Op-Ed | Cut-through traffic is clogging residential streets; here’s what we can do about it

The streets of Jamaica, Queens cater to private cars. For decades, elected officials have justified prioritizing this infrastructure, even in residential areas, by claiming our community is dependent on cars. Traditional residential neighborhoods across the city—quiet places where you can walk to the store, meet neighbors, or learn to ride a bike—have been slowly transformed into corridors that mostly facilitate more and more driving. Jamaica residents are told we don’t need safe bike lanes, short crosswalks, fast buses, or tree-shaded sidewalks because that’s not how people in this neighborhood get around. But the numbers tell a different story.

It turns out most of the drivers in my neighborhood—more than half!—aren’t residents, or visiting a resident or a local business; they’re just cutting through on their way to somewhere else. The majority of cars on local streets have, literally, no business in the neighborhood. In fact, 60% of residents near Hillside Avenue rely on public transit, and 83% of them specifically rely on buses. We are not a neighborhood of drivers. But we are a neighborhood stuck in traffic, and on dangerous inhospitable roads, caused by people who are just passing through.

I’ve lived with this transportation reality my whole life. Growing up in nearby Hollis, I frequently commuted by bus to Jamaica to catch the train for school at Brooklyn Tech—and was regularly late to my first class due to slowness and overcrowding on the Q110. Much of this congestion stems from Jamaica’s role as a major transit hub. We have the last stops of the F, E, and J subway lines, the JFK AirTrain, a central bus terminal, and the Jamaica LIRR station. Because of this, many non-local drivers treat Jamaica as a pass-through and park-and-ride location.

We see similar situations in neighborhoods all over the city. New York City residential streets were not built to accommodate so much cut-through traffic. But when we don’t design our local streets differently than our highways, that’s exactly how drivers use streets. So even though my neighbors primarily don’t own or use cars, my streets cater to drivers; people from a totally different part of the city just trying to get somewhere else a fraction faster.

I don’t blame drivers for trying to avoid traffic jams. People are driving more than ever before— in the last 20 years driving in NYC has increased 14%. With all this extra congestion, apps like Waze push people to find the quickest route, which is often a neighborhood street. But these narrow streets aren’t meant to operate like this.

We can reclaim our neighborhoods by reducing this cut-through traffic through what are known as Low Traffic Neighborhood treatments. Other cities do it; just make a few strategic changes—like changing the direction of some residential streets near the bigger boundary roads and using diverters at key intersections—and drivers can’t cut through on their way somewhere else. It’s worth noting that nearby wealthier neighborhoods like Jamaica Estates already feature the curved, winding streets that naturally create Low Traffic Neighborhoods—in contrast to the wide, linear streets that make up the core of Jamaica. In places that use Low Traffic Neighborhood tools, there are 50% fewer cars on the treated streets but residents still come and go as they please.

Another easy target area would be streets by local schools. On average, the streets near New York City’s schools are more dangerous than the rest of the city. Arrival and dismissal times are always chaotic, but for areas with high cut-through traffic, a lot of that chaos is due to drivers who don’t need to be there. There’s a very real danger in allowing drivers to speed through our school communities.

What’s especially interesting about reducing cut-through traffic is that it actually reduces traffic on nearby highways and bigger roads, too. When you make neighborhoods calmer, more people walk, bike, and take the bus, and that reduces traffic inside and outside the immediate area. So everyone wins—streets are quieter and safer for me and my neighbors and the surrounding, higher-traffic streets are less congested, making it even easier to get where you’re going when you do need to drive.

From an early age I felt the hopelessness of many New Yorkers who live in areas that prioritize drivers over the needs of locals. But by looking at the data and getting realistic about who is using our local streets and how we can make them work more effectively, it’s clear that a better future is well within our grasp. Reducing cut-through traffic would not impact residents’ access to their neighborhood in any way. More quiet, more connection, more options for walking, biking, or riding the bus. That’s the future I want for Jamaica and for neighborhoods across the city.

Abu Nayeem is a Jamaica resident, transportation advocate, and District 27 Community Captain.