Bronx, NY – Community stakeholders are extremely concerned about an apparent uptick in dangerous driving behavior on Independence Avenue, with local residents sharing photos and videos of aggressive speeding and residual tire marks from frequent donuts at the intersection of West 235^th Street. Council Member Andrew Cohen and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz joined with residents on Thursday evening to call for a better City response to the ongoing problems, and were particularly upset about the extreme delay in restoring speed humps and road markings that were removed during road repaving over the summer.

Independence Avenue has two schools (P.S. 24 and M.S/H.S. 141 – Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy), a library (Spuyten Duyvil Branch of NYPL), several religious institutions, Seton Park, and Riverdale Playground between West 232^nd Street and West 239^th Street. It is also a neighborhood slow zone (20mph speed limit). There are supposed to be three speed humps on Independence Avenue in this area, however they were removed in July during road milling and have not been reinstalled by the NYC Department of Transportation.

In addition to the restoration of speed humps and road markings on Independence Avenue, Dinowitz and Cohen are asking for increased enforcement of laws against dangerous driving and additional speed controls to be installed throughout the Northwest Bronx at problematic locations.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said: “Our streets should be safe for the people who live in our community, and frankly right now they are not. There is rampant dangerous driving putting pedestrian safety at risk, not to mention the seemingly constant scream of cars’ engines that have been modified to be louder than usual. I understand that it is difficult to eliminate bad driving behavior entirely, but we need to be doing everything we can to make our streets safer regardless of the financial situation of our City. We cannot put a price on the lives of Bronxites, and the City needs to address this problem before somebody is injured – or worse.”

"My family knows all too well the dangers of speeding and reckless driving. My mother, Ida Rosenblatt, was killed on Netherland Ave near 232nd St, just a few blocks from Independence Avenue. She loved the Bronx and regularly fought to improve her community. My mother would have been at the rally tonight demanding safety for her neighbors. In her name, I demand that the mayor and the DOT to invest in the Bronx and make our city safe for all New Yorkers,” said Irma Rosenblatt, Families for Safe Streets.

The full video of today's press conference can be viewed here.

Photos of tire marks from “donuts” on Independence Avenue and West 235th Street and video of dangerous driving available here.