DOT to study deadly stretch of 73rd Avenue

The City Department of Transportation (DOT) will study the 73rd Avenue “corridor” - from 164th to 188th Streets - after a 48-year-old father was killed in a fatal crash at 181st Street on Sunday, February 25.
The new study will be comprehensive, a DOT spokesperson said, and take into consideration devices like speed bumps and pavement markings, which can slow traffic where there are no stoplights and stop signs.
Although intersection studies generally take 12 weeks, the DOT does not yet have an estimate for the time needed to complete this study.
Originally, the agency planned to begin an intersection study only for the corner of 181st Street, but they expanded their overview of the area after local politicians and civic leaders called for a complete safety appraisal.
On Sunday, March 4, elected officials and community members gathered at the site of the accident, demanding “traffic-calming” devices to slow drivers on the “thoroughfare.”
“Some cars go by at a very high pace,” said Assemblymember Mark Weprin, who was joined by his brother, Councilmember David Weprin, State Senator Toby Stavisky, and Councilmember James Gennaro.
“Do we need another fatality before the DOT will act?” said David Weprin. “We need a traffic light now.”
Although the DOT has studied other sections of 73rd Avenue in the past, several intersections did not reach the necessary federal standards for a stoplight or stop sign.
To determine whether an intersection warrants a stoplight, officials must study the factors, including the volume of traffic over the busiest eight- and four-hour periods of the day, peak hour, pedestrian volume, nearby school crossings, and previous accident reports, according to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, put out by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).
Most recently, Congressmember Anthony Weiner received a letter from the DOT dated Friday, February 23, saying that the corner of 179th Street and 73rd Avenue did not warrant a light or stop sign. However, the State has latitude to fit intersections with whatever traffic devices are necessary, said a spokesperson for the FHA.
For nearly two decades, community leaders have asked for traffic-slowing devices along 73rd Avenue, which they said drivers use as an alternate route to Union Turnpike and the Grand Central Parkway.
At 179th Street and 73rd Avenue, parents and children have a particularly difficult time crossing the avenue to get to a park, said Community Board 8 (CB8) member Mark Lefkof.
Mike Siddell, another member of CB 8, has also been fighting to have a traffic study done at the intersection of 73rd Avenue and 153rd Street. “The whole corridor really has to be reviewed,” concluded CB 8 member Kevin Forrestal.