7 Minutes to Drive Down CIA?
As part of the data collecting project on the perils of Coney Island Avenue, my family began recording how long it takes to drive up and down the avenue during our morning and afternoon commutes. Around 7:07am each morning we turn right from Foster onto Coney Island Avenue and continue northbound to Caton Ave. Between 3:45 and 4:45pm we reverse the route, except instead of driving all the way to Foster, we turn left on Ditmas at 18th Ave. Interestingly, even though we traverse two fewer blocks on the southbound trip, it takes 2 minutes longer.
Northbound Route—Foster Avenue to Caton Avenue
We collected 13 pieces of data. The 9 from our morning commute averaged 3:37 minutes to drive our route. 2 pieces of data we collected between 3 and 4pm, and that data remained consistent with morning times. Once we drove northbound at 10:45am. Again, the amount of time it took us to drive that route was about the same as the amount of time it takes to drive in the morning. The anomaly was driving from Foster to Caton at 7pm which took 1:34 minutes less than the average time. This number brought the overall average down to 3:30 minutes to drive from Foster Ave to Caton Ave.
Southbound Route—Caton Avenue to 18th Avenue
The southbound route is shorter by two blocks than the northbound route. Still, it takes 2 minutes longer to drive south. We collected 13 pieces of data driving south on Coney Island Ave mainly between 3:45 and 4:45pm. 2 pieces of data were collected between 7:45 and 8:45pm, and it took less time drive down Coney Island Ave at that time of day. Our shortest data, 4:01 minutes, was recorded at 8:30pm. Yet, half of our data collected in the afternoon is in the 4 to 5 minute range. On average, it took us 5:26 minutes to drive from Caton Ave to 18th Ave.
On which blocks are those 2 extra minutes accumulated? My son decided to record the time it took to traverse each block: an extra minute driving from Caton and Church Avenue and almost two extra minutes as cars consolidate into one lane at before the Cortelyou intersection.
Conclusion—Cortelyou/Coney Island Ave Intersection Needs Work
Something needs to change at Cortelyou Road. A left green arrow would make turning onto Cortelyou safer and ease traffic backups. Also, the two lane thruway rapidly reduces down to a one lane road where the businesses between Ave C and Cortelyou use the right lane of Coney Island Ave as their personal parking lot.