Three Area Intersections Targeted As Part Of Pedestrian Safety Upgrades

Being a pedestrian in our area is no joke — crossing a major intersection can feel like taking one’s life in one’s hands.

Last week, City Council Member Brad Lander announced a number of measures that are supposed to increase pedestrian safety, including extending the curbs at three busy intersections — Church and McDonald Avenues; Fort Hamilton Parkway and McDonald Avenue; and Church and Coney Island Avenues.

Curb extensions at Church and McDonald Avenues will be completed this summer, Lander’s office said. A spokesman for the Councilmember could not specify when work at the other two intersections will be finished but Lander’s Safety Tracker indicates the projects are supposed to be underway.

All three curb extension projects were selected by local residents for funding in 2014 via participatory budgeting.

Lander discussed the curb extensions on May 18th when he and City officials and community leaders gathered to mark the installation of a new traffic signal and cross-walk at East 8th Street and Caton Avenue.

The occasion was extremely bittersweet. Both Council Member Lander and Community Board 12 member Mamnunul Haq spoke of the death of 14-year-old Mohammad Naiem Uddin, a local teen who was struck by a car at the intersection of East 7th Street and Caton Avenue in November, 2014.

Caton Avenue (NY 27) is a heavily used truck route. A representative of the City’s Department of Transportation observed Wednesday that between 2010 and 2014, there were four pedestrian injuries at the intersection of East 8th Street and Caton Avenue alone.

Uddin’s death, across the street from what was soon to be the PS 130 upper school and MS 839, became a rallying point for local elected officials and residents who have pushed for years for greater protection for pedestrians and cyclists from cars and trucks.

Lander noted improvements to the stretch of Caton Avenue, from Ocean Parkway to Coney Island Avenue, where MS 839 and the PS 130 upper school are located, including:

• Converting the traffic corridor to one lane in each direction
• Adding three new pedestrian islands to shorten crossing distances
• A new traffic signal at Caton Avenue and East 8th Street
• Upgrading visibility and safety at cross-walks by adding curb extensions, and creating no-parking areas, also known as “daylighting.”

Council Member Lander stated that a number of other street safety improvements have been made throughout the Kensington/Windsor Terrace area, such as:

• Installation of a 20 mph “slow zone,” and improved signage and crossings, around both the PS 230 upper and lower schools (Albemarle Road and McDonald Avenue).
• Improved signage and crossings around the PS 130 lower school by adding stop signs and a crosswalk between the school and the Fort Hamilton Parkway F/G subway entrance.
• New speed humps and signage on Albemarle Road (west of Ocean Parkway).

The complete list of safety improvements in Council Member Lander’s district — finished and pending — can be seen on the Kensington Windsor Terrace Street Safety Tracker, a tool created by the Council Member to “increase transparency for area street safety projects and ensure a timely completion.”