HUDSON HEIGHTS — The city recently installed safety improvements at a subway entrance that Uptown residents had described as dangerous because pedestrians were forced to exit onto a busy street without a sidewalk.
The Bennett Avenue entrance to the 190th Street A train station is now marked by a stop sign and features a pedestrian crosswalk with curb cuts. The Department of Transportation installed the safety measures earlier this month.
“It’s really great what they’ve done here,” said Sandrine Beddou, who often crosses the street with a stroller and her toddler in tow.
Beddou, who has lived in the neighborhood for five years, said that the crossing used to be a free-for-all for both drivers and pedestrians, but that the changes have made the crossing more visible and less chaotic.
“It just means people aren’t crossing everywhere anymore,” said Beddou, who also uses the street as a driver. “Cars used to stop in one place for a person crossing and maybe not notice that someone else was crossing farther up the street because it was the only place to get through with a stroller.”
In November 2014, residents told DNAinfo New York that they found the crossing difficult to navigate.
Residents were concerned with the fact that the station entrance came shortly after a sharp curve that leads from Broadway, making it difficult for drivers to see pedestrians, they said.
In addition, the sidewalk on the west side of the street ends just before the station entrance, meaning that people exiting the station were forced to cross before they reached the closest intersection at Bennett Avenue and Broadway.
Finally, the lack of curb cuts meant that parents with strollers or people using wheelchairs or walkers sometimes had to walk in the street for a long stretch because cars were parked too tightly to allow a stroller to pass through.
“There’s not even a way to do things by the book there,” resident Maurice Owen-Michaane told DNAinfo at the time. “You have to cross and there’s no safe way to do it.”
After working with Community Board 12 and Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, the DOT agreed to make safety changes to the site.
The DOT removed about three parking spaces from each side of the road in order to create the crosswalk and to make sure it would be visible to drivers. The agency also installed a stop sign at the location, as well as signs warning of the upcoming stop for drivers who are coming around the curve.
Vincent Niemann, who walks with a cane because of a spinal injury, uses the station entrance every day. He said that the crossing used to be daunting for him.
“The cars really had their way,” Niemann said. “Where as we pedestrians were looking out, like, is anything coming? How fast is it moving?”
Niemann, 64, said he feels much safer now that the stop sign and crosswalk have been installed.
“I feel empowered,” he said. “I feel empowered to not fear for my life.”
