Parents and neighbors crowded the four‑way stop where Alderton Street meets Fleet Street in Forest Hills on Wednesday morning, turning a routine school‑day crossing into a full‑blown safety protest. They are demanding the city install a permanent traffic signal and other protections for people on foot, after a series of crashes in the corridor that residents say prove stop signs are not cutting it. Recent incidents include a vehicle smashing through a daycare fence and an SUV hitting a five‑year‑old, and organizers say they arrived with a petition in hand and a promise to keep pressing the Department of Transportation for quicker action.
As reported by FOX 5 New York, parents and community members rallied at the corner on June 3 to call on NYC DOT to immediately put in a permanent traffic light and pedestrian safety upgrades. According to FOX 5, the demonstration came after multiple crashes in what has become a high‑risk school corridor, including the one that tore through the daycare fence and another that left a child injured.
Local advocates point out that the corner sits right in front of the Baby Steps daycare and within easy walking distance of P.S. 174 and the Forest Hills Youth Athletic Association, making it a magnet for kids and caregivers during school and program hours, according to Streetsblog NYC. The outlet reports the petition has drawn roughly 800 signatures so far, and that DOT has told parents the intersection does not currently meet federal standards for a traffic signal. Council Member Phil Wong has urged the agency to “take a fresh look.”
Why DOT hasn't installed a signal
Federal guidance lays out nine signal “warrants” that transportation agencies use when deciding on new traffic lights, including how many cars and pedestrians pass through, whether there is a school crossing, and what the crash history looks like. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices also stresses that meeting one or more of those warrants is not, by itself, a green light for a new signal. Instead, an engineering study has to show that a traffic signal would “improve the overall safety and/or operation of the intersection.” FHWA/MUTCD
Parents' demands and short‑term fixes
Parents told Streetsblog they are willing to consider interim fixes while they push for a full traffic light. On their wish list: raised crosswalks, daylighting at corners, fresh crosswalk striping, and other traffic‑calming features that might slow drivers down. They say that signs and sporadic enforcement have not prevented close calls at the corner, so they want quick, visible changes on the ground even as they continue lobbying DOT for a permanent signal. Streetsblog NYC
How long a signal could take
The NYC DOT web request form notes that intersection control studies, which the agency uses to evaluate possible new signals, can take several months. Some signal studies run four to seven months, and other traffic‑calming reviews can stretch even longer. That kind of timeline helps explain why neighborhood groups often push hard for temporary safety measures while they wait for the slower engineering process to play out. NYC DOT
The Forest Hills Youth Athletic Association and other local organizations helped pull the rally together and are steering residents toward the petition while DOT weighs its options. The Forest Hills Youth Athletic Association invited neighbors to the June 3 event and urged the city to “re‑evaluate this intersection” before anyone else gets hurt.
