Speaking at the Park Slope intersection where Dorothy Bruns killed two small children in March, Mayor de Blasio announced the city will move forward with a redesign Ninth Street between Prospect Park West and Third Avenue starting in July.
The redesign will include protected bike lanes and pedestrian islands. DOT expected to finish implementation by the end of the summer, said Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
Specifics of the design weren't presented this morning (DOT is expected to go into more detail at a public meeting next month), but the basic template involves flipping the parking lanes and bike lanes, making crossing distances shorter for pedestrians and protecting cyclists from car traffic.
DOT plans to install concrete pedestrian islands at some crossings, and painted islands at others. The painted pedestrian zones will resemble those on Dyckman Street in Inwood:
Currently Ninth Street has buffered bike lanes that the city implemented about 10 years ago. They're often blocked by double-parked cars, and there are no treatments at intersections to break up long pedestrian crossings and slow down turning drivers.
"We're going to be putting in the kind of designs here that we have seen have made streets safer all over the city," Trottenberg said. "Putting in safer pedestrian spaces, putting in protected bike lanes, looking at signal timing and street design to calm and slow traffic. Those are proven designs that we've use all over the city."
This phase of the project will extend from Prospect Park to Third Avenue, where the dimensions of Ninth Street change, but redesigning the blocks west of Third Avenue is on DOT's radar. "The street narrows after Third Avenue, so it does present some bigger challenges," Trottenberg said. A future phase could extend to Smith Street.
The mayor also used the occasion to call on Albany to renew and expand the city's speed camera program, set to expire at the end of the year.
"We'll be including safer crossings, expanded pedestrian space, and dedicated bike lanes," de Blasio said. "We will do everything in our power to protected New Yorkers from dangerous drivers. It's time that leaders in Albany did the same thing."
DOT staff will be on hand at tonight's street safety town hall hosted by Council Member Brad Lander at M.S. 51, but will only briefly address Ninth Street. The agency will present the complete redesign to the June 21 Community Board 6 transportation committee meeting.
