By Gus Saltonstall
During the first week of October 2025, a new mid-block traffic light was installed on West 72nd Street, around the midpoint between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.
Four months later, the crosswalk for pedestrians has not been painted.
When WSR asked the DOT on Monday why the crosswalk hadn’t been painted yet, and what the current timeline was, a spokesperson said that the agency will finish painting the crosswalk when “implementation season” begins this spring.
In September, a DOT spokesperson told the Rag that the installation of the new West 72nd Street mid-block crosswalk and traffic signal would continue into the fall.
The spokesperson added that these types of projects are weather sensitive and get done during the DOT’s implementation season, which runs from the spring to fall each year. In the meantime, the DOT said it would explore using temporary materials to demarcate the crosswalk at the new mid-block West 72nd Street traffic light.
The new traffic light and crossing were installed following a request from New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who passed along concerns from residents and businesses on West 72nd Street related to regular jaywalking and the “untenable and dangerous situation” for pedestrians and drivers along the busy thoroughfare.
In response, the Department of Transportation performed a study of the West 72nd Street corridor, and agreed to go forward with the installation of the mid-block crossing to “make access significantly easier while improving safety for both pedestrians and drivers.”
Read More:
- Mid-Block Crosswalk and Traffic Light To Be Installed at 72nd Street
- Mid-Block Traffic Light Installed on Busy Upper West Side Thoroughfare
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If you can install a street light i(which they did) how hard would it have been to paint a crosswalk? Really insane!
Uh, in case you haven’t really noticed … water, snow, ice, and paint don’t mix well. How exactly do you expect them to paint in this mess?
Perfect answer.
In October or even November 2025. It was warm enough to paint roads then. They were repainting all the green on the park bike lanes.
Probably why there wasn’t anyone available to paint the crosswalk also.
There wasn’t any water, snow , ice in early October!!!
for 4 months?
It’s actually the temperature that is an issue – road paint needs much higher temperatures to cure and set than I would have guessed!
” At the time of installation, the pavement surface temperature shall be a minimum of 55 Degrees F. and the ambient temperature shall be a minimum of 49 Degrees F. and rising.” https://www.nycstreetdesign.info/sites/default/files/specs/6.44-W%20Y%20Reflectorized%20Markings.pdf
In New York City, October is widely considered the best month for weather, offering a crisp, comfortable transition into autumn. The overall daily average temperature is approximately 58°F (14°C).
The month is characterized by a steady cooling trend:
Average Highs: Typically start around 70°F (21°C) at the beginning of the month and drop to about 60°F (15°C) by Halloween.
Average Lows: Generally range from 57°F (14°C) in early October to 47°F (8°C) by the end of the month.
thanks
Does seem like they could have planned to paint it immediately following or even during installation, but fine, clearly the prior administration was incompetent in a bunch of ways. Better late than never, at least we are getting the crosswalk installed.
The paint wouldn’t set correctly. The city doesn’t pour concrete in winter either.
It would have set in September, October and maybe even early November 2025.
The implementation period is a completely different period from the the installation period. And while the latter period was successfully navigated with the late October installation, the former period, which runs from spring to fall, was exhausted by the time the other period was ongoing, which caught them by surprise, since fall is an entirely new season to them, henceforth making planned implementation procedures impossible to implement in October and November when the period itself expired for the year. They are, however, with a minimal delay of three months, and just ahead of the new formal implementation period, willing to consider a temporary implementation using temporary materials to demarcate the aforementioned traffic landmark. The latter was only brought to their attention by media coverage during the closed (non-implementation) period for which they are grateful, though they fully regret the oversight in not remembering that they can, on their own accord, implement the temporary implementation with temporary materials without being asked for it by local residents and media.
Or something like that. I’m sure they can write a great, constructive email to explain it.
😂 It appears you have worked at a bureaucracy! Perfect!
bicyclists won’t stop anyway
So true. Completely out of control
Good. Let bicycles take the red light. It’s fine. As long as they yield to pedestrians, the light is just for cars.
Uh…I hate to tell you this, but lights are meant for ALL moving vehicles, whether motorized or not. And bikes are LEGALLY REQUIRED to stop at red lights. So no, the light are NOT “just for cars.”
Drivers never go 1mph over the speed limit?
