traffic – Livable Tarrytowns

*Washington Irving students crossing Broadway at Franklin, January 13, 2025. Photo by Giselle Schuetz.*

Livable Tarrytowns has a long list of wishes for 2025. Near the top of that list are far-reaching changes to the Broadway and Franklin Street intersection.

Because it is adjacent to the Washington Irving School, the intersection sees a lot of pedestrian traffic. And because it is poorly designed, the intersection poses a threat to people crossing both Broadway and Franklin Street.

As many parents have informed us, and numerous Livable Tarrytown members themselves have experienced, “near-misses”—when motor vehicles come close to striking a pedestrian—are common. Madeline Praino, a retired, longtime TUFSD teacher, for example, told us about crossing Franklin Street at around 4 pm one fall afternoon in 2023. A vehicle traveling northward on Broadway took a left at Franklin while focusing only on the oncoming traffic on Broadway, not paying any heed to Franklin Street itself. The vehicle almost struck Ms. Praino and her granddaughter. The same thing happened to the pair a second time this past December.

And then there are the “non-misses.”

In 2020, a motor vehicle struck a 4^th-grader in the crosswalk, breaking his arm.

Prior to that, between 1987 and 2019, according to the New York State Department of Transportation, the intersection saw 96 vehicle crashes, resulting in 78 “minor” injuries and 4 “serious” ones. Ten of the crashes resulted in minor injuries to people walking.

Despite so many crashes and injuries, there has been no redesign of the intersection, and no implementation of infrastructural changes that compel drivers to proceed with caution.

A recent incident illustrates one reason why crossing Broadway at Franklin can be so dangerous.

On the afternoon of October 2, 2024, children were partaking in after-school play at the Washington Irving campus. During this time, two 9-year-old participants announced that they were going to walk home. Because they had no adults with them and the crossing guard was no longer on duty, a parent who was present, Denis Fogarty, told them that he would help them traverse Broadway.

In an email with DOT officials, Mr. Fogarty explains what happened next as they waited on the sidewalk to cross from the west side to the east side of the thoroughfare. “We made eye contact with the driver heading southbound and the minibus driver headed northbound and both vehicles stopped. As we walked across the street, I was forced to grab the children and pull them back. A sedan, which was behind the minibus, could not see why the bus had stopped darted into the crosswalk. This is possible as Franklin St runs perpendicular east, into Broadway and gives cars the space to make such a maneuver.” (See the illustration below.)

The blue and yellow blocks represent the vehicles that stopped for Mr. Fogarty and the two children. The red block and arrows represent the car that went around the minibus (in yellow) and almost struck them. Illustration by Denis Fogarty.

In response to Mr. Fogarty’s email, Jenny Baez, the NYSDOT Area Construction Supervisor, said that the agency “has no current construction projects scheduled” to reconfigure the intersection. She went on to report that “[a]ny future work by the NYSDOT at the intersection of U.S. Route 9 and Franklin Street would be done as part of the U.S. Route 9 Complete Streets project if determined to be feasible.”

Such work, optimistically speaking, is years down the proverbial road. While the intersection is in the Village of Tarrytown, Broadway is a state thoroughfare and thus any changes to the roadway require approval from the NYSDOT. For the Village to remake the intersection requires permission from New York State authorities.

In recognition of both the dangerous nature of the intersection and the DOT’s responsibility for its design and maintenance, Tarrytown’s Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution on November 4. It requests “that the New Yok State Department of Transportation investigate a short-term solution to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection of Franklin Street and Rt. 9/Broadway and provide resources to make this important safety improvement.” Three days after the decree’s passage, the Village sent the resolution, along with a letter, to the DOT.

As of this writing, the DOT has not responded to the Village of Tarrytown.

Still, there are important measures that the Village can implement. Indeed, last week, the Tarrytown Police Department installed mid-road signage similar to what the Village has put into place at Broadway and McKeel. (See image below.)

*Broadway at Franklin, looking southward*, *January 13, 2025. Note the mid-road signage. Photo by David Kim.*

What could also prove quite helpful in the immediate term is if the Village were to set out traffic cones on school days to restrict northbound Broadway traffic flow to one lane and thus prevent cars from driving around vehicles properly stopped at the crosswalk. This would entail, relatedly, parking a police vehicle near the middle of Broadway to warn drivers to slow down in the approach to the crosswalk. (See illustration below.)

*The blue rectangle represents a parked police vehicle. The red dots represent traffic cones*.

Following the implementation of these measures, the Village could commission a redesign of the intersection and then, via the NYTDOT’s highway work permit process, implement that redesign.

