# Is the York Avenue stoplight the longest in New York (Manhattan)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540 "2019-07-04T23:00:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/1 "2019-07-04T23:00:24Z")
This may be a question no one can answer. But why not give it a shot. Is the York Avenue stoplight the longest in New York (Manhattan)? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/2 "2019-07-05T14:32:38Z")
Which one? If you’re talking 79th Street…well, I don’t know, but it sure feels like it when you’re waiting to cross. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/3 "2019-07-05T17:54:01Z")
How long is it? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/4 "2019-07-05T19:06:28Z")
York Avenue is 33 blocks long. There’s gotta be more than one stop light. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/5 "2019-07-05T21:02:37Z")
There is more than one. I think she was asking how long the duration of the light was, not how long the street is. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/6 "2019-07-05T22:16:23Z")
I stayed for 3 weeks near York and 81st, and walked a good ways up and down York, and none of the lights seemed particularly long to me. So, which light? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/7 "2019-07-05T22:38:53Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > There is more than one. I think she was asking how long the duration of the light was, not how long the street is. Right but if it’s 33 blocks long there are probably 33 lights–which one? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/8 "2019-07-05T23:54:37Z")
It’s probably fair to assume the question is really, “Is one of the stoplights on York Avenue the longest in Manhattan, and if so, which one?” Put that way it doesn’t matter which light is in question. I mostly see replies fretting about which of the 33 intersections is the subject, as if that is the difficult part of the question. I’ll direct you to NYCDOT’s web page here: [https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/signals.shtml](https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/signals.shtml) It states that Manhattan has 2,820 intersections with traffic signals. Good luck researching this one. (Also remember that intersections have multiple lights.) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/9 "2019-07-06T21:10:41Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > It’s probably fair to assume the question is really, “Is one of the stoplights on York Avenue the longest in Manhattan, and if so, which one?” Put that way it doesn’t matter which light is in question. That is not how I parse this (emphasis mine): > [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > Is \*\*\*the \*\*\*York Avenue stoplight the longest in New York (Manhattan)? Asked as though there is exactly one York Avenue stoplight. Perhaps there is a particularly notorious one that locals are aware of? ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2019, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/10 "2019-07-07T10:41:12Z")
I meant the stoplight at 79th and York, though I don’t know that it matters which of the 33. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/11 "2019-07-08T17:00:03Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > I meant the stoplight at 79th and York, though I don’t know that it matters which of the 33. Right, it shouldn’t matter much which of the lights on York (in close proximity to 79th), as they are pretty much going to be in sync in regards to duration so traffic flows smoothly. Which should mean the light at 1st ave and York should be roughly the same…and then along 1st Ave, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/12 "2019-07-08T20:25:13Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > I meant the stoplight at 79th and York, though I don’t know that it matters which of the 33. That’s one I went through often. Didn’t seem particularly long to me, though I never measured it. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-york-avenue-stoplight-the-longest-in-new-york-manhattan/836540/13 "2019-07-10T17:44:00Z")
So which one is the widest? Cuz length isn’t everything.