Let's take a look at all traffic

To the editor:

(re: “After family hit by car, leaders call for study,” Sept. 5)

Recently, after some crashes, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz asked the city’s transportation department to do a traffic study of Riverdale Avenue from West 231st to West 236th streets.

It’s not enough.

The department ought to extend the study up to West 239th Street. That whole stretch of Riverdale Avenue is just plain dangerous because drivers frequently disregard our traffic signals. It’s also poorly designed.

On Halloween, when lots of kids were on the streets, I saw a driver defy a red light to make a left hand, U-turn, around another lane of traffic as he faced southbound on Riverdale Avenue and West 238th Street.

That traffic light seems to draw scofflaws. Several months ago, in one week, I saw two southbound drivers make left-hand turns onto West 238th against a red light there.

Moreover, I can’t even count the many times I have seen drivers making illegal right turns against red lights on West 239th and Henry Hudson Parkway West.

The state would reap a windfall were it to put traffic cameras at these two locations.

I’m always astonished at the bad and dangerous driving in our district, but I guess I should not be.

In the last five years — between 2014 and 2018 — Community Board 8 has experienced 1,225 total crashes with 10 deaths (seven pedestrians, three motorists), and 1,631 injuries, according to CrashMapper.org.

Drivers kill two of our neighbors every year, and injure someone every day, basically. That’s unacceptable.

Instead of nitpicking every DOT pedestrian-safety measure, as Dinowitz and others have recently with improvements on Hudson Manor Terrace and Kappock and Palisade avenues, our leaders should be identifying problem spots and demanding more.

Eve Kessler

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