The area between 160th St. and Dyckman Street has had a higher-than-average accident rate. Most of the accidents occur during rain and at night. At the request of Assemblyman Farrell, last year DOT corrected the banking problem so that cars now lean into rather than out of the curve. DOT reports a dramatic decrease in accidents as a result. Nevertheless, DOT wants to go further and actually “straighten the S-curves” and raise the speed limit to 50 mph along the entire length. The plan has been challenged for these reasons:

• DOT’s four options each require destruction of parkland, historic stonework, or the landmarked Riverside Drive Viaduct.
• Alignments (curves and changes in grade) are fundamental elements of parkway design, which is to follow natural topography and present motorists with a sequence of individual views
• Curves are traffic-calming; straightaways encourage speeding, even drag racing (already a serious problem on the parkway)
• There is no imperative to “bring the parkway up to highway standards.” Both federal and state transportation guidelines encourage flexibility in applying highway standards to parkways and other scenic roads. In any case, variable speed limits exist elsewhere along the parkway and the entire 9A route, not to mention the Major Deegan expressway and the FDR Drive.
• Further reducing the accident rate can best be achieved by improving the parkway’s drainage during rain and enforcing the speed limit, especially at night.