Brooklyn

Atlantic Avenue is one of New York’s most prominent streets, and in most respects, it is completely broken.

Last night in Brooklyn Heights, at the first of nine Vision Zero pedestrian safety workshops, dozens of Brooklynites came to tell NYPD and DOT staff about dangerous streets in need of safety fixes in their borough.

Last week, Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn became the city's first "arterial slow zone" with a 25 mph speed limit. Now, a business improvement district on the avenue's western end is asking for pedestrian safety upgrades, and Community Board 2's transportation committee has signed on.

While NYC traffic deaths are down in the first few months of 2014, they are still so frequent that not every fatality gets reported in the news. This is often the case when a victim dies from injuries in the hospital days after a crash. That's what happened earlier this year to 22-year-old Jelani Irving.

A convicted drunk driver was sentenced this week to probation, a nominal fine, and a six-month license suspension for killing a Brooklyn pedestrian.

Last night, Brooklynites filled Borough Hall, spilling into an overflow room for a Vision Zero town hall meeting with elected officials and city agency staffers. Among those on hand were Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, NYPD Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan, Public Advocate Letitia James, and Borough President Eric Adams. Streetsblog wasn't able to make it to the forum, but here's a snapshot of what unfolded and how elected officials reacted, based on reports from attendees and the Twitterverse.

A man who says he saw the Tuesday crash that killed Marlene Baharlias echoes the story told by others: The driver backed into the senior on a Sheepshead Bay sidewalk. The witness believes a security camera in his building recorded the crash, but NYPD does not share details of crash investigations unless compelled by freedom of information requests.

A senior was killed Tuesday in Sheepshead Bay by a driver who witnesses say backed onto a sidewalk -- contrary to anonymous NYPD sources who told the Post the victim was jaywalking. No charges were filed.

New York finally has real-time bus arrival information and excellent route maps posted at bus stops. Or rather, at least one bus stop has this info, and it looks like the kind of thing that should spread to a lot more bus stops.