A pole supporting “No Parking/No Standing Anytime” signs has the residents of Morris Park and Pelham Parkway furious.
The signs, located on the Pelham Parkway South service road, between Williamsbridge Road and Yates Avenue, have created an annoyance and inconvenience amongst pedestrians and drivers that live and work in the area.
The “No Parking” sign pointing towards the beginning of the block states that it is against the law to park within its boundaries from 7 AM to 7 PM including Sundays. The “No Standing Anytime” sign pointing to the zone ahead of it states that it is against the law to park or stand in the zone at anytime.
This creates a tremendous safety issue, due to the fact that the Pelham Parkway South service road’s three eastbound lanes all have to merge into one lane.
Drivers are informed of the merge once they cross Williamsbridge Road and continue along the Pelham Parkway service road with a “Lanes Merging” warning sign posted, except the sign does not advise the driver how severe the merge is.
Reversing these signs would mean that no cars would be allowed to park at the beginning of the block, creating more space for cars to maneuver instead of encountering a race-like scenario where cars jockey for position to go first after the three lanes and one turn have merged.
Having the “No Standing Anytime” sign pointed towards the beginning of the block, and the “No Parking” sign pointed to the zone just ahead of it, drivers would also be in a safer scenario to park their cars, instead of being forced to park with numerous vehicles from the four lanes behind it.
The placements of these signs don’t make any sense,” said Jeremy Warneke, district manager of Community Board 11. “I believe switching these signs around would solve this problem instantly and it would make this area a lot safer for drivers and pedestrians.”
The signs, which were put up in January 2013 as part of a project to rehabilitate Pelham Parkway, detach one parking zone from the rest of the parking zones, and it’s unclear as to why this particular parking zone is isolated and separated from the rest.
According to Warneke, the Department of Transportation informed Community Board 11 that they would switch the signs six months ago.
“This is just one of many problems that have been caused by the attempted revamping of Pelham Parkway,” said Frank Vignali, who was born and raised in the neighborhood.
“This is a safety issue due to poor planning by the DOT as well as the city, and it needs to be fixed before someone gets hurt or killed. I demand that DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg agree to a walk through with Community Board 11 and/or the Morris Park Association to discuss and fix this problem.”
