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Brooklyn’s most dangerous intersections are in Williamsburg, Flatbush and Downtown

February 11, 2019 By Raanan Geberer Brooklyn Daily Eagle
People have installed "ghost bikes" around the city in memory of killed cyclists. This one is at Church Avenue and Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush. Eagle file photo by Todd Maisel
Ghost bikes across the city mark the sites where cyclists have been killed. Eagle file photo by Todd Maisel
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Over the past five years, eight single-lane intersections in Brooklyn have produced 26 pedestrian injuries and 29 bicycle injuries, according to a study released on Friday by Localize.city, a real estate website that gives potential buyers detailed information about their neighborhoods.

While local streets may have less traffic than multi-lane ones and fewer overall crashes, many have serious, hidden dangers, Localize.city said. In the 20 most dangerous intersections uncovered by the website — including the eight in Brooklyn — the average rate was one crash every nine months.

One of the dangerous clusters was near the Brooklyn approach to the Williamsburg Bridge, where large numbers of cars, trucks, bicycles and pedestrians all cram into a narrow corridor. Another intersection, Lawrence and Willoughby streets, is a block from the busy Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn.

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Two of the locations named by Localize.city are on Newkirk Avenue in Flatbush, intersecting with Argyle Road and Rugby Road. In 2015, according to Bklyner, a traffic light was installed at Newkirk and nearby Westminster Road after a series of crashes. However, problems persist – Argyle and Rugby roads are a block and two blocks away, respectively, from Westminster Road.

All of the intersections named in the report are:

  • Newkirk Avenue and Argyle Road (four injured pedestrians, three injured cyclists);
  • Newkirk Avenue and Rugby Road (four injured pedestrians, two injured cyclists);
  • South Fourth and Keap streets (two injured pedestrians, five injured cyclists);
  • South Third and Havemeyer streets (four injured pedestrians, five injured cyclists);
  • Hooper and South Fifth streets, (two injured pedestrians, four injured cyclists);
  • Sterling Place and Kingston Avenue (five injured pedestrians, two injured cyclists);
  • Lawrence and Willoughby streets (five injured pedestrians, two injured cyclists);
  • Smith and Wyckoff streets (two injured pedestrians, four injured cyclists).

Last year, according to Streetsblog, the city Department of Transportation undertook a series of bike-lane safety improvements on the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge. However, these improvements are not directly near the streets named in the Localize.city survey.

Other Brooklyn neighborhoods have also been named during the past few years as being dangerous for cyclists and walkers.

For example, Transportation Alternatives reported in December 2018, “East New York, like many predominantly low-income communities of color in New York City, has no protected bike lanes.”

Commenting on a deadly crash involving a bicyclist on Pitkin Avenue on Dec. 14, Transportation Alternatives said the victim, Din Rajon, was riding in a conventional bike lane consisting of “nothing more than a painted line separating people on bikes from general traffic.”

One-lane neighborhood intersections aside, the Eagle reported on Nov. 30, 2017, that the intersection of Tillary Street and Flatbush Avenue was more dangerous than any in the state, according to the Chicago accident law firm of Rubens and Kress. The firm used NYPD data to make the determination.


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  1. AREJAY

    Thanks for covering this issue. Reckless driving is absolutely rampant in Ditmas Park. On the residential street where I live, cars blaze past at insane speeds trying to make the lights. And on all of the residential streets in the area its easy to constantly observe all of the deadliest driver behaviors: speeding, red light and stop sign running, failure to yield. As usual, the NYPD demonstrates its near complete lack of interest in enforcing Vision Zero, or stopping reckless drivers. I’ve advocated with the CB, the 70th precinct, and DOT – but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

    February 11, 2019 at 9:50 am
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