Momentum on Atlantic-Washington Calming
We’ve mentioned plans to calm the Atlantic and Washington Avenue intersection before, and the proposal was already brought to CB8. Now the plan has moved forward to the other community board that shares the burden of this crossing, CB2, and one of its committees has green-lighted it. On Tuesday night CB2’s Transportation Committee heard, and…
We’ve mentioned plans to calm the Atlantic and Washington Avenue intersection before, and the proposal was already brought to CB8. Now the plan has moved forward to the other community board that shares the burden of this crossing, CB2, and one of its committees has green-lighted it. On Tuesday night CB2’s Transportation Committee heard, and approved, a detailed plan for construction. Here’s what it should look like, with an extension of the Lowry triangle and the smaller triangle at Washington, a pedestrian refuge, a new neckdown and left turn bay. Notably, eastbound to northbound left turns will no longer be allowed onto Washington from Atlantic. Left turns will be relegated to the four “C” streets: Carlton, Clermont, Clinton and Classon. Construction on this project might be held up to correspond with the water main construction also going down on Atlantic. Countdown clocks at the intersection, though, should be installed by July of this year. No bike lanes will be put in and no parking spots will be lost during the much-needed revamp.
Calming Washington and Atlantic Intersection [Brownstoner]
Oh I see now from the picture that they are planning to widen the median (“pedestrian refuge”) on the west side. Good work.
Also while we’re at it, how about no southbound turns onto Underhill, at least? It can be quite confusing to have cars turning left onto both Washington and Underhill and wouldn’t be that big an inconvenience.
Seems like a good start. This intersection is a death trap and gets pretty significant pedestrian traffic going to/from the C train. They should also lengthen the walk signal for crossing Atlantic, which is really quite short even for a fast walker, and widen the median on Atlantic so that people can safely stand there if/when they get stranded in the middle.
Let’s think hypothetically for a second… Say they accomplished the same exact effect (same traffic patterns, same number of lanes, same parking, etc.), but the design included a bike lane. Can you just imagine the fits that would be thrown here?
Just find that amusing.
This is great. When are we going to see a well thought out proposal a couple of blocks down Atlantic to clear up the clusterf**k that is the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush and the intersection of Atlantic & 4th?
Looks like turns are allowed at Clinton Ave (but there’s no turn bay, so it’s reasonable to have thought otherwise).
Something really does need to be done here but the major issue I have as a predestrian here is the car wash on the south east corner of Atlantic and Washington. It’s almost impossible to cross there with cars waiting to enter on both the Atlantic and Washington roads and the Atlantic sidewalk. You literally have to walk in the road on Atkantic to get around the cars that on the sidewalk. I don’t see how you can improve this junction without dealing with this issue.
I’m glad to see this progress, but personally I find the left turning from Atlantic westbound to Washington/Underhill southbound more of a problem than the other, as well as the Washington onto Atlantic left turns in both directions, where they rarely see people crossing. The north side of Atlantic is the narrowest, and therefore the safest crossing for pedestrians of all four.
Eastbound to northbound turns are not allowed now at Cinton Ave. Is that changing?
CB8 also approved some pedestrian safety measures at Washington/Park Place/ and Grand Avenue: installing concrete refuges where Grand splits off from Washington, to help pedestrians crossing east-west…
CB8’s transportation committee is scheduled to hear a DOT proposal on bike lanes for Washington, running between Eastern Parkway and Dean/Bergen lanes, in April.