The Bronx

New York City motorists killed three adults and seriously injured two children in five crashes since last Thursday.

The East Bronx is on track to get new Metro-North service, but developers are building unwalkable, traffic-generating projects near the stations, fueled by state and city funding for highway ramps and expansions. Unless things change, the new rail service will be marooned in a sea of car-centric sprawl and traffic congestion.

A section of E. 165th Street near the Grand Concourse is set to get a road diet, bike lanes, and concrete pedestrian islands under a DOT plan to cut down on traffic injuries [PDF]. While the redesign would be a big improvement over the status quo, it doesn't take advantage of the widest sections to put in protected bike lanes.

With its rolling curves and park-like setting, Mosholu Parkway might look pretty to people sitting behind a windshield. But for people on foot, it's a roaring Robert Moses-era surface highway, up to eight lanes wide, running between Norwood and Bedford Park in the Bronx. The road divides the park and provides few places to safely cross. Now, residents are asking DOT to make some changes.

Yesterday, the 24-year-old driver of a U-Haul van struck and killed a 43-year-old cyclist at the Grand Concourse and 158th Street in the Bronx. Police investigators have made a preliminary determination that the van driver had the right of way, according to NYPD, but the agency has yet to reveal the basis for that conclusion.

A hit-and-run driver killed a pedestrian last night on a stretch of Broadway in the Bronx with a history of fatalities, and where motorists injured one person walking per week last year.

The effort to transform the Sheridan Expressway got a boost this morning from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who in his State of the Borough address called on the Cuomo administration to take action.

After unveiling its pedestrian safety action plan for Queens yesterday, DOT released plans for Manhattan and the Bronx today. (Staten Island will come tomorrow, followed by Brooklyn.) The reports each follow the same pattern, identifying problem areas in depth but describing solutions in general terms. It's clears from the sheer mileage of streets in need of safety improvements that the current pace of change is not nearly enough to achieve the city's Vision Zero goals.

New York seemingly has a traffic signal on every corner. To improve safety at one Bronx intersection, DOT is going with something different: a roundabout.