Beyond the intersection, Franklin Street itself needs significant work to enhance safety for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians alike. This past October, a collision between a school bus and a car occurred on the street.

Pedestrians, especially those walking on the south side of Franklin, do not feel secure because of the speed at which many vehicles travel and the narrowness of the sidewalk. In addition, regarding the stretch west of the Washington Irving parking lot, the presence of utility poles can make it difficult for people with strollers to use it. Widening the sidewalk is something the Village should explore.

*Blocked crosswalks on Main Street and John Street, Tarrytown, June 20, 2024*.

Scenes such as this recent one showing vehicles parked in crosswalks in downtown Tarrytown threaten pedestrians. Frustrating and all too common, they serve to remind us of one of the many reasons the work of Livable Tarrytowns is so necessary.

But we also need to remember and celebrate what we (along with our allies) have accomplished in the last few months—not least to sustain ourselves!

On May 29, the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees approved a “Sustainable Complete Streets Policy” that contains clear benchmarks that the Village needs to achieve each year. Originally drafted by Sustainable Sleepy Hollow, the policy requires the Village to “carry out a system of implementation, to include surveying roadways and intersections, identifying opportunities for improvements, ranking streets and roadways identified for enhancements, installing pilot or demonstration projects, evaluating performance of the pilot or demonstration projects, and permanently installing these projects.”

Different projects have distinct point values assigned to them. Installing a marked crosswalk with signage or putting in a speed hump, for example, is worth two points, while a roundabout (a major undertaking) is worth twenty. New sidewalk planters or planters at curb extensions get one point, while the installation of bioswales or raingardens at tree pits within curb extensions receive seven points. The Village must attain a minimum of 25 points annually.

And Sleepy Hollow is already making progress.

Pedestrian plaza, looking southward from Beekman Avenue at Cortlandt Street.
Credit: Village of Sleepy Hollow.

Currently, the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees is conducting an analysis of the temporary and highly successful pedestrian plaza on Cortlandt Street at Beekman Avenue with an eye toward improving it and making it permanent. The Village has grant money that it has won and will apply to the plaza.

In addition, in response to emails and letters from residents and parents of schoolchildren, the Village has painted curb extensions (or “bump-outs”) around crosswalks on Beekman Avenue and Pocantico Street. Soon—to prevent scenes such as the one shown above in Tarrytown—the Village of Sleepy Hollow will install physical barriers to deter vehicles from parking in the bump-out areas.

School walkers at Valley Street, May 8, 2024.

The redesign of the crosswalks near the Morse School comes on the heels of a highly successful Walk/Bike to School Day on May 8—this despite it being a rainy day. Organized by Livable Tarrytowns, the event saw scores of children walking and biking in groups, along with parents and members of the board of trustees from both villages, to the elementary schools. (We are planning another walk and bike day for October 9. Dr. Raymond Sanchez, TUFSD superintendent, will be among the participants!).

Biking on Broadway to the Morse School. (More photos below.)

Also in relation to the TUFSD, the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) has agreed to make a positive change in proximity of the high school/middle school/John Paulding campus. In a May 6, 2024, letter to the Village of Sleepy Hollow, the DOT approved a “School Safety Zone” and a lowering of the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on Bedford Road (Route 448) between Webber Avenue and Broadway (Route 9).

In the same letter, the DOT approved a speed limit reduction to 25 miles per on Broadway from Bedford Road to College Avenue, but refused to lower it to 20 miles under the dubious logic that there is a signalized crosswalk at Depeyster (and Broadway). Overcoming the DOT’s obstinance to the extension of the “School Safety Zone” along Broadway requires that the New York State legislature pass a “home rule resolution.” Livable Tarrytowns will work with allies to bring about the passage of such a resolution in the next legislative session (which begins in January 2025).

Finally, in mid-May, Livable Tarrytowns submitted a letter to the DOT signed by more than 240 residents of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. The letter called upon the agency to install a median refuge on Broadway at McKeel along with bump-outs at the crosswalks. At the urging of members of Livable Tarrytowns, the Board of Trustees of Tarrytown passed a strong resolution in support.

On June 13, the DOT responded by letter to Livable Tarrytowns. The good news is that the DOT intends to narrow the intersection by pushing the curb on the west side of Broadway into the intersection. On the east side of Broadway at McKeel, the DOT is currently planning to install “bump out” extensions at the crosswalks. Unfortunately, however, the DOT has decided against installing a median refuge.

That said, the letter noted, “The Route 9 Complete Street Project, currently in the preliminary design phase, is evaluating the entire corridor through Tarrytown to determine if median refuge islands are appropriate and feasible.” In other words, more far-reaching changes are under consideration.