Andrew Cominelli

Kent Avenue to Get Safety Upgrade

After years of demands from residents and elected officials, The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced, this week, that they are taking steps to make Kent Avenue safer. This May, the agency will install traffic lights on Kent at North 5th, 6th and 7th Streets to reduce threats to cyclists and pedestrians from speeding cars and limited visibility along the waterfront roadway.

“The installation of traffic lights along Kent Avenue will make this neighborhood a safer place for all pedestrians and especially the children in the neighborhood,” said Councilmember Stephen Levin, who worked with State Senator Dan Squadron and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol to lobby the DOT.

Kent Avenue traffic runs unimpeded for long stretches, allowing cars to travel at high speeds. Parked cars along one side of the curb impair the vision of crossing pedestrians, making their trip across somewhat treacherous. Along the opposite curb is a two-way bike lane, separated from traffic by another line of parked cars, obscuring the views of cyclists and joggers coming out of the lane. Meanwhile, the area’s growth over the past few years, which includes the addition of the East River State Park and waterfront hi-rises, has increased foot traffic exponentially.

“For too long, crossing Kent has been simply harrowing,” said Squadron. “As North Brooklyn and its waterfront grow, these safety improvements must happen in tandem with development, not after.”

Mohamed Ali, a Bushwick resident who works at a deli at 48 North 6th Street, said he saw a cyclist ride into a pedestrian on Kent last summer, knocking him down and bloodying his face. Lance Ferguson, an art director and resident of 184 Kent Avenue has seen cars hit bikers on several occasions. “People are still driving like when traffic went both ways on Kent,” Ferguson said (Kent was changed to a one-way street in 2009).

District Leader Lincoln Restler said the marked population growth added to the urgency for new safety measures. “We’ve had a great deal of pedestrian congestion in this area and no traffic signals whatsoever regulating cars,” he said. “We have not seen DOT change the traffic patterns to ensure the safety of the residents in the community. DOT has not kept pace with the growing residential population on the Northside to ensure the safety of our community.”

DOT spokeswoman Nicole Garcia said the agency decided to install the lights after a three-month study of traffic volume and patterns and frequency of speed limit violations found that the intersections met the department’s criteria for traffic signals.

According to Restler, the DOT conducted several previous studies on Kent Avenue that failed to approve the installation of signal lights. “Because Kent Avenue does not have through traffic, it is very difficult using DOT’s criteria to warrant a stop light,” he said.

Once a DOT study determines that no action is needed for a site, they will not re-evaluate that site for 18 months. This exacerbated the community’s struggle for a safer Kent Avenue. Restler said that elected officials put sufficient pressure on DOT to bypass this restriction and perform the recent study before the 18-month delay period ended.

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