Gateway and traffic

Matt Lipsky from Neighborhood Retail Alliance sent me the following. You may find it interesting:

I have uploaded to our website the State DOT’s final study of the Major Deegan and Cross Bronx. The full report can be found by clicking the title above or here: http://www.momandpopnyc.com/memos/index.htm (it’s a very large file; 35 megabytes) under Bronx Terminal Market. The study, though released in 2004, relies on some old data from 1996-97 but essentially concludes that the Major Deegan needs serious upgrades due to high congestion and accident rates. Eight years later the problem is probably worse. Some pages to look at are:

44-45 – Congestion of the Deegan
50 – General Problems with the Deegan’s design
53 – Accident Rates on the Deegan
55 - Ranking of accidents, 161st Street is #1
57 – Problem with Bronx Bus Services, esp near major arterials, crossings (Related claims that many Mall patrons will take these busses)

Related’s EIS for the Terminal Market does not mention this study once and only states that the DOT is planning some changes that will not affect capacity or hamper traffic flow. I guess this will be the first time that construction won’t affect traffic. More generally, Related in terms of the Deegan, only looks at the exit direct before and after 149th street, never taking into account how the addition of thousands of vehicles coming to Gateway will impact on the entire, congested system. Brian Ketcham’s analysis that I sent you all earlier goes into more detail about the deficiencies of the developer’s traffic study.

Once again, for an area that already suffers from high asthma hospitalization and high accident rates, this data needs to be thoroughly and independently examined. The developer’s self-funded, self-serving analysis should not be the only information the community uses to analyze the projects impacts. Also, the Bronx Terminal Market information needs to be examined in conjunction with the potential for additional cars generated by a new Yankee Stadium.