Park Slope’s Ninth Street remodeled to protect cyclists and pedestrians

May 31, 2018 By Gordon Walker Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Rendering courtesy of Mayor Bill de Blasio's office

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Fulfilling his promise to do something about the dangerous stretch of road near Prospect Park, Mayor de Blasio has plans for a new design of Ninth Street between Prospect Avenue and Third Avenue. The community had organized multiple protests to advocate for changes to Park Slope for residents’ safety, and now they can come to fruition.

This redesign will include the corner on Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street where two children were killed in a car accident on March 5. The cross section shows how from now on, pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy a safer route, thanks to bicycle lanes being placed between the sidewalk and parked cars, and not in the middle of the road as they have been.

Shortened crossings and slow-turn treatments at intersections will also be added, to hopefully prevent these accidents from happening again. These new narrower cross sections reduce speeding while also maintaining vehicle flow and emergency access.

The de Blasio administration is also pushing for reforms in Albany that will escalate fines and suspend the vehicle registrations of repeat speeding and red-light running offenders, and require physicians to notify the DMV following medical events that could cause drivers to lose control of their vehicle, which could have helped prevent the accident in Brooklyn.