Changes aim to make walking streets safer

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A number of transportation changes are underway in the northwest Bronx.

In line with the city’s Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities, two of the projects aim to make streets safer for pedestrians.

The intersection of Goulden Avenue and Bedfork Park Boulevard is getting a signal showing pedestrians they have 45 seconds to cross the 43-foot-wide path. That is well over the federal recommendation of a walking speed of four feet per second. At Kingsbridge Avenue and West 238th Street, the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT)will repaint faded crosswalk markings.

The DOT will also repaint several sets of faded double yellow lines along stretches of West 232nd Street, Van Cortlandt Avenue and Sedgewick Avenue.

Northwest Bronx Councilman Andrew Cohen initiated the changes in partnership with the DOT after receiving a number of constituent complaints. 

“The Department of Transportation has been extremely helpful with conducting investigations into each of these locations and getting back to us with a timeline in which the improvements can be made,” he said in a statement. “These repairs were necessary for pedestrian and traffic safety.”

Another pedestrian safety project dubbed Safe Routes to Transit is underway in Kingsbridge, under the elevated tracks at Broadway and West 231st Street In the city-wide initiative overseen by the Department of Design and Construction, workers are installing raised sidewalks underneath the tracks at bus stops where people are usually forced to wait in the street. According to the DOT website, the so-called “bus bulbs” will “improve pedestrian visibility and enhance bus operations by improving their ability to navigate in traffic despite the columns.”

The rest of the bus stops along Broadway underneath the elevated tracks from West 242nd to West 225th streets are also slated to get bus bulbs. The project was originally scheduled for completion in the spring, but work is still underway.

Vision Zero, DOT, pedestrian safety, Isabel Angell

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