Traffic Noise on Horatio Street, especially in the wee hours of the morning is a problem. But it seems to be a problem that not many residents are willing to do anything about. Currently, there is a tabled discussion to eliminate night-time parking on one side of Horatio Street in hopes of lessening traffic that way. In order to pass, it would need community support. Is there any? Are you in support? Against? Have questions? Post a comment and let’s get a conversation going.
To get you up to date, please read the reports provided by Bruce Solomon:
May 21, 2008
First, a proposal to ban traffic going south on Washington St. from turning left onto Horatio between 9`pm and 5 am each night was on the agenda for the community board 2 traffic committee May 13. The proposal was intended to solve the problem of the high density of traffic on Horatio St. during the night by disallowing traffic leaving the Meat Market during those hours from using our street as a means of going east towards 8th Ave.
During the discussion there was not unanimous support for the proposal by residents of Horatio St. who attended the meeting. As a result, the traffic committee felt unable to act to implement the ban.
The committee heard a suggestion that problems caused by traffic density on Horatio St. at night might also be solved by allowing parking on only one side of the street at night, instead of both sides, as at present. This would allow drivers trying to park their cars more space to maneuver their cars into the curbside, and therefore they could do it in less time. It was pointed out that it now takes drivers so much time to park because of parking on both sides that traffic often builds up significantly behind them, frequently causing jams at the intersection of Horatio and Washington Streets and the inevitable honking of horns by impatient drivers.
A representative of the mayor’s office said that her traffic committee was already studying the elimination of parking on one side of Horatio St. at night, and suggested that this might prove a more feasible option than forbidding cars from turning into Horatio St. It was suggested that this option would also be easier for police to enforce.
The traffic committee chairman said her group was reluctant to proceed with a recommendation for Horatio St. without a clear indication from block residents as to what regulation they would like, if any, to reduce the noise problems on Horatio St. She promised that if she received a recommendation from the residents, she would place it on the agenda of the next cb2 traffic committee meeting in June.
One block resident suggested that a special meeting of the HSA should be called soon to decide on a concrete recommendation to present to the traffic committee. A meeting would allow the HSA to know how many residents might be affected by a ban on parking on one side of the street, or any other problems this ban would present.
June 20, 2008
You may be interested to know that I did attend the cb2 traffic committee meeting tonight. They could only table any plan to change traffic or parking on Horatio St. because there was no representative of any block association that should have studied the proposals from the last committee meeting. It now appears to the committee that noone on the block except myself who attended the meeting cares about the problem enough to warrant any change.
If you’re happy with traffic on Horatio the way it is, with cars honking at 2 am, while they wait for someone to try to park by maneuvering around 2 sides of parked cars on a narrow street without hitting a side mirror, then fine. Are there really enough residents on this street who park cars in the street to justify parking on both sides? If so, why do so many parked cars at night belong to non-residents parking or unparking their cars through the night?
Obviously, we need a residents’ meeting to either work out a proposal that might solve the problem, such as prohibiting cars from parking on one side of the street, so cars leaving the meatpacking district at night are not backed up waiting for someone to try to park, followed by impatient horn-blowing, or to decide it’s too much trouble to change things. By again tabling the motion from the past meeting, the cb2 traffic committee has signaled that it is waiting to hear from us as a block association what solution do we want.
I agree resident parking permits are the best solution; this is not a phrase our city understands yet, however. The DOT does understand, “No parking this side at any time.” We have to go with the solution the city currently has printed on signs. If it turns out there really are too many residents with cars to park on only one side, we can always go back to the current system. Ideally, resident cars would fill the one side of the street that allows parking, and force non-residents, often loud 20-somethings drunkenly staggering to their cars after midnight, thus another source of noise, to park elsewhere.
Personally, I don’t sleep on the Horatio St. side of my apartment, though I often work at that end at 2 am, so I’m aware of the noise. I feel sorry for those who do sleep on that side. What would you like to do for them?
I do sleep on the Horatio Street side of my apartment (really, its the only side of my apartment), and after 9 years, I’m pretty accustomed to traffic noise. When I moved in, the noise was the 3-5am fleets of trucks exiting the Meat-Packing district, and the garbage truck. I got used to it. As the traffic transitioned to clubbers, I got used to that traffic too. Honestly, this is New York, I expect middle of the night traffic noise. These days, however, it isn’t the traffic noise that awakens me, it’s the drunken screamers and it is the car alarms (I passionately despise the creator of car alarms).
While it would be nice to eliminate some of the traffic noise, I’m worried about the possible ramifications of eliminating parking on one side of the street. Am I overthinking things? I don’t know…
My concern about eliminating over-night parking on one side of the street is two-fold:
First, I love the open feel of our street during the day, created by NO PARKING and I fear that eliminating overnight parking on one side of the street is a step towards creating some kind of daytime parking. That may be unreasonable, but there it is. Also, we are one of very few streets left that doesn’t have alternate side parking.
Second, I really do fear that “NO PARKING” will lead to the “NO PARKING” side of the street being taken over by the stretch limos that seem to be proliferating in our neighborhood. If limos are ’standing’ on the No Parking side, then no progress will have been made towards eliminating traffic noise. And these limos will be idling and sending fumes into our neighborhood. In addition, we’ve already had a few of these limos snag parking on our street (usually the limos arrive much to late to get parking), and when they have, they’ve been used as an extra party room for whoever has rented them for the night. I’d rather honking than screaming drunkards stumbling in and out of a limo. Honking is a noise I can block out, but the drunken revelers and the car alarms, they get me every time….
I too live on Horatio at the corner of Grrenwhich St and I am extrmely bothered by the traffic, horns , late night noise, etc. I have complained to every agency in city government and have received basically the same response — we are working on it. I will be happy to be involved. email: bwill61@aol.com
I live on the corner of Washington and Horatio with my apartment facing Washington and while I’m always bothered by the noise and traffic, one side parking on Horatio isn’t a solution for me.
I drive to work (out of necessity not choice) every morning and the more and more overnight parking that’s eliminated in the neighborhood the more I’m left to fight for what few spots are left. A trivial notion to some I know, but when I come home from a twelve hour shift I’d rather not spend another 45 minutes to an hour looking for parking simply because someone else is causing a ruckus. I’m not naive to the fact that a large number of the spots are taken by club goers, but there’s nothing that I can do about that.
I think residential parking permits would be a wonderful solution, but last time I spoke with the city DOT commish (i’m a reporter) she told me now that congestion pricing failed that isn’t likely to happen because it requires both city and state approval.
I don’t pretend to have a more viable solution, but wanted to express my opinion on this because I’m sure I’m not the only one in the area in the same situation.