Speed up the slowdown!
The city Department of Transportation won't redesign a treacherous 13-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn without conducting a momentum-killing traffic study — even though lawmakers have been demanding a road diet and other safety improvements as part of an ongoing decade-long neighborhood rezoning process.
At a public hearing on Wednesday about the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, DOT's Borough Planner Dash Henley reiterated the agency's modest commitments to improve various intersections in the rezoning area, but deflected calls for greater improvements.
“On the road diet itself, that's something that we can neither commit to right now, nor dismiss out of hand right now,” said Henley. He added that the traffic study would take up to two years and couldn't happen until the City Council funded it.
Two Council members who represent the project area were unsatisfied, as they have called for a street redesign as part of the larger rezoning, as has Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who approved of the rezoning on the condition that DOT commit to repurposing driving lanes for pedestrians and cyclists.
“I do want to be clear that we still have more work to do to ensure this proposed plan meets the goals outlined in our community vision and priorities report,” said Council Member Crystal Hudson, referring to the years of planning that have already been undertaken. “We must secure a fully funded commitment for a comprehensive redesign of Atlantic Avenue, one of the most dangerous corridors in the entire borough.”
Her colleague Chi Ossé agreed that DOT must do more.
“We cannot add thousands of housing units to the stretch of Atlantic Avenue without a clear, fully funded commitment for a comprehensive redesign of this dangerous and inhospitable street.”
The plan would rezone Atlantic Avenue between Vanderbilt and Nostrand avenues, which spans Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Residents who testified at the hearing said they were afraid to cross Atlantic Avenue, citing the six-lane roadway’s speeding cars and blind turns.
“The road is incredibly dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Bed-Stuy resident Antonio Alvarez. “Cars fly down this road at extreme speeds. The crossing is incredibly long, and the turns are really blind, which means walking or cycling around it is not only dangerous, but frankly, is really scary. Atlantic Avenue is one of the main barriers stopping Bed-Stuy residents from getting to [Prospect Park]. The park is easily a 10-minute bike ride away from my apartment, but I often choose not to ride to it because I know I'm risking my life every time I try to cross Atlantic.”
These fears are not unfounded. From 2021 through 2024, four people — two motorists and two pedestrians — were killed on the short stretch, and 473 people were injured in 831 reported crashes, an average of one crash every other day, according to data compiled by NYC Crash Mapper. In the project area, the majority of the road is over 120 feet wide, with over 80 percent of public space used for moving or storing vehicles, leaving pedestrians and cyclists to share the scraps.
Hudson said it's no wonder she gets so many complaints from constituents about safety.
“This is the only stretch of Atlantic Avenue that is six lanes, whereas the rest of Atlantic Avenue, both to the east and the west of this particular corridor, is four lanes wide,” Hudson testified at Wednesday’s hearing. “Right now, Atlantic Avenue really serves as a barrier and more of a border between neighborhoods [rather] than bringing them together.”
Advocates wonder why DOT hasn't already undertaken the traffic study, given how many concerns about safety have been raised previously and how long the rezoning process has taken. Extensive community outreach culminated in a “community vision” document released in 2023, which called Atlantic Avenue “inhospitable” to pedestrians and called for street safety improvements.
“This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” said Alex Morano, a volunteer chair of Transportation Alternatives Brooklyn, who co-authored a letter calling for a road diet on Atlantic Avenue. “The reluctance agencies are showing to make meaningful commitments to a street redesign is extremely disappointing and emblematic of the administration's larger shortcomings on streets — we’re way behind on the streets plan, for example. To make progress, we need to take advantage of these opportunities. There isn’t going to be another Atlantic Avenue rezoning in our lifetimes, so we really only have one chance to get this right.”
After the Planning Commission issues its recommendation later this month, the rezoning will be taken up by the full City Council.
