Streetsblog New York City

Last night, Bronx Community Board 8′s parks committee deadlocked, 3-2, with two abstentions, on a resolution to support the Parks Department’s plan to pave the Putnam Line rail-trail. The community board serves only an advisory role, however, and the Parks Department is likely to proceed with the plan after it receives a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Under the proposal, the 1.5-mile Putnam Line rail-trail would be paved and include a soft-surface jogging path. Image: Parks Department

The resolution needed four votes to pass. Committee member Robert Press said he supports paving because it would be easier to maintain than a soft surface path, but voted to abstain after Parks Department representatives failed to guarantee, in response to one of his questions at last night’s meeting, that the city wouldn’t install a bike-share station in the park. (Yes, this is the caliber of thought that goes into community board votes.)

The Putnam Line carried passengers until the 1950s and last saw freight trains in the 1980s. Currently, it is a north-south dirt path through Van Cortlandt Park that connects with the South County Trailway, a paved rail-trail in Westchester County.

The paving proposal, envisioned in the city’s 1993 greenway master plan and funded by city money and an earmark from the 2005 federal transportation bill, has long been a subject of debate. Its design — a 10-foot wide paved asphalt path, with a three-foot wide soft surface jogging path on the side — has been finalized, but a group opposed to the project wants the city to scuttle its asphalt plan in favor of a stone dust path that would slow cyclists.

Park users who support paving the rail-trail say that it would close a longstanding link in the regional trail system while serving all types of walkers, runners, and cyclists. “It’s not money to create a nature trail. It’s money to create a transportation trail,” Bronx community development leader Dart Westphal told Streetsblog. “It’s a choice between doing it or not doing it.”

Council Member G. Oliver Koppell supports the paving plan, but the candidates running to succeed him this fall are far from unanimous on the issue. Clifford Stanton told Streetsblog that he supports paving the trail in a way that minimizes harm to adjacent trees and plant life, and Andrew Cohen said that although he prefers construction of a stone dust path, he is not opposed to the Parks Department’s plan. “I’d rather see it paved than left in the condition it’s in,” he told Streetsblog.

Candidate Cheryl Keeling said she is inclined to oppose paving, while Ari Hoffnung took the strongest stance against the proposal. “We need to do everything possible to prevent the City from moving forward with its ill-conceived plan of paving over the trail,” he told Streetsblog via e-mail.

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Streetsblog continues our series on City Council candidates with a look at the race for District 11 in the Bronx, which covers Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Woodlawn, and Norwood. The seat has been held by Oliver Koppell, who is term-limited, since 2002.

City Council District 11 candidate Andrew Cohen. Photo: Cohen for Council

Four Democratic Party candidates are vying for the seat: Andrew Cohen, an attorney who also serves as a CB 8 member and legal advisor to Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, deputy city comptroller Ari Hoffnung, track coach and businesswoman Cheryl Keeling, and activist and food wholesaler Clifford Stanton.

Streetsblog sent questionnaires to the campaigns to get a better understanding of where the candidates stand on transit, traffic safety, and transportation policy. We begin in alphabetical order with responses from Andrew Cohen and will run answers from Cheryl Keeling and Clifford Stanton in separate posts. Ari Hoffnung told Streetsblog that he does not reply to questionnaires.

Streetsblog: Riverdale was one of the first neighborhoods in New York to receive Slow Zone treatments from DOT, and an application is underway for Norwood. In your view, has the Slow Zone program been successful? Where else could it be considered in the district?

Andrew Cohen: The Slow Zone in Riverdale is still being implemented as I write (new street painting was just installed indicating the 20 mph speed limit in the slow zone). It has been successful in slowing down traffic and has made travel in the zone unquestionably safer. The proposed Slow Zone in Norwood is well conceived and if approved, will go a long way to calming traffic in an area with desperate need for such measures. As you know, Slow Zones need to conform to DOT specifications and I have not studied whether other areas in the 11th Council District would  be eligible for a Slow Zone but there are numerous areas in the District that are in need of traffic calming measures including Webster Avenue and the surrounding area.

SB: Select Bus Service has led to faster bus speeds on Fordham Road. Do you want dedicated bus lanes and other service improvements for bus riders elsewhere in the district, and if so, where?

