In Downtown Flushing, drivers heading northwest on Kissena Boulevard cannot cross north of Sanford Avenue in a straight line, because of bus-priority restrictions on the corridor.<\/p>\n
If you shop or work in the neighborhood and want to access a parking facility on Barclay Avenue, you can get a camera ticket unless you work your way to the east, then double back west on Sanford to make a right turn back onto Kissena.<\/p>\n
And, for a while, even that wasn\u2019t enough, thanks to an apparent glitch in a city Department of Transportation camera that began issuing tickets for the legal righthand turns.<\/p>\n
The Chronicle first learned of the problem in a newsletter from Councilwom Sandra Ung\u2019s (D-Flushing) office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my office was first contacted by numerous constituents in early December about warnings for driving through the intersection of Kissena Blvd. and Sanford, I raised this issue with DOT,\u201d Ung said in an email.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agency admitted the camera was mistakenly issuing warning notices, but that drivers could disregard the notices. In January, drivers began receiving actual summonses with fines,\u201d Ung added. \u201cDOT has informed my office that these erroneously issued fines will be fixed, and letters will be issued to drivers soon. If drivers do not receive a letter from DOT in the near future, they should reach out to my office so that we can follow up and ensure this mistake is remedied.\u201d<\/p>\n
A camera that was improperly sending out summonses for legal right turns from Sanford to Kissena has been taken out of service until it is fixed, the DOT said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutomated bus lane cameras make bus routes faster, safer, and more reliable for riders, but sometimes cameras need to be adjusted based on unique traffic patterns at some locations,\u201d a DOT spokesman said in an email. \u201cDOT reviews every violation before they are issued and is working to void any that were erroneously issued.\u201d The agency is also sending explanatory letters to everyone who received warnings and violations.<\/p>\n
Dian Song Yu, the executive director of the Downtown Flushing Transit Hub Business Improvement District, said his group also first started getting complaints in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cVisitors and consumers were getting affected,\u201d Yu said in an interview. \u201cThey were getting tickets. Not just warnings. There was supposed to be a warning. It turns out they were getting tickets. We heard from many shopkeepers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dian also reached out to the DOT and was pleased to learn that a remedy was in the works. He added that he was not was not expecting any more difficulties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The DOT spokesman said drivers on Kissena crossing Sanford directly from the southeast still will get a ticket in the mail.<\/p>\n
State Sen. John Liu (D-Bayside) said in an email he hopes things get cleared up, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrioritizing buses is important for mass transit, but it cannot be done without allowances for some personal vehicles, and certainly drivers should not be fined for following signage,\u201d Liu said. \u201cDOT must immediately correct this error and offer reprieve for all those wrongly ticketed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Downtown Flushing, drivers heading northwest on Kissena Boulevard cannot cross north of Sanford Avenue in a straight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[54229,648,609,9,24,63,122,124,123,17694,29578,608],"class_list":{"0":"post-124575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-bus-corridor","9":"tag-flushing","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-sandra-ung","18":"tag-traffic-safety","19":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}