Driving blind on 231st Street

On any given weekday, navigating the intersection of Riverdale Avenue and West 231st Street is a trying experience. Riverdale Avenue’s steep slope means southbound drivers significantly exceed the 25-mph speed limit. There’s no left turn light for those who want to get onto West 231st Street.

Once they do make it there, they have to contend with no fewer than five bus lines picking up groups of commuters spilling onto the sidewalk.

Many of them are children coming to or from one of many schools within several blocks of the intersection, including the roughly 3,000-strong John F. Kennedy campus. The children themselves have to be on alert, with five car collisions taking place on West 231st Street in February alone.

And, oh yeah, there’s the high-speed car chase that took place last month. A truck driven by three alleged robbers led seven Drug Enforcement Agency vehicles down West 231st Street, up Riverdale Avenue and onto the Henry Hudson Parkway. It’s a wonder no one passing through the busy intersection wasn’t hurt. 

The decision to build a new school at the epicenter of the chaos thus boggles the mind. A high school with 400 students will worsen the pedestrian and vehicle traffic and increase the threat to everyone in the vicinity.

Nevertheless, there are a few steps that could improve the situation.

For one, the Department of Transportation (DOT) should install a left turn light for drivers on Riverdale Avenue. That will both alleviate the long waits that sometimes arise there and reduce the temptation for drivers to make a sudden move through the intersection when the light is green or yellow.

Additionally, the authorities should implement Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz’s sound suggestion to move the Bx1 bus stop from West 231st to West 230th street. That will position JFK students who use the bus a bit closer to their school and reduce the amount of congestion in the area.

Thinking outside the box, schools and the MTA could put their heads together to find a new way to bring students in and out of the neighborhood. If bus lines were tweaked to drop children off in front of their schools, that could go a long way to making West 231st Street safer.

Given the lack of foresight evident in the construction of the International Leadership Charter High School, the authorities seem unlikely to implement bold changes in transporting students. But if the MTA and DOT make a few low-cost fixes, one of the community’s most congested areas could become a bit more livable.