light. In 1985, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) started a project to examine the causes of fatalities and injuries on the boulevard. The changing of traffic signals to increase crossing times across the boulevard helped reduce the average pedestrian deaths in a section in Forest Hills and Rego Park from 4 each year from 1980 and 1984 to 1 in 1986. In four of the five years between 1988 and 1992, as many people were killed in car accidents on the boulevard as on any other street in the city. Between 1991 and 1992, new speed limit signs were installed on the Boulevard, police enforcement of traffic light and speeding violations was increased, and the timing for street lights was adjusted. In 1992, in a test lasting a month, one camera on the Boulevard recorded over 1,000 red-light and speeding violations. In 1993, the NYCDOT planned on installing 15 video cameras across the city that spring, with at least one installed on Queens Boulevard, to monitor and report drivers who run red lights or speed. Summonses would be sent to the owner of the car observed making the traffic infractions. The DOT also planned on installing barriers in the center median separating eastbound and westbound traffic in a section of Forest Hills to discourage people from crossing the street outside of intersections. The DOT had studied installing pedestrian bridges over Queens Boulevard, in addition to Eastern Parkway and Grand Concourse, but had found that it would have been too expensive to do so. In January 1997, the city commissioned a study of the of roadway between the Long Island Expressway and Union Turnpike. The study was completed by 1999, and most work was finished by July 2001. As part of the improvement process, the city installed new curb- and median-extensions along the corridor; repainted crosswalks so they were more visible; added fences in the medians; closed several "slips" that allowed vehicles to make high-speed turns; posted large signs proclaiming that "A Pedestrian Was Killed Crossing Here" at intersections where fatal accidents have occurred; and reduced the speed limit from ; a few segments had 35 mph speed limits. Pedestrian signals were adjusted so that they were given 60 seconds to cross the boulevard, compared to 32-50 seconds before the improvements. The street gained notoriety in 2001 as "the Boulevard of Death" due to multiple pedestrian fatalities. Due