Traffic Agents Coming To McDonald Ave Corners

Assemblymember Jim Brennan sends word that the NYPD will post two traffic agents along McDonald Avenue, one at the corner of Caton Avenue and the other at the corner of Fort Hamilton Parkway. The agents will be on duty from 7:30-9:30am and again from 3-4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

“Foot traffic along this corridor is growing tremendously with the addition of a new junior high/high school in the area,” Brennan said in a statement. “There are over 3,000 students from kindergarten through high school crossing these roads. I commend NYPD for responding to this dangerous condition and taking measures to increase the safety of the community, particularly school children.”

Due to traffic complexity at the intersection, Brennan reports that the NYPD and the New York City Department of Transportation agreed that traffic agents were best suited to address safety concerns at the intersection.

The traffic agent postings are the result of a recent meeting Brennan organized on behalf of the community members and school administrators who had become increasingly concerned with traffic conditions in the area. A neighbor got the conversation rolling on the Kensington Facebook group after he said his son was struck while crossing the McDonald/Caton intersection last year.

As one parent of an 8-year-old student said, “Crossing these streets is a real adrenalin rush.”

According to CrashStat, between 1999 and 2006 there were eight crashes at the McDonald/Caton intersection, with 7 injuries and 1 fatality; at the McDonald/Ft Hamilton intersection, they report 5 crashes between 1996 and 2005, with 6 injuries and no fatalities.

Photo by William Ward