by Shayla Love

When Barbara Stronzcer, Bedford Mosholu Community Association president, crosses the street at the intersection of Bedford Park and Webster Avenue, she is careful to look all ways. The busy crossroad in is filled with cars turning left on the green light and only some will stop for pedestrians.

“It’s dangerous,” she said. “The traffic congestions is a problem. Depending on the time of day, if you’re a pedestrian it could be very dangerous.”

Stronzcer and Community Board 7 have sent a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to request a left turn signal light at the Bedford Park intersection, to allow turning cars a cycle to turn without traffic or interference from pedestrians. The neighborhood’s proximity to mom and pops, other retail stores, a Metro-North and several bus stations, often causes a flurry of foot and vehicle traffic during the day. Stronczer said the bottleneck is caused by a new parking garage at T

he New York Botanical Garden and a changed traffic pattern on Fordham and Webster Avenue, where a left turn was removed following the city’s 2013 plan to de-congest the area.

“There’s more cars from the garage,” she said. “And all the cars that used to make a left at Fordham and Webster, are coming to this intersection to turn instead.”

Nick Leshi, a spokesman for NYBG, said that NYBG supported the letters to the DOT and filed a request of their own to “enhance traffic safety” in the neighborhood.

Nicholas Mosquera, a spokesman for the DOT, confirmed that the requests were received and that the next step will be an “intersection study,” following DOT protocol. The agency’s intersection study is a multi-step process. First, the intersection will be mapped to create a “Condition Diagram.” This will outline the dimension of the sidewalks and any existing traffic controls. Then an inspector will manually observe the vehicles and pedestrian traffic to create a “Field Observation Report.”

The DOT will examine all records of accidents and traffic at the proposed intersection and measure traffic and car volume for four and eight-hour periods. They will measure pedestrian volume in relation to traffic, to determine just how congested the area is. The proximity of school bus stops and school crossings can impact their study as well.

Mosquera did not comment on whether the Botanical Garden’s request would speed up or influence the intersection study.

Ultimately, all of the data collected will be compared to the warrants that are outlined in the federal guidelines for traffic signals. These are published yearly in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The DOT said it’s too soon to know the outcome of the left turn signal for Bedford Park and Webster Ave., but in cases where turn signals are not allowed, the DOT finds other ways to improve traffic conditions. For now, the results of the study are pending.

“I guess we’ll just wait and see,” said Stronczer.
Until then, she is going to keep looking both ways.

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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.