Talk Bronx New York

Nation’s Top Traffic Bottleneck’s in The Bronx

What is the worst bottleneck location in the United States?

Many New York drivers know the answer to that question all too well: the Cross Bronx Expressway at the exit for the Bronx River Parkway.

A recent traffic study conducted by INRIX, a provider of real-time traffic information to many popular GPS devices and mobile phones, found that the westbound section of the Cross Bronx was, indeed, the worst bottleneck in the country.

The study was based on the analysis of 30,000 road segments from around the nation covering 50,000 miles of primary roadways in the United States.

It is based on data collected from nearly 1 million anonymous, GPS-equipped commercial vehicles that report their speed and location continually to INRIX. INRIX then factored in other relevant traffic-related data such as road sensors, toll tags and traffic incident data to come up with the figures.

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Bust 12 in Bronx Insurance Scam

A dozen people who scammed auto insurance companies by faking accidents were busted Tuesday in the Bronx, police said.

The crew got involved in five minor, two-car accidents, then claimed injuries and went to at least four different medical centers, where complicitous employees bilked insurance companies for as much as $25,000 a patient.

Each alleged victim was paid $300 to $500. The medical center employees also promised that the patients would be able to sue the insurance companies for more money if they attended 20-30 appointments.

The patients are all charged with insurance fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records. Police expect to charge three more people with those crimes.

Cops are also preparing an indictment against the ringleader of the scam, who made as much as $2,500 a person for steering them to the medical centers.

Members of the NYPD fraud accident investigation squad are also planning to arrest employees of the medical centers.

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Bronx Zoo Lion House Goes Green as Cockroaches, Crocs Move In

The Lion House at the Bronx Zoo in New York is shown in its original state in this circa 1903 photo. The new exhibit “Madagascar!” will be on display at the restored Lion House starting June 20.

A springy, rubberized floor made from recycled plastic and used tires cushions my steps as I move from a leafy jungle to a spiny forest at “Madagascar!” — the new exhibit in the restored 1903 Lion House at New York’s Bronx Zoo.

Waiting inside are 100,000 (or so) hissing cockroaches, Nile crocodiles and, more adorable, furry, long-tailed lemurs.

The historic structure, designed by Heins & La Farge as part of the zoo’s original Astor Court campus, represented state-of- the-art zoo design at the turn of the 20th century. The lions could stroll through a passageway connecting their indoor and outdoor cages — a true innovation at the time.

Some two decades ago, the lions were relocated so they could roam more freely in a natural-looking setting, leaving the building vacant — until now.

Restored by FXFowle Architects of New York, the Lion House retains its ornate charms — the limestone and brick facade, the stately Ionic columns, the copper roof and carved heads of jungle cats on the terra-cotta cornices — while incorporating some very 21st-century ideas for green design.

The architects deepened and widened the basement to hide the building’s infrastructure — like the geothermal wells that eliminate the need for a cooling tower and the system that recirculates the “gray water” that goes down the drain in bathroom sinks. Now it’s used to water the many plants in the exhibit, reducing consumption by 49 percent.

Pillowed plastic skylights maximize daylight and also control the interior temperature.

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