AC: Yes. Bus Rapid Transit has potential application all over the Bronx. Dedicated bus lanes are scheduled to be installed on Webster Avenue and I believe it will significantly improve service and reduce congestion and travel times for bus passengers.

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A pedestrian and a cyclist are dead after a series of crashes in Brooklyn and the Bronx in which motorists also injured five other people. Three of the victims were teenagers. One crash left two young boys in critical condition. No charges are known to have been filed by NYPD or DAs Charles Hynes and Robert Johnson.

Zuleimi Torres. Photo: WEbook

On Friday afternoon, 16-year-old Zuleimi Torres was one of three people struck by the driver of an SUV on the Grand Concourse near Mt. Eden Parkway. From NY1:

Eyewitnesses said the car was going erratically down Grand Concourse, hit one pedestrian and then kept going and hit the other two pedestrians.

“He didn’t stop, he hit the first person, he did not stop. He just keep going and then we see the second one again got hit. We said, ‘Oh!’” a bystander said.

An off-duty officer arrested the driver as he tried to leave the car, but a breathalyzer test showed that the driver had no blood alcohol content.

Torres suffered a brain injury and died at St. Barnabas Hospital. Her friend, also 16, and the third victim, a 51-year-old woman, were hospitalized in stable condition.

Citing anonymous police sources, the Post reports that the driver “is not suspected of a crime,” and a “medical condition may have contributed” to the crash. ”Sources say the driver has a mental condition,” according to News 12. “Investigators say the driver will not face charges.”

In another crash early Sunday, an unidentified cyclist was killed by a livery cab driver in Crown Heights. From the Post:

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Nabaali Cletus was charged for driving without a license, but not for killing Manuel Verdesoto. Photo: Post

A man struck by a driver in the southeast Bronx on Wednesday was at least the thirteenth senior killed in city traffic this year.

Manuel Verdesoto, 82, was struck by Nabaali Cletus as Verdesoto crossed White Plains Road at Watson Avenue at around 7:20 p.m., according to reports.

Verdesoto died at Jacobi Hospital. A photo from the scene indicates that he was thrown into the windshield with tremendous force.

Deputy Inspector Russell J. Green is the commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct, where at least six pedestrians have died in traffic since January 2012, and where officers ticket a driver for speeding once every two days.

Police said Cletus, 46, had a fake New York State photo ID and no drivers license. He was charged with possession of a forged instrument and driving without a license. Cletus was not charged for killing Verdesoto.

The crash occurred in the City Council district represented by Annabel Palma, and in the 43rd Precinct. At least four pedestrians died in this district and precinct in 2012, according to crash data compiled by Streetsblog, and Verdesoto is at least the second pedestrian killed there this year. Some council districts and precincts saw more pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, but six is among the highest death tolls since January 2012. Among the victims are another senior, Roberto Baez, and a 2-year-old boy.

The 43rd Precinct issued 161 speeding tickets in 2012, an average of one every two days.

To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector Russell J. Green, the commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 43rd Precinct council meetings happen at 8 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month at the precinct, 900 Fteley Avenue. Call 718-542-6325 for information.

To encourage Palma to take action to improve street safety in her district and citywide, contact her at 718-792-1140 or apalma@council.nyc.gov.

Since 2009, Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval and Bronx Community Board 7 have been asking DOT to improve pedestrian safety and access to the Norwood neighborhood’s central public space. Most intersections surrounding the park don’t have crosswalks, and sections of the road surrounding the park are also missing sidewalks. Now, after years of requests from neighbors, DOT has proposed changes that would make it safer to get to the park.

Trying to get to the park? There are no sidewalks or crosswalks now, but that's slated to change. Image: DOT

Williamsbridge Oval, also known as Reservoir Oval, had 15 pedestrian injuries and 22 motor vehicle occupant injuries from 2006 to 2012, according to DOT. Over the same period, there were no bicyclist injuries, while four of the motor vehicle occupant injuries were serious.

DOT’s proposal [PDF], presented at a meeting co-hosted by CB 7 last Wednesday, would reduce the speed limit on the oval from 30 mph to 20 mph and add signage alerting drivers to speed humps and curves in the road. It would also add painted curb extensions and crosswalks at the intersections of Holt Place, Reservoir Place, and at a park entrance near the tennis courts between Wayne Avenue and Bainbridge Avenue.

