The Problems With Coney Island Avenue

If you drive, bike, or walk down Coney Island Avenue, you know how congested–and downright scary–it can be, with cars double parked at the auto-body and car wash places from Caton and on south. It seems like you’re taking your life in your hands every time you approach CIA at Cortelyou, with the slanted intersection making things even more difficult.

And forget crossing the street there. Even if it’s not a dangerous road according to a report by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (by the way, Ocean Parkway, not surprisingly, is tied for second most dangerous, with 6 pedestrian fatalities from 2008-2010), it’s not safe by any means. Take a look at CrashStat, where, though the data needs to be updated, it shows the number of crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists. Two markers at the CIA/Cortelyou intersection show there were 29 crashes between 1995-2009. Who knows the number of unreported crashes, not to mention crashes between automobiles.

Yesterday, though, it looked a little less illegal out there. (Not completely–cars still poked into the traffic lane at the car wash near Church, and the M&M Auto Glass sign was still blocking traffic, with a truck double parked in front of it when I passed by.) Turns out the Brooklyn Daily gave the strip some attention, calling out the double parking problem. Whether that had an effect on police enforcement on the road or not, it’s a good reminder that the more an issue like this gets attention, the more likely it is we can get it fixed.

So let’s try to do something about it. Please email us pictures–we’ll just keep posting until something changes–and report blocked streets and sidewalks to 311, either by phone or online.

And if you’re interested in asking the 70th Precinct about it (CIA is a somewhat gray area between the 70 and the 66), the monthly Community Council meeting is tonight, Wednesday, March 29 at 7:30pm at 175 Lawrence Avenue.