Eyes on the Street

A two-vehicle collision left an NYU bus on a Greenwich Village sidewalk this morning, in an NYPD precinct where speed enforcement, for all intents and purposes, is non-existent.

In early February, DOT repaved Katonah Avenue in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx, leaving a smooth black surface with no markings. Shortly after a nearby resident called 311 a few weeks ago, a crew was sent out to mark where the crosswalks should be, and the double-yellow stripe was installed. Residents are still waiting for crosswalks. It's a particular worry at P.S. 19, where students cross Katonah Avenue daily.

Here's a welcome sign on the front door to Greenpoint Finest Deli, at the corner of Manhattan and Norman Avenues. The notice, ostensibly from NYPD, reminds drivers and passengers of their obligation to look before opening the door of parked cars. "Summonses will be issued," the sign warns.

Reader Mike Epstein sends in this photo of a "mixing zone" on L Street in downtown Washington, D.C., that looks a lot different than the ones here in NYC. Mixing zones are the areas where bike traffic merges with turning car traffic at the approach to intersections along protected bike lanes. New York's mixing zones don't have flexible posts, and the markings are supposed to emphasize that drivers should yield to passing cyclists, instead of directing cyclists to merge to the right of turning cars, as seems to be the intent in D.C.

Last week, we reported about the Blueway Plan for the East River waterfront, which includes a deck over the FDR Drive at 14th Street to fix a notorious pinch point in the East Side greenway. In the meantime, the greenway is receiving some nuts-and-bolts upgrades.

Brooklyn Spoke's Doug Gordon tweeted this photo Wednesday morning. This crash happened at the intersection of Prince and Crosby in Soho, which gets a ton of foot traffic and sees some of the highest bike counts in the city. It's only random chance that someone didn't get hit.

Elevated from today's headline stack: Photographer Dmitry Gudkov snapped this picture on Friday afternoon of a commercial van -- the phone number goes to Glass & Windows, Inc., of Long Island City -- straddling the concrete barrier that separates a two-way bike lane, and the sidewalk beyond, from the busy intersection where Flushing Avenue crosses beneath the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

Bartel Pritchard Square, at the southwest corner of Prospect Park, received some tweaks this morning, including new and re-striped crosswalks enhancing access to the central space in the middle of the traffic circle. There are also markings to channel traffic as it enters the square, and the short stretch of bike lane between Prospect Park West and Prospect Park Southwest has been more clearly marked as two-way.

Yesterday, DOT crews installed a bike corral on Court Street near the intersection with Pacific Street, in a "no standing" zone that was often ignored. Like other bike corrals the city has recently installed, this one will improve safety for pedestrians by keeping the corner visible to turning drivers. It's also going to improve customer access to nearby retailers, including the Trader Joe's across Court Street.