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Advocates For Light At Duane And Greenwich Denied Again Residents calling for a traffic light at the intersection of Duane and Greenwich Streets in Tribeca were rebuffed yet again last month when the city’s Department of Transportation refused to reverse its earlier decision saying that a traffic light is not warranted there. For years the intersection has been a source of concern for residents who fear for the safety of the many children who are crossed at Duane Street going to local schools and Washington Market Park. Most recently, Friends of Washington Market Park, with support from Councilman Alan Gerson, Community Board 1, two P.T.A.s, two Downtown Jewish community groups, six preschools and the Independence Plaza Tenants Association, had been pushing the city to reconsider its longstanding position. Advocates for the traffic light remained determined, even after the DOT issued its decision last October, that neither the number and speed of vehicles on Greenwich Street, nor the number of pedestrians crossing the street, met federal requirements for a light. Charles Komanoff, a Friends board member and author of “Killed by Automobile,” a 1999 study of New York City traffic deaths, questioned the study, saying that it overestimated the walking speeds of many caregivers with small children and of some seniors. The DOT agreed to Komanoff’s request to study the intersection yet again. And on a morning and afternoon in December, traffic and pedestrians were counted and observed. “It is still our determination that a traffic signal is not warranted at this intersection,” Alan Borock, the DOT’s director of signals, wrote to Komanoff last month. Borock said Komanoff’s assumed pedestrian speed of 2.2 feet per second was “arbitrary” and well below the four feet per second that the agency uses as a typical walking speed, or even 3 feet per second, a speed that is applied to intersections crossed by many seniors. “Neither Charlie [Komanoff] nor I are willing to let it end here,” said Friends president Nelle Fortenberry, who helped gather 500 signatures of support. In a letter sent late last month to D.O.T. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn, Fortenberry protested the decision and asked if the agency would consider alternatives to a light, such as a stop sign, a 15-mile-per-hour zone or a special pavement treatment for the intersection. Better yet, she wrote, would be for the D.O.T. to “drop the pretense” that rules cannot be bent for the sake of safety. An accident is sure to happen there, Fortenberry said in an interview. “Then everyone will throw their hands up and say, ‘We’ve been trying for years to make this a safer crossing.’”
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