33
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, APR. 8-14, 2022
BXR
CB8 committee strikes down Riverdale Ave. road diet
BY ALIYA SCHNEIDER
While the city Department of Transportation
(DOT) wants to reconstruct Riverdale
Avenue between West 254th and West 263rd
to improve safety conditions, members of
Community Board 8 aren’t convinced the
plan will actually help.
Currently, there are two travel lanes,
parking in both directions, and frequent
double parking, according to DOT and area
residents. DOT argued that not having a designated
left-turn lane causes unpredictability
from vehicles; there is also more space
in the road than necessary relative to the
amount of traffic, which encourages speeding.
According to DOT, there were 66 injuries
on the avenue from 2015 to 2019, 26 of which
involved a pedestrian, and two senior pedestrians
were killed in 2018. More than half of
the pedestrian crashes took place while the
person was crossing with the signal in their
favor, and almost 60% of crashes occurred
while a driver was making a left turn. Rearend
crashes were also an issue.
The agency is proposing altering the fourlane
traffic to one lane in each direction,
along with a left-turn bay and bike lanes.
The agency has conducted similar road diet
projects on Burke Avenue, Baychester Avenue
and Morris Park Avenue, which have
seen reductions in speeding and crashes,
with decreases in injuries of 47%, 22% and
42% at each corridor, respectively, per DOT
data.
Morris Park Business Improvement District
Executive Director Camelia Tepelus, a
member of CB8, spoke highly of the Morris
Park Avenue road diet, which faced high opposition
with a lawsuit spearheaded by the
Community Board 11 chair and local business
owners, as well as a petition created by
then Councilmember Mark Gjonaj.
But following a more than two-hourlong
discussion with 150 meeting attendees
on Thursday, March 31,the CB8 Traffic and
Transportation Committee rejected the idea
in a 4-2 advisory vote.
A DOT spokesperson told the Bronx
Times the proposal is “still under review.”
“DOT plans to review the feedback and
comments that were received, as well as continue
outreach and discussion with community
members and stakeholders,” the spokesperson
said.
While DOT initially told CB8 the project
would happen in May, the agency’s Interim
Bronx Borough Commissioner Keith Kalb
said Thursday that the project would take
place over the summer.
Alicia Posner, DOT’s deputy director
of safety projects and programs, said the
agency studied Riverdale Avenue after receiving
complaints about speeding and
crashes, including from nonprofit Riverdale
Main Street Alliance and state Sen. Alessandra
Biaggi, a Pelham Progressive whose district
overlaps Riverdale.
The proposed treatment is proven to reduce
speeding and crashes, Posner said.
But meeting attendees, like state Assemblymember
Jeffrey Dinowitz, argued
that combining two lanes of traffic into one
would cause a more dangerous situation.
“While I know your efforts are sincere in
trying to improve safety, I think what you’re
going to do is make safety worse,” the Riverdale
Democrat said. “You’re going to make
traffic worse and it’s going to cause more
confusion. And when traffic is worse, when
people are getting upset waiting in line,
that’s when people do stupid things when
they’re driving.”
Dinowitz and others said they want a leftturn
signal without the road reconfiguration,
but Posner said left turn signals were
not feasible and Kalb said
they’re more likely to be
approved if the roadway is
converted as proposed.
Other attendees were
concerned about congestion,
particularly during
PS 81 drop-off and pickup
times, which already
causes what residents described
as mayhem pouring
into a travel lane.
Former board member
Mike Heller, who also
served as the committee
chair, said the plan would
cause a “traffic nightmare.”
Committee member
David Gellman, who was
open to the plan, said the
change would have minimal
impact on travel time
on the road, approximating
that it would add less
than a minute to a one-mile stretch.
Committee members Edward Green and
Mary Ellen Gibbs, who both rejected the
proposal, took issue with the proposed bike
lanes.
Green said he believes projects like this
one “are being used as a guise to pass agendas
of activists for certain other things,”
like bike lanes. Gibbs said vehicles would be
“smacking down bikers and pedestrians at
the same time.”
But Kalb, the interim commissioner, said
the project is focused on calming traffic, and
the bike lanes are an add-on to utilize extra
space.
The Community Board 8 Traffic and Transportation committeerejected a road diet proposal for Riverdale
Avenue, pictured, following a tense March 31 meeting. Photo | Adrian Childress
According to DOT, the excess roadway combined with low traffic volume
results in an open roadway that encourages speeding.
Photo courtesy DOT
EXAMINATION APPLICATION FILING DEADLINE MAY 2
Correction Officer Trainee
• $45,712 hiring rate
• $48,081 after 6 months
• $55,057 after 1 year
• PAID time off
• GREAT benefits
• Retire after 25 years
AT ANY AGE
Apply on-line today or download exam information at:
https://www.cs.ny.gov/jobseeker/
Additional information about the position of correction officer is available on our
website at https://doccs.ny.gov/
KATHY HOCHUL, GOVERNOR • ANTHONY J. ANNUCCI, ACTING COMMISSIONER
An Equal Opportunity Employer
/
/
/
/