HELL’S KITCHEN — A new traffic plan could force Mount Sinai West’s emergency vehicles to travel eight blocks out of their way to transport patients to an emergency bay on West 59th Street, local officials said.
The city’s Department of Transportation recently adopted a plan that would turn West 60th Street, which runs one-way eastbound between Columbus and 10th avenues, into a westbound street, according to a draft of a letter written to the DOT by Community Board 4’s Transportation Committee.
If the plan goes into effect, however, emergency vehicles traveling up 10th Avenue that normally make eastbound turn onto West 60th Street, travel south on Columbus Avenue and then make a westbound turn onto West 59th Street would instead be forced to travel up to West 65th Street and back down Columbus Avenue “through a very congested area” to make the same turn, the letter stated.
The hospital, located at 1000 10th Ave. between West 58th and 59th streets, has an emergency bay on West 59th Street, the letter notes.
“Mount Sinai West responds to 65,000 emergency calls a year with an average response time of eight minutes,” the committee wrote. “[The plan] adds eight blocks to each of the 65,000 trips with potential life and death implications.”
In the letter — which CB4’s full board unanimously approved at an Oct. 5 meeting — the committee recommended converting West 59th Street between Columbus and 10th avenues into a two-way street.
The DOT could also reserve the eastbound lane of that street for EMS traffic, the letter suggested.
A fire station on West 43rd Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, has a similar traffic configuration, the letter said.
CB4's current proposed traffic setup would have wide-reaching effects, committee member David Warren told DNAinfo.
“It’s not just helping the hospital, it’s helping the community out,” he said, adding that Mount Sinai West turned to the committee for help with the dilemma last month. “People from the area have to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, and this will expedite that.”
A Mount Sinai West spokesman said the hospital "support[s] the DOT conducting an impact study to determine the feasibility of the proposal."
The DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
