UWS crosswalk signs give mixed signals

With crosswalk signals malfunctioning on the Upper West Side, more local pedestrians are being told to stop and go—at the same time.

According to City Council member Gale Brewer, contradictory traffic messages—with pedestrian crosswalk signs displaying stop and go signals at the same time—have become a common problem.

“The problem is that in many cases you look to cross the street and see both the red hand and the white walker,” Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, said. This, she said, tells pedestrians that the situation is both safe and unsafe.

New York City Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nicole Garcia explained that the DOT is in charge of maintaining the city’s 100,000 pedestrian signals citywide. According to Garcia, some of these lights are reaching the end of their expected seven-year life cycles, which can lead to the signals malfunctioning.

And they have been. Garcia said that in 2009, about 5 percent of pedestrian signals underwent lens repairs to correct the issue.

This month, crosswalks in Morningside Heights incorrectly displaying both signs have been spotted on 116th Street and Amsterdam as well as 113th and Broadway.

“Pedestrians are our number one concern,” Brewer said. “And if they don’t know if they’re supposed to go or stay, it can lead to issues in safety.”

Brewer first sent a letter to the DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, on Dec. 28, according to correspondences Jesse Bodine, Brewer’s director of constituent services, shared with Spectator.

Brewer alerted the DOT of the “dangerous situation,” pointing out at least one malfunction she had seen on 88th Street. The DOT responded on Jan. 8 saying that the maintenance contractor replaced the lens at that site.

The response, though, was not sufficient for Brewer, who sent a follow-up letter on Feb. 1, calling the issue a “chronic problem,” listing nine more problem sites on the Upper West Side. “Please continue to inspect the area and repair any malfunctioning signals,” she said in the letter.

In an interview this week, she said, “I’ve seen much fewer problems around in the last couple weeks than, say, three or four weeks ago.”

Charles O’Shea, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Transportation, which controls less than 1 percent of city crosswalks, said the city DOT works hard to address all traffic signal problems. “It is a herculean task and the City DOT does a fine job in trying to maintain them.”

James Shultz, a highway and transportation design engineer with Robson Forensics, said of the signal malfunctions, “It is a relatively simple thing to fix. It is related to the computer that’s running the signal.”

Shultz said that the problem can arise when a circuit controlling one of the lights is not properly disconnected when it is supposed to be, resulting in both flashing at once.

Also, “Sometimes, there are weather conditions—coldness, dampness—that can cause cross-channeling, where the electric signal in one line ... can cause a line that is not supposed to be carrying current to do so and actually send the signal,” he said.

This is bound to happen in cold weather, Shultz said. “If it is not properly insulated, or there is a break in insulation, that can cause it.”

Though there can be many different causes for this kind of problem, he said that it is almost always easy to fix.

Michael Glass, partner with Rappaport, Glass, Greene and Levine, LLP, a law firm that handles city traffic accidents, said he hasn’t heard of this specific problem, but added that it could be serious.

“Truthfully, that is horribly dangerous for something like that to happen,” he said. “The city is exposing itself to real liability.”

Glass said that the lights should be programmed in such a way that the two separate operations never appear at the same time.

“There has got to be a real design defect of significant proportions,” he said.

Jossie Carreras-Tartak, crossing on 116th Street, said the problem sounds really dangerous. “I’m actually one of the people who really relies on those,” she said.

Sam Levin and Leah Greenbaum contributed reporting.
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