Metro

Big changes for dangerous crosswalk to Brooklyn Bridge Park

One of Brooklyn’s most treacherous crosswalks is finally about to become more pedestrian friendly.

Following outcry that the new children’s playground on Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park remains hazardous to walk to, city Department of Transportation officials last night announced various safety revisions are coming for an 80-foot-long crosswalk at the Atlantic Avenue eastbound entrance to the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway.

The changes for the Brooklyn Heights crosswalk set for this summer will include:

* Eliminating right turns onto the highway for good on red lights. Such turns are currently allowed after stopping during the morning rush and, until last year, were allowed full-time.

* Shortening pedestrians’ crossing experience by adding a traffic island in the middle of the crosswalk, so they no longer feel like they’re playing a real-life game of “Frogger.”

* Adding barriers between the right and middle lanes of westbound Atlantic Avenue traffic near the crosswalk. This will prevent drivers from trying to get onto the highway from the center lane.

* Adding a traffic median and new traffic light closer to the entrance in the center of Atlantic Avenue, so that drivers are better reminded that they cannot turn left onto the highway on red lights. The current setup is tricky, so many drivers for years have been unaware they’ve been blowing red lights while making left turns onto the BQE.

Ted Wright, DOT’s senior project manager for the Brooklyn waterfront, told Community Board 2 that, besides making the walking experience to Pier 6 safer, the revisions would also speed up traffic flow to allow an average of 120 extra vehicles onto the entrance ramp during peak hours.

CB 2’s transportation committee voted to endorse the changes during a session at St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn.

Jane McGroarty, president of the Brooklyn Heights Association, hailed the planned revisions, saying they’re long overdue.

“I am ecstatic,” she said.

Both she and CB 2 Chairman John Dew, however, called on DOT to include countdown clocks for the traffic lights near the crosswalk.

Dew also called for installing red light cameras, but DOT officials pointed out that such action would require action by the state Legislature.

DOT also announced other changes related to easing traffic around Brooklyn Bridge Park, including safety measures to ease traffic along Old Fulton Street in DUMBO from the BQE overpass to Pier 1.

Moreover, DOT officials confirmed that Furman Street, which runs parallel with the park and connects Old Fulton Street to Atlantic Avenue, would remain a two-way street permanently.

The one-mile stretch had long been one-way heading south and referred to by locals as the BQE’s “fourth and fifth lanes” for westbound traffic. But DOT on August 31 made Furman Street two-way temporarily to speed up emergency repairs to the BQE following Hurricane Irene.

After working through early speed bumps with drivers not used to the new rules, DOT officials said they have since received positive feedback about the two-lane change from neighborhood groups and residents living at the One Brooklyn Bridge Park condo complex.