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Residents: DOT Fixes Not Enough on Greenwich Street For years, Community Board 1 and Tribeca parents have been calling on city transportation officials for safer passage across Greenwich Street at Duane. Namely they have wanted a traffic light or, at the very least, a stop sign. This month, the city’s Department of Transportation announced it was, indeed, planning to implement traffic calming measures at the intersection, just not the kind the residents have been asking for.
At Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee earlier on July 9, DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Luis Sanchez said his agency last studied the intersection in February and found that it didn’t meet the federal criteria for a traffic light or stop sign. The department, according to Sanchez, instead plans to install a pair of concrete “bulb-outs” on the south corners of the three-way intersection that would narrow the crossing from 40 feet to 28 feet. The bulb-outs, similar to those installed at the corner of East Broadway and Market Street in Chinatown, would be about 13 feet long and extend six feet past the existing curb into the roadway. “What that will do is increase the sidewalk space and decrease the distance to cross the Greenwich Street,” Sanchez said. The sidewalk extensions, he said, are also meant to give pedestrians better visibility, which has been a problem due to parked trucks and garbage dumpsters that can block the view of oncoming traffic. Sanchez said he hopes to have the work completed before school resumes in September but no completion date for the work has been set. According to federal guidelines, streets must meet a certain threshold in the ratio of cars to pedestrians to warrant a stop sign or traffic signal. Additionally, Sanchez said the department has installed truck-loading regulations on the east side of Greenwich Street between Duane and Jay Street, in the hopes of encouraging them to park on the easterly curb. The DOT has also offset the green light times between Harrison Street and Chambers Street, a tactic Sanchez said he believes will cut down on speed on Greenwich Street by discouraging drivers from speeding up to make the light. CB1 member Peter Braus, who co-chairs the board’s Tribeca Committee, said that though he was pleased to see the DOT taking steps to ensure pedestrian safety, he questioned the wisdom of the new measures. “I think that sounds encouraging, but it just boggles my mind,” Peter Braus said. “It seems like what their proposing would be more costly and time consuming that simply putting up a stop sign.” The intersection has long been seen as a danger to the many children who are crossed at Duane Street going to local schools and Washington Market Park.
In her written response to Fortenberry, Sadik-Khan backed her department’s decision. Among the reasons she cited, at least five accidents, preventable by a traffic light or stop sign, would need to occur before the city would install one of the devices. But a recent accident at the intersection in June brought the issue back before CB1 and got the attention of the DOT. On June 9, a 3-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy were crossing Greenwich Street at Duane Street with their nanny when an SUV parked on the corner began backing up. The car hit the stroller the 3-year-old was riding in, leaving her with a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise uninjured. At the CB1 meeting last month, board members and neighborhood residents, including the children’s mother, Leslie Abbey, told Department of Transportation (DOT) officials that the close call underscored the urgent need for stop sign or traffic light. “The intersection is so vaguely demarcated that it sort of encourages that kind of illegal driving in that area,” Abbey said, acknowledging that a light or stop sign alone may not have prevented the driver from backing up. “I know there’s been a lot of work done on this in the past, but this was a huge near-miss. It could have been really catastrophic.” Sanchez said he understands that traffic conditions may change, particularly with the opening of Whole Foods at Warren and Greenwich Streets, and the DOT will continue to study the intersection. [Home][Back][Search][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
