View From The Bridge: Divert Cars From Gowanus With a Low-Traffic Neighborhood Plan

It’s not a bridge too far.

Residents of Gowanus and street safety advocates cheered the city’s announcement on Wednesday that the restored Carroll Street Bridge would be kept car-free — and immediately starting calling for larger, more coordinated traffic-calming for the booming residential community when the 137-year-old span reopens next week after a five-year renovation.

Brooklyn Community Board 6 voted unanimously in 2025 to ask DOT for a low-traffic neighborhood configuration, but the idea didn’t get any traction under Mayor Adams. Since then, residents have focused on getting the DOT to keep the wood-slat bridge safe from the damage caused by cars.

“This is a great test, like a proof of concept, of how a low-traffic neighborhood could work perfectly here,” Doug Gordon, a member of CB6, told Streetsblog after the Department of Transportation announcement, first reported by Curbed. “People will see how deliveries will work, how service vehicles will get around, how emergency response will be handled.”

But Gordon said the decision to keep the bridge car-free – “one of the greatest advocacy victories in a long time,” he said — shows that the time is right for the residential transformation of the Gowanus Canal zone

“The bridge has been offline for five years and it has not led to traffic Armageddon, even as the neighborhood has added so many new residents,” he said. “Leaving it offline to cars, except for emergency vehicles, is just one step forward in the longer process of rethinking traffic in the neighborhood on a larger scale.”

A spokesperson for DOT said the agency is “reviewing” the 2025 resolution, but confirmed that area streets have not experienced increased traffic while the drawbridge was locked in its “open” position during restoration.

Other advocates saw the car-free bridge as not just a link between Bond and Nevins streets, but a gateway to a bold new future.

“The reopening of the Carroll Street Bridge marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Gowanus, creating a natural centerpiece for a low-traffic neighborhood,” said Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans (which shares a parent org with Streetsblog). “We urge DOT to seize this opportunity and launch a low-traffic neighborhood pilot in Gowanus.”

Low-traffic neighborhoods are popular worldwide because they reduce through traffic while preserving local access, albeit sometimes through a slightly indirect route. There are four other bridges over the Gowanus Canal, all of which support more volume than the one-way Carroll Street bridge, which rarely had more than a few hundred cars per day.

Gordon said the CB6 effort includes walk-throughs for board members and area stakeholders, including businesses and residents. Some locals have raised concerns about closing the bridge to cars because there is an EMT station on Bond Street near the span — but the bridge would be available to emergency responders.

Besides, there were no issues during the five years when the span was closed.

“If complaints to the community board are one metric, we received zero complaints about the bridge being closed during renovation,” Gordon said. “With that EMT station on one side and large residential buildings on the other, closing the bridge to car traffic will answer all the questions that people have about LTN.”