DOT, officials looking into overcrowding at Norwood bus stop

NEW YORK — Some Bronx residents say a sidewalk near a bus stop in Norwood is unsafe and overcrowded with MTA machines and outdoor dining structures.

“I got a 12-inch foot, so I got 12 and 12… Two feet right here,” Sirio Guerino said while measuring the sidewalk.

There’s limited standing room at the bus stop on 204th Street and Webster Avenue in Norwood.

“There one, two, three, four, five feet,” said Guerino.

Concerned resident Sirio Guerino worries about people with strollers and wheelchairs not being able to get easily get through when the sidewalk is crowded.

“This should be 100 percent a safety concern,” he said.

Guerino says it becomes even more crowded when there’s garbage on the sidewalk.

“There’s no space for you to stand and you see it gets crowded, and then you have baby strollers, you have bikes,” said Laverne, an 11-year Norwood resident.

She says when MTA machines were recently installed on the sidewalk, that’s when crowding and space issues began for people waiting at the bus stop.

“You come out you have to catch the bus and you have to be all balled up standing in the streets,” said Laverne.

Laverne showed CBS2 how only one single person can pass through the space at a time.

Residents say what makes them so frustrated about this situation is the fact that the bus signs don’t even appear to work. Also, they say these issues first began once the outdoor dinning structures became permanent 

CBS2 reached out to different agencies and officials and heard back from City Council member Eric Dinowitz. He tells us in a statement in part, “My office is going to address this sidewalk condition right away. We are going to be working with the relevant agencies like DOT and the MTA to re-evaluate roadside dining in this location.”

Guerino says he hopes their community concerns are fixed before the summer.

“Somebody has to get together here and organize this street here so people can get to school and work on time,” he said.

The Department of Transportation sent CBS2 the following statement:

“DOT inspected the location today and identified some areas where not enough passable space was provided, issuing a violation for fencing being too far out onto the sidewalk. The building will work with DOT to remedy the setup. DOT will monitor and issue violations as needed if this isn’t rectified.”