It's a border peace.
The borough presidents of neighboring Brooklyn and Queens say it is "urgent" that the Department of Transportation transform deadly Conduit Avenue from the crash-prone sluice that drivers use to access JFK Airport into a "safe, mobile and cohesive corridor," the pols wrote the DOT earlier this year.
The change advocated by Borough Presidents Donovan Richards and Antonio Reynoso would seeks "the direct opposite of the avenue’s current status as one of the most dangerous and non-inclusive roadways in the entire city."
Statistics bear out the disaster that is the six-lane mini-highway east of Atlantic Avenue. Between Jan. 1, 2022 and Dec. 8, 2023, there were 1,321 reported crashes on North and South Conduit avenues between the Belt Parkway and Atlantic Avenue — roughly two crashes per day, according to city statistics. Those crashes have injured 880 people, including 70 pedestrians and 14 cyclists. Five people have been killed.
Three intersections on conduit — at Hook Creek, Farmers and Rockaway boulevards — were named "Priority intersections" in the DOT's 2023 pedestrian safety plan. But Conduit has never been a priority corridor for the agency.
The agency declined to comment for this story, but Richards's office said it has been participating in early meetings of a task force set up by Richards and his Brooklyn counterpart.
"Key aspects of this redesign must include improved traffic safety, expanded cycling and mass transit infrastructure, enhanced pedestrian walkability and green space beautification," the beeps wrote to the DOT.
Currently, the southeast Queens bus network barely takes advantage of the highway-like roadway, which could be adapted into bus rapid transit on the edge of a dozen neighborhoods along its route.
