Community Board 3 last night asked the city to look at making safety improvements at several Lower East Side intersections. The resolution approved at their monthly board meeting was prompted by a campaign from local residents concerned about pedestrian safety.
In a detailed presentation earlier this month before CB3’s transportation committee, they reported that crosswalk signals at Rivington/Columbia, Rivington/Pitt and East Houston/Columbia streets are too short. At Columbia and Rivington, for example, the signal changes after just 20 seconds. The residents pointed out that there are numerous schools, churches and senior centers in the immediate vicinity.
The effort has the support of many organizations, including Masaryk Towers, Grand Street Settlement’s Coalition of Seniors, Baruch Elders Service Team and parents of P.S. 142 and Manhattan Charter School. They presented 257 petition signatures.
Leaders of the group include William Mojica, a local resident who successfully lobbied the city to make safety improvements at Pitt and delancey streets last year. He was joined by Ted Reich and Carolyn English. CB3 is asking the DOT to conduct signal timing studies at all of the intersections mentioned above.
Let’s not forget Delancey and every damn cross street to the bridge. Every time I cross I am fighting for my life. It is really a pathetic statement as to where this city is at. NO BIKE LANES on Delancey, what moron thought of that one?
The timing of lights on Columbia between Delancey and Houston is irrelevant to local pedestrians, who cross the street whereever and whenever they feel like it.
The timing of red lights on Columbia Street between Delancey and Houston will not mean much as the locals jaywalk across Columbia between Masaryk Towers and the NYCHA houses as if it were a pedestrian mall.