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March 12, 2010
Atlantic Yards: Making Dangerous Streets More Dangerous
Mobilizing the Region
by Kyle Wiswall
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a member of the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, warns about more traffic mayhem (courtesy of the Atlantic Yards project) and prescribes some potential mitigations.
A report released last month by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign named Atlantic Avenue the most dangerous road for pedestrians in Brooklyn with 9 deaths over the three years from 2006 to 2008. Nearby Fourth Avenue ranked third with 6 pedestrian fatalities in the same period. Both roads ranked among the most dangerous in the entire NY/CT/NJ region, with Atlantic Avenue ranking third overall. With 20,000 additional car trips a day projected to be generated by the Atlantic Yards arena and housing project, which broke ground yesterday, these numbers may get much worse.
Many of the accidents in the report occurred near the Atlantic Yards site. For example, a 58-year-old woman was struck and killed in February of 2008 at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 5th Avenue, a 37 year old male was killed at Atlantic and Nevins in 2006, and, in 2007, a 4 year old was killed at 3rd Ave and Baltic. All of these intersections could see traffic increases due to Atlantic Yards.
Crossing congested areas like the notorious Atlantic and Flatbush intersection on foot is already tempting fate. A time lapse video posted recently at Not Another F*cking Blog vividly demonstrates the overcrowded and dangerous conditions and the Crashstat.org map below shows a cluster of injuries in this area. Sadly, it appears to be only a matter of time before more lives are claimed along Atlantic Avenue.
Posted by eric at March 12, 2010 4:51 PM