On Sept. 15, an eight-year-old child riding a bicycle was hit by a pickup truck at the intersection of South Wall Street and Greenkill Avenue, a very tricky piece of Kingston’s streetscape, which has been dubbed by some the “five ways to die” intersection. The accident occurred during the daytime while the child was in the crosswalk.

While the child did not suffer serious injuries, one Kingston resident who lives near the intersection, Elle Kelsheimer, decided she did not want to wait until someone else got hurt. Kelsheimer and her husband, Mike Caputo, created a petition asking the city to address the safety issues with that intersection.

“There's some other parents that have children around here, and we're concerned that the last two times there wasn't any bad injury, but it's only a matter of time before some kid is killed,” Kelsheimer said. “[Kingston is] doing a lot of road work around the city, and it doesn't seem like this is a priority. What we're trying to do is get them to just understand this is a big safety priority.”

For Kelsheimer, Caputo and their neighbors, navigating the intersection is a necessary part of their daily routine. One neighbor, Manny Skartados, says that he uses it three or four times a day, and said he has had concerns about it since he moved to Kingston in 2019. Kelsheimer and Caputo frequently walk, and Kelsheimer said a driver either not paying attention to her in the crossing walk or cutting in front happens on a near-daily basis, along with seeing near-misses with cars weekly.

Caputo, as well, said that this is “not a small, cranky neighborhood intersection.” The area is used by children to go to George Washington Elementary School, drivers coming in and out of New Paltz and Rosendale, trucks and bike users from the Empire State Trail.

“I really see this as an arterial piece of the whole city's roadway. If you want to get from one town to the other, there's a good chance you'll pass through here,” Caputo said. “So this is not seen as some hyper-local issue. This is something that the whole city needs to look at.”

On the front page of the petition, a map image of the intersection outlines what the exact issues with the intersection are. It includes two one-way roads next to one another which Kelsheimer said the entrance and exit of are “opposite of what you think it should be.” Navigating the intersection often requires slight turns and remembering which cars arrived first, which can confuse drivers.

“The real issue is when there's 15 to 20 cars there, and nobody remembers who stopped when, because there's really like six different car entries to keep track of, which is a lot,” Kelsheimer said. “And then there's the Stewart's parking lot with which people are entering and exiting all over. And then the school is three blocks down.”

Kelsheimer and Caputo are not the first to bring up issues with the intersection. A traffic study conducted between 2003-05 found the area had a crash rate seven times higher than the state average, leading to a 2006 recommendation for a roundabout that was never constructed.

Brian Slack, the deputy director of planning for the Ulster County Transportation Council, told Kingston Wire that the intersection has “serious geometric challenges” and that there are several alternative solutions aside from constructing a roundabout.

“It’s my understanding that area property owners were opposed to the construction of a roundabout due to the likely need for changes to property access and potential property takings, which is understandable,” Slack said. “The roundabout proposal was also contingent upon the reversal of the Fair Street and Wall Street one-way pair, which further complicates that solution.”

Kelsheimer said she spoke to one of the neighbors who was against the roundabout, and she signed the petition — in fact, Kelsheimer said that not a single one of the 48 neighbors she and Caputo spoke to declined a signature. The petition does not direct the city to adopt a specific solution, but instead to address the problem and work toward one.

“I think if we had a bigger petition, like an online petition, we could easily get hundreds and hundreds of signatures,” Kelsheimer said. “I started with this local one because I think just having the physical signatures would be a little more impactful.”

In the original 2006 study, numerous short- and long-term improvements were suggested. This included improving existing signage, closing Fair Street immediately adjacent to the intersection and opening Wall Street to two-way traffic, or “retrofitting” a four-way intersection within the five-way intersection footprint.

“This involves providing one-way travel toward the intersection from Boulevard and providing one-way travel away from the intersection on Greenkill Avenue west of the intersection,” the study reads.

Another proposed solution was switching the Fair Street/Wall Street flow between the study intersection to either Henry Street or for the entire length of the streets to North Front Street.

“I don't want to be the one to offer suggestions and ideas just because I'm not an engineer. It's not something that it's in my profession or have any knowledge of. It's more so [that] it's an issue,” Skartados said. “Coming from us, it's ‘Hey, we need to get eyes on this and really do something about it because it's been a long time since something was done about it and it deserves another look.’”

The petition was shared with the Kingston City School District’s transportation department, the Kingston Common Council, Mayor Steve Noble, staff liaison for the city Complete Streets Advisory Council Emily Flynn and Slack, who was the first to respond.

Slack told the Kingston Wire that the issue was originally going to be discussed at the Oct. 5 Ulster County Traffic Safety Board meeting, but that meeting was cancelled due to illness. Slack said it “may come up” in November.

Summer Smith, the director of communications and community engagements for the City of Kingston, also said the intersection “does present challenges.”

“It has been discussed for long-term reconfiguration, but in the meantime, we have added crossing guards during the school arrival and dismissal time, and our Engineering Department continues to look for ways to address safety concerns,” Smith said.

After the interview, Kelsheimer shared that their petition was added to the agenda for the Oct. 14 Safe Streets Council meeting. Gustavo Saume, a member of the council, shared his thoughts in an email to fellow council members that was included in the agenda. Saume referred to the petition as “a very well thought out letter from concerned residents” and that he avoids it when possible.

“I've been meaning to add this to the list of ideas to use the camera fund, like a painted roundabout,” Saume wrote. “But at the same time, I agree with them, roundabouts are great depending on the context and design, and agree that they have a lot of pluses, but they tend to be harder to navigate for pedestrians as drivers are more concerned with entering it.”

Saume listed his own ideas, such as changing the intersection from five to four corners and turning the east side of Greenkill into a single lane and straightening the South Wall Street crosswalk.

Until the issue is resolved, Kelsheimer said that while she does want to promote independence for her and Caputo’s son when the time comes for him to go to elementary school, she does not feel comfortable letting him walk in that intersection.

“Sometimes two cars blast through. Even if the kid does everything I tell them word for word, not on their phone, crossing at the right time, they could still be hit,” Kelsheimer said. “It's just crazy, and cars are getting bigger, and there's more distractions. People are on their phones. It makes me want to not let him handle that until he's driving.”