While painted curb extensions are now a common tool DOT uses across New York,  unlike its counterparts in other cities, the agency doesn’t normally suggest striping crosswalks where there are no traffic signals or stop signs.

“It’s a big step in the right direction,” said Jay Shuffield, a member of both CB 7 and Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval. Shuffield thanked DOT’s pedestrian projects group for the change in tone, since advocates felt they were stonewalled by the agency’s Bronx borough office. ”They suddenly dropped their resistance to common-sense solutions here,” he said.

The proposal also adjusts the oval’s two high-traffic intersections with Bainbridge Avenue. At the avenue’s intersection with West 208th Street, the proposal adds a painted pedestrian island, and at Van Cortlandt Avenue East, it shifts parking to create a painted sidewalk that connects to a park entrance.

Nine additional parking spaces would be added on Reservoir Place as it approaches the oval to calm traffic coming from East Gun Hill Road, and parking spaces are being shifted to accommodate the painted curb extension on the oval at Holt Place.

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Crosswalks weren't striped on Katonah Avenue in the Bronx until six weeks after a repaving.

A few weeks ago, a reader sent in a picture of an intersection on Katonah Avenue in the Bronx, which DOT repaved and striped with a double-yellow line — but not crosswalks. For more than six weeks, residents crossed this neighborhood artery without painted markings, which had parents at P.S. 19 especially worried.

Our tipster recently wrote back with good news: Two days after we posted about the missing crosswalks, DOT crews were out on Katonah Avenue, putting high-visibility markings in place.

The brother of a man killed in an apparent dooring incident in the Bronx, a crash that NYPD failed to investigate for over a month, says police have stopped working the case due to a lack of evidence, DNAinfo reports.

Joseph Nelson. Photo via DNAinfo

Joseph Nelson, 54, was riding his bike near the intersection of Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue on the afternoon of April 14, 2012, when according to an autopsy report he collided with the open door of a parked car. Paramedics found Nelson unconscious in the street.

Nelson died shortly after the crash, but the 52nd Precinct did not inform the NYPD Accident Investigation Squad until May 18.

The victim’s brother, John Nelson, told DNAinfo last October that NYPD was uncommunicative after the department told him of his brother’s death. ”I got one initial call,” said Nelson. “Aside from that, I got no information, no assistance, nothing at all from the Police Department.”

As in other instances where AIS failed to begin its work immediately after a crash that resulted in the death of a cyclist or pedestrian, police said they had no evidence to pursue the case. In October an investigator told John Nelson the file would be closed. In a follow-up DNAinfo story published today, Nelson, who planned to travel from Virginia for the installation of his brother’s Ghost Bike memorial, said he has not spoken with investigators since. Streetsblog has asked NYPD for confirmation that police stopped investigating the crash.

“My brother wasn’t trash. He wasn’t a throwaway or disposable,” Nelson said, fairly encapsulating the NYPD approach to cyclist and pedestrian injuries and deaths.

For years, it was NYPD policy to investigate a traffic crash only when a victim was dead or believed likely to die. When a doctor told officers that cyclist Stefanos Tsigrimanis wasn’t in mortal danger after he was hit by a driver in Brooklyn, AIS did not return to the scene for 46 days. Because NYPD did not know that Brooklyn pedestrian Clara Heyworth had died after she was struck by an unlicensed driver who was believed to be drunk, AIS was not dispatched for at least three days. Prosecutors dropped all charges related to Heyworth’s death, and her husband has filed a lawsuit against NYPD for failing to properly investigate the crash. Police initially blamed Brooklyn cyclist Mathieu Lefevre for his own death, with prosecutors from the office of District Attorney Charles Hynes taking up the case after Lefevre’s family got the attention of the media.

In March NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly announced that the department would abandon the “dead or likely to die” protocol, and assign more officers to investigate crashes. Nevertheless, NYPD continues to declare “no criminality suspected” almost immediately after collisions that cause injury and death.

Arthur Avenue in the Bronx is famous for its Italian food. Now, it’s also notable as the only place with NYC’s latest parking technology: sensors in the ground providing real-time data about parking availability, and a system that enables parkers to pay by phone. Mayor Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and Frank Franz, manager of the Belmont Business Improvement District, launched the programs earlier this week. While the technologies could help advance curbside parking reforms, the pilot programs aren’t being paired with new pricing or enforcement strategies that would reduce double-parking and cruising for spots.

