You’re being warned.
Double park in the Bronx at your own risk.
Cops responding to Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero traffic safety plan to reduce pedestrian deaths have launched an educational outreach campaign along a busy South Bronx commercial shopping strip, with others potentially on the list.
Tagged Operation Move-Along, cops in selected precincts around the city began targeting double-parked drivers on several commercial strips around the city on Monday, March 3 to educate them.
In the Bronx, 138th Street from Third Avenue to Jackson Avenue in the South Bronx is the first targeted area in the borough.
The educational campaign may then shift to two other pedestrian accident-prone stretches in the borough: Southern Blvd. from Westchester Avenue to Hunts Point Avenue, and White Plains Road from Pelham Parkway to Allerton Avenue, said a source.
But once the education campaign is over, cops will be gettng serious with summonses.
Since the start of the year, cops in the 40th Precinct have issued 110 summonses to motorists for failing to yield to pedestrians. Boroghwide, they’ve issued 521 summons, according to the NYPD.
Cops from the 40th Precinct working the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 4 p.m. to midnight shifts will initially be giving less blatant double parkers a break, slapping educational brochures rather than summonses under windshield wipers.
The crackdown on 138th Street is scheduled to run through Sunday, March 16, with cops then returning to full-on summons activity against double parkers.
“It’s all about promoting pedestrian safety and focusing on areas prone to pedestrian accidents,” said the source.
Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, new chair of the council’s public safety committee, on a recent trip to Albany asked state lawmakers to empower Mayor Bill de Blasio on some of his proposed traffic safety issues.
“I am making it very clear to state lawmakers that New York City urgently needs sweeping authority to make our local streets and roadways safer for pedestrians of all ages,” said the west Bronx legislator.
She also called for the MTA to “be at the table” with de Blasio’s Vision Zero Plan, since it runs the largest fleet of buses in the state and need to be “part of the solution.”
