By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST HARLEM — Many East Harlem residents must navigate a confusing and dangerous intersection at Madison Avenue and East 135th Street that's clogged every day with commuter cars and heavy trucks coming and going from the Bronx and the Harlem River Drive.
Every so often, one of those pedestrians gets hit and seriously injured, spurring calls for better safety measures.
Now the city's Department of Transportation has come up with a solution. But the proposal has upset residents of a private apartment complex who worry about delivery and emergency vehicles losing easy access to side streets.
The Riverton Tenant Association has asked local officials to reject the proposed improvements and ask the DOT to go back to the drawing board to address its concerns.
In a letter to Community Board 11 this month, association president Randreta Ward-Evans said her group, which represents residents of Riverton Square, north of East 135th Street, is concerned that the new layout will make it harder to make deliveries, worsen traffic congestion and limit access to emergency vehicles.
Their concerns are based on a proposal to change East 135th Street traffic east of Madison Avenue to a one-way eastbound street.
In response, the community board declined to back the DOT’s plan.
No one argues that the crossroads needs a major upgrade.
People crossing Madison Avenue have to watch out for drivers headed on and off the bridge, and others headed east to the Harlem River Drive and west into Harlem.
There are two narrow concrete islands to give pedestrians a break before the lights change. But they often end up having to jog while looking over their shoulders for oncoming cars.
Traffic agents are often posted to maintain order, but even they admit that it gets out of hand during morning and evening rush hours.
“It’s a very dangerous thoroughfare,” said Patricia Herman, president of the tenants association at the Lincoln Houses, a public housing complex south of East 135th Street.
She recalled how one of her neighbors, a man in his 80s, was hit by a car a couple years ago and ended up in the hospital for six months. His family pleaded with the local community board and the DOT to make the intersection safer, Herman said.
She said her group supported the DOT redesign, but has asked that that it will also include “countdown signals” that will give pedestrians a running clock of how many seconds they have left to safely cross the street.
The DOT unveiled the proposed redesign this fall as part of a larger project to improve access to Harlem River Park.
The plan also includes improvements to intersections at East 142nd Street and Fifth Avenue and at East 139th Street and Fifth Avenue, also notorious for accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
A DOT spokesman said the department was trying to set up a meeting to discuss residents' lingering concerns.
