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Pedestrian pebble-ization
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Photos by Tequila Minsky
The southern crosswalk at Bleecker St. and Seventh Ave. has been shortened by more than one lane thanks to a newly installed “neckdown.” One Village resident using a walker, asked what he thought of the crossing, replied, “My cat would like it.” It’s true, the pebbled, outcropping jutting from the corner does resemble kitty litter, a little bit.
This is a vast improvement, on a corner that has long been ripe for being the next tragedy.
There will still be drivers who will try to left hand turn from the middle lane, but eliminating (technically)
that second impatient left turn by "in a hurry" right lane cars WILL make a difference. The pressure will now be on the lead car in the left turn lane to get moving ("What am I supposed to do, hit the pedestrian?") so Bleecker Street Pizza visitors get ready for more horn honking. Overall, notch one in the win column for DOT on this one. No more cars forced into the leather store window. Up until now we've only been lucky.
A definite safety improvement.
I'm hoping that it will also slow down the speeding drivers turning right off of Bleecker and onto Seventh Ave. South, often without yielding to the pedestrians in the crosswalk. As a walker, I have personally experienced several close calls there on my way to the nearby subway.
I cross Bleeker on the East side of 7th every morning. We need a left turn signal because traffic still speeds through that left onto Bleeker even with pedestrians attempting to cross. This is still a very dangerous corner, whether going uptown or downtown.