Traffic Fixes Needed At Dangerous UWS Crossing: Community Board

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side community board is asking the city to study potential safety upgrades at a dangerous intersection after receiving numerous complaints from local residents.

Community Board 7 voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling on the city Department of Transportation to address "dangerous traffic conditions" at Riverside Drive and West 79th Street during its full board meeting this month. The Villager was first to report on the vote.

The board isn't offering suggestions for specific fixes, but instead asking city planners to study the area and draw up a plan that would cut down on dangerous behaviors such as speeding and illegal U-turns. Drivers flood the intersection and nearby streets along Riverside Drive and West 79th Street trying to get on and off the West Side Highway.

The new resolution differs from the community board's previous votes on a $200 million city plan to reconstruct the West 79th Street Rotunda because it deals with a present danger rather that a future one, CB 7 transportation committee chair Howard Yaruss said during the meeting.

"There is a problem there right now, and we're calling on the DOT to do something now," Yaruss said.

Yaruss said that Riverside Drive and West 79th Street is considered one of the most dangerous intersections on the Upper West Side due to a high number of traffic-related injuries. There have been 47 injuries reported at the intersection since 2009, according to city vision zero data.