Confusion has cropped up in Community Board 11 over the placement of signs on Pelham Parkway South, east of Williamsbridge Road.
Specifically, the board’s office is questioning the no parking zone at the corner of the intersection, turning off Williamsbridge to the eastbound service road, and a no standing zone which begins further down the block.
The signs were installed last year during the much-maligned reconstruction of Pelham Parkway South, which narrowed the service road and reduced parking in the neighborhood.
The concern is that no standing zones, where as the name implies, cars are not allowed to stop, traditionally exist at corners of tight streets to allow for the turning radius of a fire truck, said Community Board 11 district manager Jeremy Warneke.
But because there is a no parking zone on the corner, only between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., cars can park on that corner before and after the designated times, and all the time with special permits.
“That’s a problem if a fire truck is trying to get through,” said Warneke.
The question of why the signs were installed that way was brought up to the Department of Transportation during a site visit of Pelham Parkway South about a year ago to highlight multiple community concerns, said Warneke, but the issue was passed off to the FDNY.
In December, Warneke said a community liaison from the FDNY visited the site and expressed concern over the signage.
According to the DOT, the signs were installed that way following instructions from the FDNY, but the agency is currently reviewing the request from Community Board 11 and the FDNY to change them.
The FDNY did not respond to a request for comment.
In the meantime, some community members are similarly frustrated with the no parking zone on the corner.
When cars park on the corner of Pelham Parkway South in the evening, it makes it difficult for eastbound traffic from multiple lanes to merge into the single lane service road, said longtime Pelham Parkway resident Frank Vignali.
He feels there should be a no standing zone on the corner to create a funnel lane for traffic, as opposed to a no standing zone in the middle of the block.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Vignali.
