Mid-Block Traffic Light Installed To Help UWS Seniors Cross The Street

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The long block on West 106th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues has a senior center on each side: The New Jewish Home on the uptown side of the street and the Center at the Red Oak on the downtown side.

A collection of residents at each of the centers are friends, and the two groups will now have an easier time walking toward each other after a mid-block stoplight was installed on their street.

The residents no longer have to walk to the corner of West 106th Street and Amsterdam or Columbus to safely traverse the crosswalk.

It was a project bred from Upper West Side community input, starting with a 2019 citizen request to the city championed by Community Board 7. The project was completed by the Department of Transportation last week.

The first journey took place on Wednesday, with a collection of around half a dozen seniors from the Center at the Red Oak making their way across the UWS street with the help of the new light.

The light turned red, a few bikers stopped and smiled at the seniors, and the group made its way across the street.

"It's about time, we waited a long time for this (the stoplight)," the seniors told Patch. "This is great!"