They say this error really sticks out.
The Department of Transportation extended a Coney Island Avenue sidewalk into a Belt Parkway on-ramp, and now drivers have to swerve to avoid the precarious outcropping, locals say. The agency built the so-called “bump out” — which shortens pedestrians’ time crossing the street — as part of a suite of safety improvements to Coney Island Avenue’s convoluted, six-way nexus with Guider and Banner avenues and the Belt Parkway. But the sidewalk sticks out farther than depicted in plans the community board approved in September, a board member said.
“The plans didn’t reflect what they did,” said Community Board 15 transportation committee member Shari Kaplan. “That right lane when you’re entering the Belt, you have to move into the middle lane to avoid hitting somebody on the ramp. They built it out a little too far.”
A proposal the city showed the community board, and which this paper published, doesn’t show such an exaggerated bump out — if it had, the board would have put the kibosh on the idea, Kaplan said.
“If those bump outs showed that they were sticking into where the traffic was, we would have said ‘Correct this. This is too wide, and there will be problems,’” she said.
The safety measures are generally a plus, but the longer sidewalk is a step in the wrong direction, another local said.
“I’m not going to say that it’s more dangerous than it was before, but it’s created a new danger that had not existed,” said community board member Maurice Kolodin, who said the city must at least install signs indicating the new hazard.
The Department of Transportation is expected to finish the project next month, and the agency will address the issue, according to a councilman who has been pushing the pedestrian improvements.
“After New Year’s, we’re having another site visit with DOT to go over issues they brought up, and we’ll talk to their experts about what needs to be done — so we’re not finished yet,” said Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay).
