A Concourse that is grand shouldn’t rack up nine fatalities and 411 pedestrian injuries in five years. But that’s the record of the borough’s most famous thoroughfare, which has prompted the city to identify a way to make Bronxites safer when crossing it.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and James Vacca, the east Bronx lawmaker who chairs the City Council Transportation Committee, recently announced the installations of pedestrian countdown signals along the four-and-a-half-mile long, 180-foot-wide Grand Concourse in hopes of preventing future accidents.

The countdown signals are being installed at 49 intersections along the Concourse beginning at East 140th Street continuing up to Mosholu Parkway. The signals display how much time pedestrians have to cross before the light turns.

In February, 11-year-old Russell Smith was struck and killed by a Honda, as he crossed the Concourse at East 183rd Street after buying milk for his infant brother. In 2005, Virginia Verdee was walking home from church on a Friday night when she, too, was struck and killed at the same intersection.

“Speeding and reckless driving kills, and these pedestrian countdown signals will save life and limb up and down the Grand Concourse, which is one of the most deadly thoroughfares in our borough,”  Vacca said. “Pedestrian countdown signals give New Yorkers the information they need to make the safe choice, which often means waiting for the next light on streets like the Grand Concourse.”

According to DOT studies, the countdown signals have been effective elsewhere in the city.

“I can see how there can be a lot of accidents on the Concourse — it’s very populous, cars going up and down the street,” said Daneda Gillespie, a drug abuse counselor who works near the Concourse and 183rd Street. “I think that’s a very good idea to help prevent accidents. It might not prevent every crash, but it does help.”

Other locals think the signals aren’t enough.

“There is more to the problem than people crossing when it’s not their light,” said Zelda Walbrook, a resident of the area near East 183rd. “Yes, oftentimes people fail to look, but drivers continue to drive carelessly. What we need are more crossing guards, more cameras, and to penalize these drivers for not driving the right way.”

The city also announced that countdown signals will also be installed at 1,500 intersections along major corridors throughout the five boroughs, with implementation beginning this summer and set to conclude next year.

“It’s about time,” said one resident near Poe Park when she was told of the new signals.

admin

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.