A Coney Island Avenue car wash is turning the busy boulevard into a parking lot, say residents who claim idling cars getting buffed outside the business turn their daily commute into a traffic nightmare.
Hollywood Car Wash’s neighbors say squeaky-clean vehicles getting dried outside the business jut into one of Coney Island Avenue’s two Coney Island-bound lanes — causing a back-up exacerbated by a double-parking plague further down the block. Cars also clog nearby streets and cause backups as they make illegal turns into and out of the business, residents say.
“It’s a whole ball of wax and there are a lot of factors,” said Brenda Gannam, who lives a few doors down from the car wash. “But people exiting the car wash have to be respectful of the basic traffic laws.”
Residents claim the car wash employees have done little to ameliorate the problem.
“Their lack of respect for the flow of traffic on Coney Island Avenue, especially during high volume times, just adds another quality of life problem in our neighborhood,” said Eva Lewandoswki, a Prospect Park South resident who says her neighborhood’s main through-route takes cars right onto Coney Island Avenue. “Here is another business that has expanded in the past few years with no consideration of the environmental impact for the folks who live here.”
Calls to the car wash were not returned.
The NYPD confirmed that the 66th Precinct had received complaints about traffic problems stemming from the car wash, but would not say what was being done to fix the problem.
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.
