Photograph: Ya’arit Cohen

Q How come numerous streets on Park Avenue in the midtown area are missing pedestrian walk signals on traffic lights?—J. Keating

A Crossing Park Avenue during the midday rush is straight out of Maximum Overdrive—and you’re right, signals are conspicuously absent from 46th to 56th Streets. The ten-block span, which now forms part of the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal’s tunnels, used to be a street-level railroad system until 1871, when Cornelius Vanderbilt agreed to take his trains underground. It was long thought that the tunnels’ deck, which is less than two feet thick, couldn’t support pedestrian signals, and that the installation of such lights would cause damage to the tunnels’ ceilings. Lucky for us Frogger fans, Metro-North Railroad and the New York City Department of Transportation recently reached an agreement to install pedestrian crossing signals along Park Avenue as part of a greater GCT face-lift. “We’ve been trying to work with the city for years to get these issues resolved,” says Marjorie Anders, press secretary for Metro-North. The awarding of a construction contract is expected by September, and the total project is estimated to cost $35 million.

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