DOT To Study Flatbush Avenue Traffic

Congratulations, PLG. The city's long-awaited study of Flatbush Avenue is now reality. The Department of Transportation has begun analyzing traffic between Empire and Nostrand to see what can be done to alleviate congestion, improve air quality, and make the road safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.

The study will focus on several Flatbush intersections; the key spots in our neighborhood are Empire Boulevard/Ocean Avenue, Lincoln Road, Washington Avenue, and Parkside Avenue.

If you have any thoughts about specific intersections — whether as a pedestrian or driver — please leave them in the comments. I'd like to collect feedback from the community here and send it to DOT officials to make sure they don't miss anything. 

Photo: According to Crashstat, the intersection of Flatbush and Parkside is one of the most dangerous in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

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Traffic Calming Plans for Empire
Public Meeting for Church Avenue Improvements

Comments

[Hallie]

I think that the study is going to be important for the neighborhood and will hopefully lead improved safety for all.

I am concerned about the smaller intersections, in addition to the larger ones. At Flatbush and Beekman I see car, trucks, buses, dollar cabs (everyone) run the red light frequently and this concerns me for the safety of all of the people who cross the street there.

[Theo]

Hello. I have a few comments:

1. I'd like to see NYPD start using the parking lot to go to the Dunkin' Donuts or park on Washington south of Empire while they get their coffee/donuts. There are many times that the B43 bus cannot pull forward to pick up passengers because a cop car is parked in the bus lane.

2. I'd also like to see the bike lanes extend beyond their current stopping spot at Bedford Ave and extend westward for bicyclist accessing Prospect Pk.

3. I think that the number of pedestrians that cross Flatbush Ave mid-block to the train station between Empire and Lefferts Ave warrant a crosswalk. It's either that or add a median with fence so people cannot physically cross here.

[David]

How about more ticketing of double-parkers? Whenever I use Flatbush (which is rare because it's so maddening), it's the parked cars blocking traffic that cause the most problems and lead to other cars swinging violently and dangerously into other lanes.

[Emily]

Hello,

I would second the comment regarding double parkers. It slows down everyone & I rarely see anyone being ticketed or asked to move.

I also hope that the dollar vans can be monitored & ticketed for their obscenely dangerous driving habits. I saw a dollar van attempt to run a red light at Flatbush & Midwood, and the only thing that stopped them was a little old lady they saw at the last second!

Thanks.

[malea]

I just moved to the neighborhood and i wish i had looked at the place on a Saturday or in the evenings to get a true sense of the area.I'm terribly disappointed in the amount of loitering and litter i see on my walk to and from Park Slope everyday.

Suggestions:

(1)electronic parking meters[instead of the old style] along the entire stretch of Flatbush and a slew of metermaids to ticket violators.Makes no sense that my movers had to park on Rutland and dollie my belongings across all those lanes of traffic to the apt building because some barber parks his truck there ALLDAY while he cuts hair.Pfsst..

2.Maybe someone can hire all the idle hands that stand and walk around with their sagging pants to pick up the litter they and their crew put there the day before.

3.Businesses that put out their trash in bags which get torn open and strewn all over the side walk should be ticketed as well.When i worked in Carroll Gardens the Sanitation guy was elated to scribble them off by the handful.Even if it blew over from across the street.

4.More foot patrol to move trouble along and into the sea.

5.And whose bright idea was it for these grocery stores to not take credit cards? CASH only is a conspiracy amongst the brotherhood of muggers.

[Rudy on Winthrop]

Thanks for gathering traffic abatement ideas. Here are my ideas about the intersection of Flatbush and Parkside:

(1) No effort to manage the traffic on Flatbush near Parkside will work without coordination with the intersection of Ocean and Parkside. I think the first step is simple: left turns from eastbound Parkside should be permitted either at Ocean Avenue, or at Flatbush Avenue, but not at both. My preference would be to permit them only at Ocean Avenue, and to make them illegal (except for MTA busses) at Flatbush. This would have the effect of limiting Flatbush to local traffic, and directing the flow of around-the-park commuters up to Empire Blvd.

(2) On-street parking on Flatbush should be eliminated for the 10 yards south of Winthrop, the 10 yards north of Clarkson, and the 10 yards north and south of Parkside; the sidewalks should be built out three to five feet at both those crosswalks, to reduce the speed of traffic, and to discourage dollar-cabs from stopping in this strip. A narrow median strip should also be added on Flatbush, north of Parkside for 10 yards, to create a physical barrier to left turns off of Parkside.

