“Upper WestSider David Friedman of ironicsans.com read our story on two very serious auto-on-pedestrian crashes that occurred on Monday near the 71st Street and Broadway intersection and it sparked an idea.
The intersection of 71st Street and Broadway has become a constant site of accidents, with cars hitting pedestrians and even subway stations. At about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, a taxicab jumped the curb at 71st street, slamming into the median. Lisa Sladkus of Upper West Side Streets Renaissance sent us the picture to the left and wrote: “It occurred on the northbound lane of Broadway between 70th and 71st Streets where the cab careened into the Broadway Malls a mere 15 feet from the pedestrian island. The tow truck just cleared it away.”
The fire department had no info on the crash, meaning it likely didn’t result in any injuries. The intersection is one of the most dangerous in the neighborhood and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has recommended that the city redesign it or at least add some speed bumps.
“A group of Upper West Siders has been envisioning a new look for the neighborhood, one that isn’t so dependent on cars. Bike and pedestrian advocates from the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance recently created two videos looking at what would happen if the neighborhood were transformed to appeal more to pedestrians and less to automobiles. They even created before-and-after renderings of different streets in the neighborhood, set to techno music. Ooh, a civic-minded dance party. Groovy.
The plans go far beyond the protected bike lanes that were approved to be built on Columbus Avenue in the next few months.
In one of the renderings, Broadway is closed off to cars at 75th Street. In another, side streets are redesigned to make cars weave through a kind of concrete maze so they slow down. Lisa Sladkus and Mark Gorton, two locals who have advocated for more bike lanes and other changes to the streetscape, narrate a second video that expands on how the changes would make the neighborhood safer. Check the videos out, and send in your own suggestions to http://www.westsideindependent.com
In the wake of a nasty taxi-into-subway-station accident in August, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal is asking the city to make the 72nd street intersection at Broadway safer, possibly by installing speed bumps or new signals.
Three people were injured on August 18 when a cab careened through a gate and slammed into the 72nd Street Subway station’s south entrance.
In a letter she wrote to Department of Transportation official Margaret Forgione, Rosenthal said the intersection where Amsterdam and Broadway cross paths is particularly dangerous for pedestrians because “many vehicles often accelerate to cut each other off to reach these respectve avenues.” The taxi crash “underscores the importance of taming dense traffic in this area.”
A 2007 study by Transportation Alternatives that Rosenthal commissioned noted the high volume of pedestrians and vehicles that converge at the intersection and the short lights that make “elderly don’t feel like they have enough time to cross the street.” The report recommended extending the curbs at the intersections and slowing the walk signals to give people time to walk 2.5 feet per second, among other changes. (photo by DBOi181 via twitpic)
The intersection of 71st Street and Broadway has become 
In the wake of a nasty taxi-into-subway-station accident in August, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal is asking the city to make the 72nd street intersection at Broadway safer, possibly by installing speed bumps or new signals.