Mamdani Finally Advances Redesign of Deadly Brooklyn Corridor Shelved by Adams

The city under Mayor Mamdani will install protected bike lanes and shorten pedestrian crossings on Brooklyn’s deadly Third Avenue — advancing one of the last remaining street safety projects stalled by former Mayor Eric Adams, City Hall announced on Wednesday.

The Department of Transportation plans to cut down the six-lane thoroughfare to four moving lanes for cars beginning next year. That will make room for the cycling and walking upgrades on a roadway where motorists have killed 17 people over the last decade — including several in the nearly three years since Adams stonewalled the effort.

“Seventeen people have lost their lives along this corridor in a decade,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. “That cannot continue. Starting next year, we will transform Third Avenue to protect pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.”

“Preventable traffic deaths are not inevitable, and we will not accept them as the price of getting around our city,” Hizzoner added.

The redesign covers 2.1 miles of Third Avenue, which runs below the elevated Gowanus Expressway erected by master builder Robert Moses. DOT’s overhaul will run in two roughly 20-block phases, starting next year between 60th and 43rd Street, and continuing north to 20th Street in 2028.

The city plans to install double-wide 10-foot bike lanes on each side of the median with a concrete barrier, and pedestrian islands and curb extensions at intersections. Both features will cut the avenue’s 150-foot crossing distance in half.

The agency will also add an adjacent two-way, parking protected bike lane on 60th Street, between Second and Fourth Avenues, connecting to protected cycling paths on both thoroughfares. DOT will also meter the parking in the median below the highway, to make it more “orderly,” according to a City Hall press release.

Road diets, which reduce the number of lanes for motor vehicles, cut traffic deaths and serious injuries among all road users by 30 percent. Mamdani’s DOT chief said Third Avenue can no longer wait for such life-saving changes.

“Too many New Yorkers have lost their lives simply trying to navigate Brooklyn’s Third Avenue,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. “After years of delays, this administration will complete a comprehensive redesign of one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous streets.”

Third Avenue is one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous streets, and local advocates have begged the city to fix it for years, amid a lengthening list of entirely preventable traffic deaths.

Most recently, on Aug. 29, a motorist killed 28-year-old nurse Jiayi Zheng, who had just left her shift at nearby NYU Langone Hospital. First responders rushed Zheng to that hospital, where she died of her injuries.

In 2024, under former mayor Eric Adams, DOT proposed a redesign with curbside protected bike lanes that the local community board resoundingly supported. But the agency effectively abandoned its own proposal over the following two years, after pushback from local business bigwigs — primarily the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

During the interregnum, a speeding driver blew through a red light and killed two men crossing the dangerous roadway last year. Advocates say a redesign could have prevented both deaths.

The area’s council member lauded Mamdani’s revamp for initially targeting the avenue’s troubled southern section, where there are several schools and the hospital where Zheng worked and died.

“The redesign will start at the most problematic portion of the Avenue, ensuring that local students and families will be able to cross the street with ease of mind,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés. “I am excited to see this full project come to fruition and grateful to the Mayor and those at the Department of Transportation for prioritizing the needs of our community.”

Mamdani has restarted several projects his predecessor called off. Those revived plans include McGuinness Boulevard, Ashland Place, Fordham Road and Tremont Avenue.

The only outstanding exception is three blocks of Bedford Avenue, where Adams had DOT rip up three blocks of protected bike lanes to placate Satmar leaders. Mamdani has forged a strong bond with local religious chieftains, and has dodged Streetsblog’s questions about when he will restore the protected paths there.