r/FlatbushSafeStreets

We were at 444 comments in the last update. Now we’re at 519, up another 75 submissions since our last update.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to add a comment. Whether you flagged one dangerous intersection or added several ideas, you're helping build a much clearer picture of where Central Brooklyn's streets can be better for everyone

The newest comments are continuing to identify some pretty clear problem areas:

• Flatbush Ave between Parkside Ave and Clarkson Ave: trucks blocking intersections, dollar vans interfering with buses, and unsafe pedestrian crossings.
• Flatbush Ave between Winthrop St and Parkside Ave: traffic getting stuck and drivers ignoring the bus-only signal.
• Clarkson Ave between Bedford Ave & Rogers Ave: buses getting caught in traffic.
• Clarkson Ave between Woodruff Ave & Bedford Ave: double-parking, deliveries, and service vehicles squeezing buses and residents onto an already constrained street.
• Church Ave and Caton Ave: people are starting to suggest bigger corridor-level changes rather than fixing the same problems one intersection at a time.

Now you add yours! Be creative and comment on everything! Note garbage piles, improper drainage, lack of lighting, anything that can improve people's lives in tiny ways!

https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/feedback-map-centralbk

And if someone already reported your problem spot, add your experience anyway.

Share this with your neighbors, block association, building group chat, local Facebook/WhatsApp groups, or anyone else who walks, bikes, drives, or takes the bus through Central Brooklyn. The more people who know this map exists, the more representative the feedback becomes.

Thank you again to everyone who has contributed. Let's see if we can get 1000 comments by end of next week

I came across something pretty interesting while adding suggestions to NYC DOT’s Fast Buses: Central Brooklyn feedback map:

https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/feedback-map-centralbk#

I started looking through some of DOT’s older work on Church Avenue and discovered that NYC DOT actually studied converting Church Avenue into a one-way street in 2013:

https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/church-ave.pdf

In February 2013, DOT proposed making Church Avenue one-way westbound between McDonald Avenue and Utica Avenue. DOT considered it one of the more ambitious options for dealing with the corridor’s chronic congestion, but ultimately decided against it because there wasn’t a suitable parallel route for eastbound traffic and because of concerns about pushing additional traffic onto streets like Linden Boulevard and Caton Avenue.

I find it fascinating that DOT considered something this ambitious and ultimately pulled back, in part because of concerns about parking and displaced traffic.

Thirteen years later, NYC DOT is once again looking at Church Avenue through the Fast Buses: Central Brooklyn project, and it made me wonder whether DOT should revisit this idea.

Church Avenue is trying to accommodate buses within a pretty constrained street. Anyone who regularly uses Church Avenue knows how quickly it turns into a mess: double and triple parking, blocked buses, conflicts at intersections, illegal U-turns, unpredictable traffic movements, dollar cabs/vans, trucks with insanely long trailers, scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, the list goes on and on.

Reviving DOT’s old plan exactly as written probably wouldn’t work, and making Church Avenue one-way wouldn’t solve everything. But it could potentially give DOT much more flexibility to organize the roadway. They could eliminate street parking, end illegal U-turns, eliminate left turns at key intersections, create dedicated loading space, and generally make traffic movements much more predictable.

But the most interesting part of DOT’s old study is actually why they rejected the idea: they didn’t have a suitable parallel street to handle traffic in the opposite direction.

So why not study Church Avenue and Caton Avenue together?

Church Avenue could operate one-way westbound while Caton Avenue operates one-way eastbound, creating a complementary one-way pair. Instead of treating the congestion, safety, and usability problems on Church and Caton as separate issues, DOT could look at the entire street network and determine whether the two corridors can be redesigned to work together.

A Church/Caton one-way pair could potentially simplify intersections, reduce turning conflicts, eliminate U-turns, make room for bus priority and loading zones, and create a much more predictable street environment for pedestrians, buses, cyclists, and drivers alike.

It would obviously require a detailed traffic study, and there would be tradeoffs. But DOT’s own reason for rejecting the 2013 proposal was due to the lack of a suitable eastbound counterpart. This exactly why I think Caton Avenue should be part of the conversation this time.

There’s also a broader change in how we think about street space compared with 2013. What may have been politically difficult to contemplate then, particularly removing significant amounts of curbside parking, may be much more realistic today as the city increasingly prioritizes bus riders, pedestrians, cyclists, and safer street design over maximizing space for parked cars.

With DOT actively asking the public for ideas about how Church Avenue should change, this seems like exactly the right time to revisit ambitious ideas like this rather than limiting the discussion to small tweaks to the existing street.

If you use or cross Church Avenue regularly, this is a really good time to put your experiences and suggestions on DOT’s map. I’d also encourage people to look through NYC DOT’s February 2013 Church Avenue study, particularly its discussion of converting Church Avenue to one-way operation, when submitting feedback.

https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/feedback-map-centralbk#

We’re up to 444 comments. 124 more since Update #2!

• Triangle at Bergen St, Bedford Ave, Rogers Ave (Grant Gore Monument) people are calling out the confusing mix of two-way traffic, buses and bike lanes and asking for pedestrian-safety improvements.
• Bedford Ave between Sterling Pl and St Johns Pl: support for extending the Bedford bike lane to Eastern Parkway and improving the B49.
• Rogers Ave between Prospect Place and Park Place: requests for trees, shade and better bus stops.
• Utica Ave and Atlantic Ave: serious concerns about how dangerous Atlantic Avenue is to cross, especially for families, kids and seniors.
• Flatbush Ave and Empire Blvd: more calls to finally complete the protected bike connection.
• Lincoln Rd between Ocean Ave and Flatbush Ave: reports of aggressive drivers using the oncoming lane to get around traffic and turn onto Flatbush.
• Lefferts Ave between Flatbush Ave and Washington Ave: drivers turning into crosswalks too fast and poor pedestrian visibility.
• Flatbush Ave between Midwood Street and Beekman Pl: potholes creating hazards for cyclists.

You know that intersection where you have to look over your shoulder three times before crossing? The bus stop that's always blocked? The street where cars fly through? The bike lane that suddenly disappears?

Put it on the map.

https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/feedback-map-centralbk

If someone already commented about your problem spot, add your experience anyway! The more people that report problems, the more attention it will get.

There are now 320 comments on NYC DOT's Central Brooklyn feedback map, up from 268 from the last update! A lot of people are using it and some patterns are becoming increasingly obvious.

A lot of the feedback continues to concentrate around places many of us already know are a mess: Church Ave, Flatbush Ave, the southeast side of Prospect Park, Parkside Ave, Ocean Ave and Utica Ave.

More recent comments are calling out things like:

• the mess around Flatbush/Parkside, including dangerous pedestrian conditions, double parking, trucks, dollar vans and B41 buses getting stuck in traffic
• Utica/Eastern Parkway, where the B46/B46-SBS gets caught in traffic and blocked by private vehicles and dollar vans
• speeding, illegal parking and poor pedestrian conditions on neighborhood streets surrounding the major corridors

What I think is useful about this map is that the more comments it gets, the easier it becomes to see where the same problems keep coming up.

https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/feedback-map-centralbk

And don't avoid a location just because someone else already mentioned it. If you experience the same problem, add your own experience.!

Let's keep filling this thing out!