After removing all safety measures in June from the busy intersection at Manhattan College Parkway and Waldo Avenue, the Department of Transportation last week installed two new stop signs.
Nearby residents were puzzled when the DOT painted new crosswalk lines at the intersection normally used by college students during the academic year, only to remove them shortly afterward.
They were repainted a block west, at an infrequently used intersection. But DOT representatives insisted the change was not a mistake.
The move left absolutely no safety measures at arguably the most dangerous intersection in Riverdale, where a winding hill and a bike path meet.
While college is in session, students cross to get to class at the school’s lower campus on Corlear Avenue or to their dorms on West 238th Street. The road winds around the Manhattan College campus and motorists traveling between the Henry Hudson Parkway and Broadway tend to speed around the blind curve.
Now, the intersection has become an all-way stop for motorists with the addition of two stop signs on Manhattan College Parkway. Both signs have large yellow “NEW” signs posted below them.
The DOT plans to repaint crosswalks in the intersection, which Tom Durham, super of the 3875 Waldo Ave., said have been there for 30 years.
“It’s common sense,” Mr. Durham said, adding that the intersection is finally safer with the stop signs.
On Monday afternoon, the signs seemed to be working. Cars breaked for dozens of students as they walked to and from class.
Manhattan College administrators met with Bronx Borough Commissioner Constance Moran in late August to talk about the intersection.
“At a meeting held at the College in late August, the Commissioner told us that her department would conduct a study to assess the need for all-way stop signs. We are happy that the study confirmed our intuitive sense of the need and that the department followed through so quickly after the study. We’re all breathing a little easier now that the intersection is properly controlled,” Manhattan College President Brennan O’Donnell said in a statement.
