Community frustrated over misplaced traffic lights after fatal accident

A new traffic light has gone up, but not in the location for which the greater Riverdale community hoped.

At the intersections of Riverdale Avenue and West 236th Street and Greystone and Riverdale Avenue, new traffic lights appeared seemingly overnight. The lights halt traffic coming down Riverdale Avenue to allow a safer turn for drivers turning from West 236th Street going down the main Riverdale Avenue strip or along the one-lane section bordering residential homes.

Community Board 8 traffic and transportation committee member Chris Calhoun criticized the presence of the traffic light during the committee’s June 20 meeting, which he said was installed before another directly requested by the committee and community at a different intersection. 

At the four-way intersection of Oxford Avenue and West 235th Street, there are currently two stop signs for those coming up and down Oxford but no stop signs for those traveling on West 235th Street. All four streets have crosswalks, but oncoming traffic on 235th is warned by a yellow pedestrian-crossing sign . 

According to Kelli Buford, chair of the traffic and transportation committee, the request for a traffic light was officially made after a pedestrian was struck and killed at the intersection. 

“After many discussions and requests, DOT committed to conducting a study of the intersection to determine what remediation should occur,” Buford said. 

Despite it taking months for the committee to hear back from the department and not hearing the news for which it wished, the committee pressed on with its request. 

“Oxford Avenue and 235th was studied for a traffic signal but did not meet federal guidelines for approval,” a DOT spokesperson told the committee. 

The department said all traffic signals need approval according to federal guidelines that take into consideration matters such as pedestrian and vehicular volume, the number of school children crossing the intersection, crash history and other road design elements. Then, after a traffic study is conducted, the implementation of a traffic signal of any kind can take several months. 

The request for some form of traffic signal at the intersection of Oxford Avenue and West 235 Street has been ongoing for some time. The record dates back as far as September 2022, when the traffic and transportation committee discussed safety measures at the intersection following a fatal pedestrian accident that occurred in July of that year. 

Following that initial meeting, the committee discussed having heard no word back from the department on additional safety measures at the location in February 2023. At June 2023’s meeting, committee member Sylvia Alexander raised the question of updates and mentioned another pedestrian had been struck at the same intersection earlier in the month.

In September’s meeting Alexander pressed the board on the request. Buford said she would follow up with the city’s transportation department, requesting they get back to her within the week. At December’s meeting, Alexander requested an update on the traffic study but none had been received from the department. 

A new year began and, in February 2024’s meeting Buford raised the question directly to the department’s Bronx Borough Commissioner, Anthony Perez, who said the transportation department would provide the committee a response within the week.

Buford said she was informed the traffic study would be available by the end of December 2023, but the month came and went without an update. 

Finally in March 2024’s committee meeting, members learned the traffic study had been completed with no forward movement on safety upgrades, with the department deciding the all-way stop was sufficient for the intersection. In response, the committee asked the department consider speed bumps, as committee members said drivers do not obey the street signs readily enough. 

By the time of the June committee meeting, flexible traffic delineators had been installed at the intersection of Oxford Avenue and West 235th Street to deter speeding at the location. However, pedestrians seem unhappy with the upgrade. Alexander said there were complaints from the community about an inability to cross the street with shopping carts despite Buford stating nothing was installed within the crosswalk. 

According to the state’s health department, roughly 300 pedestrians are killed and another 15,000 are injured within the state every year.