By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Despite radical changes made to a large intersection at the southern end of Washington Heights, residents say cars are still continue to present a hazard to pedestrians near the intersection near the southern end of Washington Heights.
Zoila Almonte, a resident of the area and member of the Mount Calvary Church on 162nd Street, presented a letter to the NYC Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) Monday, asking the department to implement new methods to reduce the speed of the cars in front of the church on 162nd Street, between St. Nicholas and Edgecombe avenues.
"Cars enter the block at such a high speed that pedestrians (seniors and children especially) are constantly at risk of being hit by one of those cars," she wrote in a letter.
Almonte said that some of the traffic problems stem from the DOT’s near completion of the nearby massive traffic reconfiguration of St. Nicholas Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue, between West 160th Street and West 163rd Street.
The overhaul, which added new pedestrian plazas, roadway reconfigurations, and street directional changes to the highly travelled thoroughfare, should be finished by the end of December, according to the DOT.
Changes included making the formerly two-way St. Nicholas Avenue into a one-way road northbound from W. 160th to W. 160th streets and one-way southbound from W.163rd Street to Amsterdam Avenue. The DOT also changed W. 161st Street from one-way westbound to one-way eastbound.
Josh Ozreck, a DOT community liaison, said the department will look into issues on the block to see what changes can be made to reduce car speeds.
"The whole purpose of the reconfiguration was to improve pedestrian safety," he said during a Community Board 12 Traffic and Transportation committee meeting. "A lot of the problems here was that cars found themselves on the wrong street, because of the changes and in a rush speed."
According to the DOT, 23 pedestrian injuries were reported between 2006 and 2009 at the site of the intersection reconfiguration at St. Nicholas and Amsterdam avenues.
Ozreck said the department is currently working with the 33rd Police Precinct to increase patrols and do more spot checks of the problem area.
He also said roadway construction in the area should be completed by the end of the year.
"Many of the problems we are seeing now are a matter of drivers getting used to the new streets," he said. "People need to get used to it before it all works out."
