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August 1, 2009
City sidewalk, busy sidewalk! Street pedestrian walkway is now a car lane!
The Brooklyn Paper
By Mike McLaughlin
This article catches up with an arrangement both bizarre and dangerous for drivers and pedestrians.
Construction near developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project produced an unusual and confusing detour on Pacific Street that has turned one sidewalk into a lane of car traffic.
Drivers and pedestrians will share the sidewalk for 12 weeks while the city installs sewers near the corner of Sixth Avenue, on the edge of Ratner’s proposed basketball arena and four-skyscraper development. A five-foot-wide path for walkers is separated from moving traffic by a concrete barrier.
This stretch of Pacific Street at Flatbush Avenue is busy thanks to its proximity to the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls, plus the subway stations at Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street. A reporter from The Brooklyn Paper observed pedestrians confused by where they were supposed to go, thanks to the presence of an unlabeled arrow pointing vaguely towards the truncated sidewalk.
...
Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy, who lives near the corner, disputed that such sidewalk car lanes are as widespread as Gastel suggested.
“I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve been watching the intersection and makeshift road and sidewalk and someone is going to get hurt there,” he said. “It is a very dangerous situation and disruption that the Department of Transportation has apparently approved on Forest City Ratner’s behalf.”
Posted by steve at August 1, 2009 8:50 AM