Scarsdale Forum Recommends Safety Measures and Asks for Resident Input on Traffic Survey

The Scarsdale Forum's Municipal Services Committee released a community survey as part of a continuing study being carried out by the Committee to examine traffic, pedestrian, and bicycle safety and parking issues throughout the Village of Scarsdale. This online survey seeks the input of residents of and visitors to Scarsdale about their experiences driving, walking, bicycling and parking in Scarsdale, and their views about ways to improve safety. Click here to complete it:

The Committee will be making recommendations to the Village based on the survey results about safety concerns without identifying individual questionnaire respondents. The survey follows the recent release of the Committee's Quality of Life Report that focused on how adherence to local ordinances is necessary to maintain and, possibly, improve the quality of life and safety in the Village.

The survey is a follow up to the Committee's previous traffic safety report, available on the Forum's report page.

Commenting on the survey, Municipal Services Committee Chair Madelaine Eppenstein explained that "The Committee began with a comprehensive initial report released to the Village in October 2015 that focused primarily on traffic safety issues in the Village center, with the intention of issuing an update to the recommendations that would cover the rest of Scarsdale's extensive road network." Eppenstein noted that "some of the same traffic problems that were detailed in the initial report could be observed at other locations throughout the Village and its neighborhoods."

The Committee's initial report made the following recommendations, citing the precise locations in the Village where improvements in signals and signage might be made by the Village, to:

· promote pedestrian, bicyclist and motorist traffic safety by lowering the maximum allowable speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour on designated roads;

· provide additional signals and/or signage and develop strategies in order to maximize pedestrian, bicyclist and motorist safety; and

· promulgate regulations, institute a public education campaign and enlist the cooperation of the public consistent with the Committee's recommendations.

The survey is being released at this time so that it can be presented to the Village Board of Trustees and Village Staff before the year-end holiday season and in time to be considered during the course of their budget considerations, which often begin on a preliminary basis during the fall. Given that timing objective, the Executive Committee of the Scarsdale Forum's Board of Directors approved the Survey's release on October 19, 2017 under the "Discussion Draft" provision of the Scarsdale Forum's By-laws.

Click here to complete the survey: