Speed Bumps on Broadway?

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)