Accident prompts traffic safety improvements at a busy street

In the eight months since Elisha Bird was struck by a car, she has spent most of her time advocating for safer streets, particularly at the intersection where she was hit.

Ms. Bird was walking home on Feb. 15, when a car that was trying to make a left turn at the intersection of Riverdale Avenue and W. 231st Street hit her in the leg and back.

Now, after months of working with elected officials and petitioning the Department of Transportation, she is glad to see changes coming.

In a joint statement, state Sen. Jeff Klein and Councilman Andrew Cohen announced they had been working with the Transportation Department to slow down traffic at that intersection.

The Transportation Department will be placing “school safety signs” to make drivers more aware of pedestrian traffic, according to the statement. 

“I think its progress, I think it’s great news,” Ms. Bird said. “I am hoping that there is enough of them, I am hoping that it is up and down the street, I am hoping that when it is there the police presence will be more present.”

The signs were added in part because of Ms. Bird’s accident and also because of the area’s increased foot and motor traffic that followed the opening last year of the International Leadership Charter School nearby.

This is not the only spot where local politicians have had to step in and help ease traffic. Mr. Cohen said he has worked on several of these projects since his election in 2014.

“It’s just an ongoing issue that I think our office has been pretty responsive to,” he said in an interview. “Since the time I have been in office, there have been a couple of tragedies.”

Mr. Cohen said he and other officials regularly work with the Transportation Department to ease congestion on streets and increase pedestrian safety.

“I have been perpetually asking the Department of Transportation for a traffic control on the corner of W. 232nd and Corlear,” he said.

Deputy Inspector Terence O’Toole, the commanding officer of the 50th precinct, said the largest traffic problems in the area are on the Broadway corridor, from W. 225th to W. 242nd streets.

“This area of Broadway experiences the most congestion because of the bus service and the elevated subway structure, which limits Broadway to one lane northbound and southbound,” he said in emailed comments. “Recently Department of Transportation has constructed new curbs which extend to the bus stops for the safety of pedestrians and bus riders along Broadway. This appears to have increased safety at these locations.”

Even as recently as Aug. 22, politicians urged the Transportation Department to relocate a bus stop on W. 230th Street and Broadway.  

But while traffic problems persist, Ms. Bird expressed her happiness that local officials were able to push for such rapid change in response to her accident.

“I am impressed,” she said. “It’s nice that local government works at a local level.”