ELECTED OFFICIALS REQUEST TRAFFIC STUDY FOR AREA SURROUNDING RIVERDALE CROSSING

Requested Area of Study Includes Broadway, West 238th Street, Bailey Avenue and West 237th Street

   City Council Member Andrew Cohen, Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, Congressman Eliot Engel and Senator Gustavo Rivera penned a joint letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) requesting a traffic study for Broadway, West 238th Street, Bailey Avenue, West 237th Street and any other surrounding street in close proximity to Riverdale Crossing, the new shopping mall that is now fully open for business.

In recent months there has been an influx of pedestrian and vehicular traffic going in and out of the mall, which warrants new or improved traffic controls to ensure a more orderly flow of traffic in order to avoid any accidents and to mitigate congestion.

Riverdale Crossing is centrally located in a transportation hub along Broadway, a heavily used commercial corridor that is home to the No. 1 train and the Major Deegan Expressway. It is also ideally located to the 50th police precinct, Manhattan College, and is a short walk from Van Cortlandt Park. The parking lot of the shopping mall is almost always filled to capacity, causing traffic to overflow onto the already congested local streets. It is for these reasons that the local elected officials feel it is imperative for DOT to conduct a comprehensive study of the traffic patterns and its volume in the surrounding areas.

“Over the last several months this section of the Broadway shopping corridor has changed drastically for the better as new businesses and restaurants have opened in the Riverdale Crossing shopping center, causing a significant increase in the amount of traffic in the area. With no way of knowing how recent developments affect traffic volume and safety, it is critical that the DOT conduct a traffic study so we can determine what additional traffic control measures may be needed. The opening of the Riverdale Crossing mall has already been a great addition for our community; however, it is imperative that we comprehensively examine the impact of its presence on traffic patterns and public safety,” said Councilman Cohen, Congressman Engel, Assemblyman Dinowitz, and Senator Rivera.