Mayor Bloomberg and Janette Sadik-Khan at Tuesday's parking technology announcement on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Photo: NYC Mayor's Office/Flickr

The promise of the new tech is that it can cut traffic by managing access to the curb more efficiently. Real-time sensors can be used to set parking prices so spaces are always available and drivers don’t double-park or circle around looking for open spots. Pay-by-phone systems, meanwhile, can help the medicine of dynamic parking prices go down easier by giving motorists a convenient payment option. In Miami, which is ahead of the curve on pay-by-phone tech, motorists “are very enthusiastic about the service, which includes texted reminders that parking time is expiring and the option to pay to extend time,” according to a 2011 report issued by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

The pay-by-phone pilot was first announced in 2011, following DOT’s 2010 Request for Expressions of Interest for a sensor program that could be used to set prices, assist enforcement, and integrate with parking placards. The pilot programs in the Bronx, however, are not paired with changes to the price of metered parking, which remains $1.00 per hour everywhere in the city except Manhattan below 110th Street and commercial streets in Park Slope that are part of the Park Smart program.

The pay-by-phone pilot covers 321 spaces, most within the Belmont Business Improvement District, and about a quarter in the nearby municipal parking lot often used by City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca. Drivers can pay for time in 15-minute increments up to the designated lime limit via smartphone app or a toll-free number, receive notifications via e-mail or text before their time expires, and pay for additional time from their phones. Because pay-by-phone participants don’t have display receipts from muni-meters, parking enforcement officers will be equipped with license plate scanners to verify that drivers are paid up.

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A tipster sends in this photo of Katonah Avenue at P.S. 19, where pedestrians have waited more than a month for crosswalks.

In early February, DOT repaved Katonah Avenue in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx, leaving a smooth black surface with no markings. Shortly after a nearby resident called 311 a few weeks ago, a crew was sent out to mark where the crosswalks should be, and the double-yellow stripe was installed. Residents are still waiting for crosswalks. It’s a particular worry at P.S. 19, where students cross Katonah Avenue daily.

“I waited several weeks, and nothing,” our tipster says. “I just called it in. They still haven’t done the crosswalks.”

The hold-up, which brings to mind the national road paint shortage of 2010, doesn’t seem to be caused by other road work scheduled for Katonah Avenue: the only road construction permit for the street is for one block of gas line work over the next month.

Streetsblog has a few inquiries in about the delay. We’ll let you know if we get an explanation.

Sook-Ja Kim was struck from behind by a motorist who drove across a wide median on Mosholu Parkway. Photo: Norwood News

A woman was struck and killed by a driver who jumped the curb and drove across a field near the Bronx Botanical Garden last weekend.

Sook-Ja Kim, 63, was in a wide grassy median that serves as a park area on Mosholu Parkway near Bainbridge Avenue when she was hit from behind by a motorist at around 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, March 17.

NYPD told the media that the driver, a 22-year-old man whose name was not released, had a seizure and “lost control” of the Honda sedan he was driving.

“I saw the car cross the highway and driving in the wrong direction. He was going like 100 miles-per-hour, yes. The guy was sick or something was wrong with the young driver,” said witness Marcelino Hernandez to the Norwood News, which published a thorough account of the crash.

The story says that on Saturday “a large group of children” played football on the field where Kim was struck.

“I cross here all the time with my kids,” Hernandez said about the area of the parkway at Bainbridge Avenue. “It’s not safe, you’re not suppose to play there. Nobody should be there. This roadway is very dangerous.”

Having learned that there was speculation that the driver had an epileptic seizure, Hernandez said he felt new laws should be created for drivers who take medication when they shouldn’t, or drivers who don’t take medication when they should.

Kim died at St. Barnabas Hospital. No charges were filed against the driver, and no summonses were issued.

Sook-Ja Kim was at least the third NYC pedestrian killed by a curb-jumping motorist in the last month. Martha Atwater was struck outside a shop in Cobble Hill by a driver who police said had a diabetic seizure. An unidentified woman was hit on a sidewalk in Kips Bay after two drivers collided on Third Avenue. No charges were filed for either of those deaths.

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