Country Club residents are expressing concern that the exit off of I-95 makes the transition from highway speed to residential street speed harder than it should be.
When drivers exit I-95 northbound at exit 7C for Country Club Road, they encounter a yield sign on the exit ramp and traffic on MacDonough Place, essentially a service road that they then have to merge in to.
At the same time, drivers on MacDonough Place, which becomes Bruckner Boulevard going north, have to deal with cars speeding off the highway and some neighborhood residents who frequently use the road feel an accident could be inevitable.
“The problem that we have with the exit off the highway is that it has a yield sign, so that traffic coming off the highway is told to yield, but instead it constantly merges,” said Marcia Pavlica, president of the Country Club Civic Association.
The Bronx Times Reporter recently observed cars regularly ignoring the yield sign on the I-95 Country Club Road exit.
“I haven’t seen that many accidents, but I’ve seen near misses,” Pavlica said. “I’ve seen aggravated drivers on both sides, the highway driver and the local driver. It’s a constant merge into the local traffic. That means, in a way, local traffic comes to a halt, rather than the opposite way.”
One answer may be changing the yield sign into a stop sign. The downside to that is it may lead to cars backing up onto the highway as each one exiting comes to a full stop.
“I don’t know if a stop sign would be enough distance off the highway,” Pavlica said.
Conversely, since many drivers currently ignore the yield sign, there is no guarantee a stop sign would be fully observed either.
Increased police presence on MacDonough could help address the issue, but parking a squad car near the exit would likely put a strain on 45th Precinct’s ability to patrol the rest of the area.
The New York State Department of Transportation said it had not heard anything from Bronx residents about the issue, but representative Adam Levine said the agency would be happy to open a dialogue on it.
“I spoke with our traffic and safety office and they are going to look into the signage around the area,” Levine said. “Some of the signage is city DOT’s so we will most likely be getting in touch with city DOT. We also welcome the opportunity if the community board or the neighborhood wants to get in touch with us directly they’re welcome to do that.”
