DOT must stop Montefiore

The New York City Department  of Transportation  must put a stop to the construction of the Montefiore mega-clinic on Riverdale Avenue at West 238th Street. The presence of this facility will create unsolvable traffic problems that will endanger the safety of pedestrians and drivers and destroy the livability for thousands of people on surrounding residential streets.

Montefiore says that this mega-clinic will be open 13 hours a day during the week and serve 300 patients a day, a number which many of us who are opposed to the project believe is grossly understated. More than 600 patients a day is likely, based on the 25 doctors and 50 medical staff  Montefiore says will work there.

Most of these hundreds of patients will arrive by car — either their own or taxis and livery cars. Automobiles arriving northbound up Riverdale Avenue and wanting to park in the building will have to make a left turn, which will undoubtedly cause traffic jams.

But even worse, northbound cars and vans that just want to drop people off will need to drive up to and around the traffic circle at the Monument at West 239th Street and come back down Riverdale Avenue in order to stop in front of the building. Or they will make left turns onto West 236th and West 238th streets, then turn right onto Oxford or Johnson avenues, drive up to the red light at West 239th Street and the Monument, turn right again and drive down Riverdale Avenue. 

At least that is what drivers who obey traffic laws would do.  We all know, however, that many drivers will make illegal u-turns on Riverdale Avenue in front of the proposed mega-clinic, putting southbound cars and pedestrians at risk and causing even worse traffic jams than the cars trying get into the building’s parking lot.

West 236th and West 238th streets  and  Johnson  and Oxford avenues are residential streets not designed for the amount of traffic this would create.  And Riverdale Avenue is already jammed much of the day with double-parked cars and large trucks delivering merchandise to the restaurants, grocery stores and retail shops located on the block.