They will not yield.
Activists say the city needs to get moving and install a stop sign at a dangerous Coney Island intersection frequented by seniors and children.
The corner Surf Avenue and W. 37th Street — adjacent to two senior centers, a 194-unit senior housing development, a day-care center, and a bus stop — lacks a stop sign or even a crosswalk. Councilman Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island) lobbied the Department of Transportation to create a crosswalk or install a stop sign one year ago, but he said the agency told him it had to do some paperwork before laying paint.
“They don’t just paint crosswalks without doing a study,” Treyger said. “We are still awaiting the results and outcome of their study.”
The department initiated a study in August and said it would have a result by the winter, Treyger said. But the cold weather came and went — without a ruling from the Department of Transportation, he said.
“Meanwhile, with the weather getting warmer, there will be more foot traffic on Surf Avenue, and our sense of urgency increases,” Treyger said.
A department spokesman said the agency is still working on the study, but he would not say why it was delayed or when it might be issued.
Since the department began the study, three people have been injured in crashes at the corner, including one pedestrian in on Jan. 14, according to the city’s own data.
The B36 bus terminates at the corner and can spend varying amounts of time waiting there while the drivers take breaks, a spokeswoman Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.
But adding a bus to the mix creates a more volatile situation, according to a neighborhood activist.
“When somebody is stepping out from behind a bus, there’s no way for a car that’s making that right turn to avoid killing somebody,” said Judd Fischler, who first brought the issue to this paper’s attention.
The neighborhood stalwart, who has taken on the Department of Transportation before, said the agency treats his historic neighborhood like a red-headed step-child.
“My feeling is that they dump on Coney Island,” Fischler said. “If this was in Park Slope, it would have been fixed 10 hours before the call came in.”
