Park Slope Nixes 4th Avenue Overhaul
Despite Community Board Six’s Transportation Committee approving major streetscape changes for a 28-block strip of 4th Avenue, from Atlantic to 15th Street, the full board voted down the proposal Wednesday. According to The Daily News, some members of the board expressed concern that the changes — which include shrinking traffic lanes, banning eight left turns,…
Despite Community Board Six’s Transportation Committee approving major streetscape changes for a 28-block strip of 4th Avenue, from Atlantic to 15th Street, the full board voted down the proposal Wednesday. According to The Daily News, some members of the board expressed concern that the changes — which include shrinking traffic lanes, banning eight left turns, and broadening the medians — wouldn’t work due to the already increased traffic near the Barclays Center. According to the Daily News, “opponents of the revamp said their neighborhood doesn’t have a speeding problem, but a traffic problem.” Community Boards in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge already approved proposals from the Department of Transportation to revamp the southern stretches of 4th Avenue. As the Community Board vote is advisory, it’s likely the DOT will move ahead with these changes in Park Slope anyway.
Park Slope Rejects Massive 4th Avenue Overhaul [Daily News]
Community Board Approval for 4th Avenue [Brownstoner]
Photo via the DOT
There are two new public schools opening in September on 4th Ave, PS 133 and PS 118. Fourth Avenue is in the top 10% of most dangerous streets in Brooklyn.
Shame on Daniel Kummer and Tom Miskel for prioritizing high traffic speeds and the status quo over the safety of children.
This board needs to be cleaned out.
I periodically drive on 4th ave, and I cannot understand how removing left turn lanes would make the thoroughfare safer. It seems to me that it would be more dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians without the turning lanes. For that reason, voting the measure down was the right thing to do.
I walk across 4th Ave every day and damned if I don’t see cars blowing lights, cutting turns, speeding, and getting aggro in the crosswalks. During rush hour traffic is crawling, but guess what? Traffic crawls during rush hour! Every other time of day drivers go as fast as they can get away with.
Early in the morning, trucks don’t even bother to stop at red lights before turning; I know that only because I’ve almost been clipped by a couple while I had the light and was in the crosswalk. And no, I wasn’t checking Facebook while strolling a child.
If you’re in a car, it seems that auto traffic can never, ever go fast enough. On foot, it’s a different story.
The improvements at Prospect and 4th are really helpful and the board should have recommended that DOT proceed with the proposed improvements for CB6.
Stargazer is onto something.
trade a lane for lights being synchronized.
Claiming that DOT “refused to budge” is nonsense. The Transportation Committee, on which I serve, voted 14-1 to adopt the plan as proposed. DOT was never asked to change anything. We’re talking about a minimal amount of left-turning traffic being redirected to streets that don’t get much traffic anyway, and probably wouldn’t be noticed. And the idea that 5th, 7th and 10th Streets are “over utilized” is just not based in any fact. The fact is that the turning movements on 4th Avenue are the root of many of the injuries to pedestrians; drivers look to shoot a gap in oncoming traffic when turning without paying attention to the presence of pedestrians. Here’s hoping that DOT moves forward with their plan, since most Park Slope residents not rooted in a 1950s perspective on transportation clearly want 4th Avenue to be made safer.
Just to get the facts straight, DOT suggested the left turn bans on April 9th at a public meeting held on 9th st and 4th ave, I believe. I don’t expect every citizen to be following this in detail, but the Community Board has a responsibility to keep abreast of developments and ask questions/raise concerns in a timely manner. As someone who has worked on improving 4th Ave for several years, I wish these concerns had been brought to light sooner. Now we are in a postion where Park Slope has voted strongly against safety.
Did you come out to the community meetings about this? There have been 4 or more through the last few months, with 100s of attendees. If you wanted DOT to “listen”, why didn’t you bring up objections then?
My understanding is the the MS51 principal specifically asked for better calming at 3rd st Left-Turn.
Not if the lights are synchronized to a speed.
Right now the incentive is to get past as many lights as possible.
I can’t believe that the CB6 can be so un-informed about a 4th Ave safety discussion that’s been going on for months if not years. How can the vocal support of the plan by the community (people who live, work or take their kids to school on 4th Ave) be dismissed without proper review? It’s outrageous!