(3) In order to handle the increased traffic from Parkside onto Ocean created by (1), the cycle of the lights at Ocean and Parkside should be changed to include a left-turn only phase (during which there will be no pedestrians crossing Ocean) and a no left-turn phase (for pedestrians to get across.) On-street parking should be eliminated for the first 10 yards of Ocean north of Parkside, and the sidewalks should be widened, to slow traffic and assist pedestrians.

(4) Finally, it is important to recognize that Parkside provides the only access for pedestrians from east of Flatbush to access the subway and Prospect Park. In particular, this means that many people who live south of Parkside must make there way across Parkside between Flatbush and Ocean every day. If DOT is willing to consider the changes to the sidewalks that I propose in (2) and (3), it should likewise consider eliminating a few feet of parking on both sides of Parkside, at Flatbush Avenue, Ocean Avenue. The same should be done at Parkside Court, and a crosswalk should be added there. All of these crosswalks should be buttressed with expansions to the sidewalk: this will encourage pedestrians to cross at the corners, rather than scrambling across Parkside wherever they can.

[pizzle]

first off, malea- you sound like a total dick with your i just moved here and they neighborhood isn't coddling me enough. Complain to your friends; no one here wants to hear your bourgeois rants. Every single one of your bullet points screams douche bag!

My suggestion for improving traffic and safety in the area would be to fix the sidewalks on the corners of flatbush and parkside- especially the one in front of the duane reade. there is a terrible moat whenever it rains (even a little) and the gaps and cracks make it a real hassle for strollers and carts that every third person seems to have with them. I'm not talking a couple cracks here, its a foot or so wide section around the entire corner that is sunk or broken that really upsets the flow of pedestrian traffic.

[tim]

Malea: Welcome to the neighborhood! Sorry to hear about your downward mobility.

I'm tempted to ignore your post, since it's pretty clear you have no prior knowledge of the greater borough of Brooklyn. I'll try to respond to your comments as best I can, but forgive me if my typing is a bit sloppy. These pants around my knees don't give me the freedom of movement needed to properly work my keyboard!

1. You're right about this intersection. It's a death trap, and everyone in the neighborhood knows it. Let's all stop blogging and start screaming.

2. Great idea! Why not suggest it to the young men yourself? I'm sure they'll be amenable to your suggestions.

3. Agreed! Let's lure that Carroll Gardens sanitation guy over here pronto. Sounds like a real gem.

4. You should look into the actual loitering laws rather than presume to know what a cop can and can't do with the street thuggery.

5. If by grocery stores you mean "bodegas" or "delis," I think you'll find that most small NYC businesses don't accept cards, at least outside of the upscale neighborhoods. The actual grocery stores accept my cards just fine, but then again mine weren't issued by Douche-Bank.

See you around!
Clarkson FlatBed (a/k/a tim)

[tim]

Malea: I'm sorry to report that I mistakenly responded to Rudy on Winthrop's excellent and detailed point #1 on the intersection of Parkside and Ocean. Your point 1 was much more entertaining, however.

[Matthew]

The intersection of Lincoln and Flatbush needs arrow or two (or staggered lights or some other solution) for eastbound drivers on Lincoln wishing to turn left onto Washington, as well as westbound drivers on Lincoln wishing to turn right onto either Washington or Flatbush. For these turning vehicles, it is currently a game of politeness or opportunism between drivers depending on the day/mood/philosophy of the driver -- the pedestrians moving across Flatbush are the ones caught in the crossfire.

[Matthew]

I think Malea has gotten the point about taking care when composing and expressing on a neighborhood blog. But I am more interested in whether Malea is interested in actually lending a hand to the effort. There are numerous posts on the Lefferts Yahoo group and this blog concerning efforts to clean up the neighborhood. There is always room to help, and all one need do is get in touch with one's block association or neighborhood association (read: www.plgna.org) to get involved and make a difference.

[Nico]

I can see there are no shortage of thoughts on this subject.

The traffic for the BP station on the Flatbush/Washington island is extremely dangerous. Cars enter at high rates of speed through crosswalks, handicap access ramps and the wrong way down 1-way sections either to access the station or avoid traffic lights.

It should be simple enough to place fencing or barricades wherever pedistrian or automobile traffic is not permissible. Someone is going to be seriously injured sooner than later.

Also, if the city wants to start making some money, they can start handing out tickets to the livery vans recklessly driving up and down Flatbush honking, swerving and not obeying any rules of the road. Someone needs to keep them in check.

[babs]

Seriously, drivers using that BP station are nuts. Once, when I was standing on the SW corner of Lefferts and Washington a car drove right at me, turning from Lefferts. Rather than use the driveways into the station, this driver wanted to drive up over the curb and across the sidewalk and expected me to jump out of the way (which I did once I figured out what was going on, but sheesh!), thereby avoiding having to go the wrong way on Washington or over to Flatbush for the other entrance.