City Making Good on Promise for Safer Crossing at West and Chambers

Department of Transportation worker mounts a right-turn signal light at Chambers and West streets. It is expected to become operational later in the week. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

First signs of a safer crossing for cyclists and pedestrians arrived at the corner of West and Chambers streets Monday as workers from the Department of Transportation installed a traffic turn signal meant to prevent cars from turning into the path of bikes and pedestrians. The light was yet to be operable Monday but a worker said the job is expected to be completed by the end of the week.

Once the light is functioning, cars turning right onto Chambers Street from West Street will no longer share the same green light with cyclists and pedestrians crossing Chambers Street. When the light is green for bikes, cars will have a red arrow. Bikes and pedestrians will be stopped at a red when the light for turning traffic is green.

The DOT appears to be trying to keep its promise made to Community Board 1 last month, when an official said the light would be installed by the end of November. Also expected, DOT planner Gregory Haas told the board, are new street markings that include lines in what is now the right lane on the far side of the intersection "to prevent [drivers] from cheating and using it as a through lane." The Chambers Street crosswalk, now made of a textured material and difficult to recognize at night as a crossing, will be clearly marked. Bollards, Haas said, will be installed at the bike lane on both sides of Chambers Street to prevent cars from mistaking the path for a roadway.

Changes at the intersection were prompted by the death in June of 30-year-old Olga Evgleska Cook who was struck as she was riding south on the bike path along West Street. A “Ghost Bike” memorial to her remains at the corner as a reminder of the tragedy.

In the last five years, according to Haas, there have been 17 crashes at the intersection that involved serious injury, four of them—including the fatality this year—were caused by right-turning vehicles colliding with cyclists.