The Boulevard of death
The Boulevard of Death
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City, the largest in the area, and second largest in population. It is approximately 178.3 square miles with a population of
2,272,771. The major source of employment is trade, transportation and utilities. Queens is ethnically diverse, but it is composed of mostly Whites and Hispanics.
The community of Forest Hills, within the city of Queens, is bordered by Flushing to the north, Woodhaven to the south, Rego Park to the east, and Jamaica to the west. A windshield survey was performed on the community, on October 25th, 2013, to identify health risks within the community and resources available to alleviate the threat were conducted. The major health risk identified involves crossing Queens Boulevard on foot.
Health Hazard Identified
The health hazard identified in this community is crossing Queens Boulevard on foot.
Queens Boulevard is also known as “The Boulevard of Death” or “The Boulevard of Broken
Bones”, it runs northwest to southeast across almost an entire borough and it’s a deadly thoroughfare. From 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed crossing Queens Boulevard, an average of 10 persons per year with countless injuries nearly all pedestrians >60 years of age. It’s 12 lanes wide packed with heavy automobile traffic up to 70 thousand cars traveling on it daily. The distance to cross the street is 225 feet, for an elderly person this can be challenging or close to impossible when they only have 40 seconds to cross. New York City is very unique. It is one of very few cities with more pedestrian fatalities than motor vehicle occupant fatalities, one particular thoroughfare—Queens Boulevard—was contributing to many unintentional automobile- related injury and deaths in the early 1980s. (Rettling, 2011)
Outcome Goal
The community based goal for this issue is to decrease the amount of deaths that occur yearly from 10 to 5 by April 2014.
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City, the largest in the area, and second largest in population. It is approximately 178.3 square miles with a population of
2,272,771. The major source of employment is trade, transportation and utilities. Queens is ethnically diverse, but it is composed of mostly Whites and Hispanics.
The community of Forest Hills, within the city of Queens, is bordered by Flushing to the north, Woodhaven to the south, Rego Park to the east, and Jamaica to the west. A windshield survey was performed on the community, on October 25th, 2013, to identify health risks within the community and resources available to alleviate the threat were conducted. The major health risk identified involves crossing Queens Boulevard on foot.
Health Hazard Identified
The health hazard identified in this community is crossing Queens Boulevard on foot.
Queens Boulevard is also known as “The Boulevard of Death” or “The Boulevard of Broken
Bones”, it runs northwest to southeast across almost an entire borough and it’s a deadly thoroughfare. From 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed crossing Queens Boulevard, an average of 10 persons per year with countless injuries nearly all pedestrians >60 years of age. It’s 12 lanes wide packed with heavy automobile traffic up to 70 thousand cars traveling on it daily. The distance to cross the street is 225 feet, for an elderly person this can be challenging or close to impossible when they only have 40 seconds to cross. New York City is very unique. It is one of very few cities with more pedestrian fatalities than motor vehicle occupant fatalities, one particular thoroughfare—Queens Boulevard—was contributing to many unintentional automobile- related injury and deaths in the early 1980s. (Rettling, 2011)
Outcome Goal
The community based goal for this issue is to decrease the amount of deaths that occur yearly from 10 to 5 by April 2014.
References: Rettling, R. (2011). Current trends for queens boulevard pedestrian safety project. New York , NY; Simon & Schuster.