T-Bone. This one on Thursday, November 8, 2007, about 10 p.m.

Today's Accident -- Monday, Nov.5,2007, ab. 9:30 a.m.

Second Incident of Day

Friday, November 2, 2007, about 4 p.m. Here is the second incident for the day, same t-bone entrance of BQE. How many of these accidents happen per day ? I don't know, I can only report those I happen to spot. And the authorities have not, so far, responded to my requests for an accounting. Not a good situation.

Ambulance, Police, Distraught Motorist

Friday, November 2, 2007, 9 - 10 a.m. The ambulance shows that this was no mere fender bender. Once again there is suffering, and expense to the tax payer. This would not have happened on a properly designed entrance ramp !

Another mishap at the T-Bone

Wednesday, October 24, 2007, about 12:15 p.m. That semi-trailer on the left, marked "tex", is stuck. Was it hit by someone at the T-Bone, did it just happen to run out of gas right there ? It wouldn't be right there, with another semi trying to get around it, if there were a proper acceleration ramp.