Safety Improvements Arrive On 4th Avenue

Those controversial 4th Avenue safety improvements have made it to our side of 9th Street. The changes, which run from Atlantic Avenue to 15th Street (Greenwood Heights/Sunset Park received similar improvements in 2012) are designed to reduce speeding and create safer pedestrian crossing areas.

In case you missed it, the full DOT presentation can be found here, but we’ve got a breakdown of what to look for if you’re driving, biking, or walking through the area:

• Six left-turn bans, at 3rd Street (eastbound), 8th Street, 9th Street (eastbound), and 13th Street (two had been proposed for Degraw and Butler, but were removed).

• The street will stay at three lanes until Carroll St (instead of Union St, as previously proposed), south of which it will be two, wider lanes, with wider parking lanes.

• 5th St will get a painted curb extension on southeast corner to slow turns, and will add two speed humps (DNAInfo notes this was requested by the principal of MS51).

What differences (if any) have you noticed since the installation of the traffic calming measures? Is 4th Avenue a safer place to be?