UPPER WEST SIDE — The city started work on long-awaited safety upgrades at one of the neighborhood's most dangerous intersections last week, more than a year after locals and officials first sounded the alarm about the accident-heavy crossroads.
Dubbed the "Bowtie of Death," the crisscrossing intersection of Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue and West 71st Street had more pedestrian injuries than 94 percent of Manhattan intersections from 2004 to 2008, a Department of Transportation study found.
"So many accidents, almost every other day," said a woman named Damyanti, who lives a block from the bustling intersection. "You've got to be very careful."
To help pedestrians like her get across the intersection more safely, the DOT is making a host of changes, including removing a lane of traffic on southbound Broadway to slow cars.
The DOT will also enlarge the 72nd Street subway island and other medians to make crossing distances shorter for pedestrians.
The upgrades come a year after Borough President Scott Stringer and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal first accused the DOT of dragging its feet on the pedestrian-protecting improvements.
In July 2011, Stringer and Rosenthal renewed their call for changes, with Stringer saying that crossing the intersection was like "a 100-meter dash against death."
The safety makeover should also help calm traffic on Broadway between West 71st and 70th street, where two women were struck last week by a speeding hit-and-run driver, a DOT spokesman said.