DOT

Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Fights for Livable Streets

DOT's failure to provide a traffic signal or even a simple crosswalk at intersections along DeKalb Avenue disconnects the neighborhood from its bus stops and its park.

By Aaron Naparstek

1:49 PM EDT on August 14, 2006

DOT’s failure to provide a traffic signal or even a simple crosswalk at intersections
along DeKalb Avenue disconnects the neighborhood from its bus stops and its park.

Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Association is running an exemplary grassroots campaign on local pedestrian safety issues. The neighborhood group has generated more than 500 letters to DOT requesting specific improvements in crosswalk layouts and traffic signal timing. Streetsblog can’t recall hearing of a neighborhood organization producing that many individual letters for a Livable Streets campaign. It is an impressive total.

Even more impresive, FGA is using the Internet to illustrate, inventory and keep track of the DOT’s handling of neighborhood traffic and pedestrian safety problems. It almost looks like a software developer’s bug-tracking list. FGA’s web site is a great example for other neighborhood groups to follow.

The association seems to have a very solid understanding of the fundamental problem within New York City’s transportation agency. From the web site:

On this page, the FGA will document priority intersections and recommended ways in which DOT can rectify dangerous zones in the neighborhood. Although the DOT may be concerned with traffic flow and alleviating congestion, the FGA’s priority remains with pedestrian safety. Our citizens lives are at stake. Until these issues are resolved, we recommend that citizens walk with EXTREME CAUTION at the intersections listed below.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.

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