By Emalie Vera
It’s taken 10 years, but the city has finally installed crosswalks on the Post Road near Rye Golf Club after several Rye Neck families and students made repeated requests to the Rye City Council.
And that is not the only new crosswalk in the city. Over the last few months, pedestrian signals called “Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons” have been installed at another location on the Post Road and in two spots on Milton Road. In the last year, nine have been installed at about $10,000 each, said Interim City Manager Brian Shea. The city’s department of public works installs them.
“As a community, we have tried to be more dedicated to pedestrian safety and walkability,” said Kelsey Johnson, one of the co-chairs of the city’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee. She said encouraging walking is not only good for traffic relief but for the environment as well.
Another new crosswalk was installed across from Nursery Field where a new artificial turf soccer field has opened. Parents wanted a safer crossing for kids using the field, said Brian Dempsey, co-chairman of the safety committee. The crosswalks make the fields more accessible to the children and reduce car traffic, he said.
On Post Road, in addition to the crossing at Rye Golf, another has been added at Bradford and Park avenues. A third is planned for Johnson Place. The crossings allow pedestrians to avoid the East side of Post Road, where there is no sidewalk.
The crossings there include a concrete island in the middle of the road so if pedestrians cannot make it all the way across in heavy traffic, they have a safe place to wait in the middle.
Over the last two years, “push buttons” have been added to the crosswalks so that pedestrians can activate flashing lights before crossing, said Johnson. Traffic lights at the corner of Oakland Beach Avenue and Milton Road also have been reprogrammed to allow pedestrians to cross in any direction. Previously, the light allowed for right turns on red, which was dangerous for those crossing the street, Johnson said. Many parents from the Milton Parent Teacher Organization wrote letters expressing concern about that situation.
The Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee of the City Council coordinates the installation of the crosswalks with the cooperation and strategic planning of the city, Johnson said.
Not all of Rye’s roadways fall under the committee’s jurisdiction. Some roads, like Playland Parkway and Midland Avenue, are managed by the county, which pays for repairs and improvements. In recent years, the county has been investing more in the roads and sidewalks in Rye, Johnson said, crediting those improvements to the city’s close relationship with former County Executive George Latimer, himself a Rye resident.
