Analyzing the Whole Foods Traffic Study


Whole Foods is making a presentation to the Community Board 6 Landmarks / Land Use Committee next Thursday (Warning: .pdf) on their plans for their site on 3rd and 3rd. As a prelude to their applications and meetings, they have done some community outreach, including meeting with the 3rd Street Block Association. Provided to the community was their traffic study, outlining the impacts of the development on the surrounding areas, as well as their proposed improvements and corrections to signal timing to mitigate these impacts. I’ve uploaded the entire .pdf here (Warning: .pdf, 6+ MB) if anyone needs a good nap.

Some Highlights:
- Third Street is going to be a problem in the morning, even more so than it already is. They are showing below-acceptable intersections at Third and Third, Third and Bond, and Third and Fourth for weekday mornings.
- Third and Third and Third and Fourth are also below acceptable throughout the day (this is due to the long light times, I believe)
- After the development, despite proposed improvements, the traffic at Third and Bond will be worse and the traffic at Third and Third will be worst. Four total intersections in the study area will have their LOS negatively affected.

Proposed Improvements:
- Third and Third will see many changes (see below). These include: new striping on crosswalks, signal interval adjustments, removal of parking spaces for turn lanes (what will Con Ed workers have to say about that?), and shifting of center lanes.
- The rest of the improvements will be signalization and the addition of a few signs as far away as Ninth and Fourth.

That is it. With those improvements, Whole Foods believes they will mitigate impacts on traffic and the LOS will improve at all affected intersections. (As part of recommendations of this study,) They are not proposing any significant pedestrian, bicycle, transit or other improvements. Surely, the intersection could use some bus shelters, new bike lanes, pedestrian safety islands or other improvements that, oh, I don’t know, could cost money?