The bike lobby wants kangaroo courts for car drivers but not for everyone else!
Ideally we would have speed, red light, and noise cameras on every corner and the vast majority of enforcement would be automated so there wouldn’t be much need for courts at all!
In NYC, there is already no plea bargaining for traffic court cases and the standard of proof to convict in NYC traffic courts which are run by the DMV as an administrative court are lower than in courts outside NYC. You get an officer issued speeding ticket outside NYC, you can work out a plea bargain since the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt and the cases get resolved quickly, within the month. In NYC, the standard is clear and convincing evidence and the officer prosecutes the case in front of an administrative law judge so the court dates are often years out into the future. NYC traffic courts still have pending traffic tickets issued before COVID.
Easy solution – don’t break the law. Drivers speed, honk, run red lights, text while drive, block the crosswalk, and double park all the time. I doubt that more than 0.1% of the people who drive 26mph on city streets get a ticket. If you walk down the streets and see how drivers behave, and look at the number of tickets issued, it’s very hard for me to believe that drivers are over policed and not getting away with industrial scale law breaking.
And e-bikes where norms are not clearly established aren’t getting away with industrial scale law breaking? There’s definitely drivers that need to be off the road and there’s drivers that are bad, but this isn’t about safety, this is about a larger vision where people do not own cars except for those at the very top and there is less freedom of movement. This is about control and culture, not safety.
Don’t worry, the West 72nd Street Block Association has it good with Open Plans, it will be taken care of!
I hope so! This crosswalk is another great example of the positive results that transportation advocates have been able to deliver!
BS from the DOT
Some crosswalk markings in the city are actually Reflective Decals/Tape: Preformed, self-adhesive vinyl or thermoplastic tape can be applied to clean, dry surfaces for immediate use, offering high visibility and durability.
I think clean and dry are the operative words.
They add these reflective decals year around, typically when Con Edison or other work digs up the area where the crosswalk is located.
The surface needs to be clean and dry when it is applied only it doesn’t need time to set.
“Four months later, the crosswalk for pedestrians has not been painted.‘. This is the government at work. If this was a roadway on the corporate campus of a private company, the crosswalk would have been painted the next day.
I’m sure Gale Brewer has heard that there’s an “untenable and dangerous situation” for pedestrians in Central Park with the new design of the Drives, the report of the DOT notwithstanding (https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/01/20/central-park-changes-have-eased-crossings-for-pedestrians-new-data-shows). “Pedestrians are waiting less time to cross Central Park’s bustling six-mile loop after the city shortened crossing distances and replaced stop lights with flashing yellow “yield” signals — further evidence of the success of the Department of Transportation’s gradual undoing of the car-first design of the parks roadways.” The elderly and disabled people are not rushing across the crosswalks–they are staying home.
While the DOT is waiting for the next implementation season to paint the crosswalk at 72nd Street, they could explore using a more accessible way for ALL pedestrians to cross the Drives, rather than leave in place the current system, which is optimized only for young, fit, daring people.
there are underpasses you can use if you feel it is this dire to cross street level. my gf with mobility issues seems to make it across without issue, nice and slow every single day we walk the dogs.
By the same logic, we don’t need a crosswalk in the middle of 72nd street–the hale and hearty can dodge the traffic with their dogs in tow–it’s not illegal to jaywalk–and the elderly and disabled can navigate to the corners and cross with the lights. Then there would be no issue with having to wait for implementation season to paint a crosswalk. Perhaps the difference is money (as usual)–it’s more important that businesses have access to maximum foot traffic than it is for the elderly and disabled to have maximum access to enjoy a free day in the park. Maximize speed, maximize profits. Apps and CitiBike–hello. $$$
New York City at work?
Why not paint the street anyway? Pick a day, go and do it! So it will need re-doing? Then it can be done by licensed folks. For right now, PAINT THE CROSSING!
Cars are parking in the crosswalk zone which is not cool
How about a few short blocks away, where the stop signed (and unsigned streets) of Riverside Boulevard present sites where little children cross a road on their way to a playground and families make their way to a riverside cafe, while cars race down the thoroughfare towards the Westside Highway entrance? Cars blow through these intersections jeopardizing pedestrians. Wouldn’t that be a more fitting site for a traffic light or set of traffic lights than the random middle of a block?