Officials are inviting Brooklynites to sound off about where streets are the diciest for pedestrians and cyclists and how to make them safer.
A host of pols including Borough President Adams and councilmen Brad Lander (D–Park Slope) and Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay) will be in attendance as residents pinpoint danger hotspots on the borough’s mean streets and identify ways to improve them. Atlantic Avenue and Jay Street Downtown are among the treacherous passages that need to be rejiggered, according to one professional road-safety activist.
“Atlantic Avenue is one of the most lethal streets in Brooklyn,” said Transportation Alternatives spokesman Miller Nuttle. “I hope what will happen is a lot of Brooklynites will speak up about how they feel vulnerable biking and taking public transit on our streets.”
The heavily trafficked corridor that runs past the Barclays Center will be among the first 50 roadways to get car-slowing measures, the city announced on Friday.
A Prospect Heights activist said that attention needs to extend beyond the affluent area between the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the arena.
“Although all of Atlantic Avenue is a concern, the section from the Flatbush intersection east is in desperate need of solutions,” said Gib Veconi, treasurer of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council. “The wider street leads to faster traffic and longer pedestrian crosses, which can be frightening, especially for older residents and those with children.”
The town hall is a part of Mayor DeBlasio’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to reduce traffic deaths to zilch by 2024. The initiative is welcome and has been a long time coming, but it is still up to the people to call for protective bike lanes, safer crosswalks, and narrower travel lanes for cars on Atlantic Avenue and throughout the borough, according to Nuttle.
“Obviously, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.
The mayor’s plan calls for 25 new arterial slow zones, where speed limits will be reduced to 20 miles per hour, speed cameras, 250 new speed humps, and a bunch of other measures.
Vision Zero Brooklyn Town Hall Meeting at Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street at Court Street in Downtown). April 1. 7 to 9 pm. Registration begins at 6:30 pm.
