Farragut Avenue (2021-22)
When Westchester County announced that it would repave and restripe Farragut Avenue from Five Corners to Farragut Parkway, I served as the Village Board’s liaison and worked to incorporate into the project a series of traffic and safety improvements not included in the original design.
Working with County engineers, we came up with a plan to add new bike lanes on Farragut Avenue—something our Comprehensive Plan had set as a goal throughout the Village.
I also lobbied for design changes to:
Promote safe traffic flow past the school complex;
Maximize street parking throughout the span;
Preserve parking by the homes across from Burke Estate;
Improve visibility for turns onto and off Farragut from its side streets;
Install more logical and visible crosswalks; and
Minimize speeding by vehicles from the Saw Mill Parkway, by reducing the northbound lanes coming from the Saw Mill at the Farragut Avenue-Farragut Parkway split (and securing the State approval needed to do it).
This project required extensive communication with Hastings residents and stakeholders, and these interactions translated into rounds of negotiations with County engineers. To complete the redesign with as much of what we hoped to include as possible, I also persuaded the County government to allocate additional funds for grinding and relocating the crown of the road.
While I think the bike lanes are a great addition, I may be most proud of the traffic boxes at Hillside Avenue and Mount Hope Boulevard. These appear to have mitigated an historically dangerous pedestrian zone—one where we had seen both students and crossing guards hit by passing vehicles—and they‘ve eased traffic flow around the school.
Small Changes, Big Potential: The Farragut Avenue project has laid the groundwork for the eventual repaving of Ravensdale Road, with the potential for bike lanes linking the Ravensdale Bridge and South County Trailway to Farragut Avenue and Broadway (Route 9), to the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge and beyond.
