DOT To Present Safety Plan For 'Dangerous' Delancey Street Intersection
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City will unveil a pedestrian safety plan for one of the city's most dangerous intersections on Wednesday night.
The Department of Transportation will present its proposal for Delancey Street, which will likely include widened sidewalks, shortened crosswalks at intersections along with changes to turning patterns.
State Senator Daniel Squadron said the move is a critical need for the neighborhood on the Lower East Side.
"Too often, people are trying to rush across Delancey instead of stopping halfway through. By having shorter crosswalks and better signals, you're going to have folks who can cross the whole way," he told 1010 WINS on Wednesday.
Squadron says the DOT will present the plan at a special meeting of Community Board 3's Transportation Committee. The community must then review the plan and reach a consensus on what the plan will include.
It was almost a month ago that 12-year-old Dashane Santana was struck and killed as she tried to cross the intersection at the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge.
In May of last year, a Brooklyn woman was struck and killed by a private sanitation truck as she crossed Delancey Street.
Squadron says the intersections along the street are "some of the most dangerous intersections in the City of New York" and thinks the new changes will help alleviate some of that danger.
"Along the edges of the street, you have areas that traffic doesn't really go into. So by pulling out the sidewalk in some appropriate areas, you're going to have crosswalks that are a lot less likely to lead to accidents and tragedies," he said.
The DOT expects work to take place in June 2012.
Do you think the new changes will help make the intersection less dangerous? Share your thoughts in the comments section...
