Building upon improvements in September 2005, which was the green streets plan, the DOT has been requested to also study traffic at Gerritsen and Avenue U.
The Department of Transportation will be implementing these changes very quickly starting in September.
Here is what they want to do:
Gerritsen Avenue will now all be a single lane, with all left and right turn bays. They are going to extend the painted median from Avenue W (where it currently ends) all the way down to Gerritsen and Nostrand.
They will also be installing bike lanes on the North and South bound lanes on Gerritsen Avenue. The bike lanes will be eventually connected with other city bike lanes. DOT usually installs bike lanes to get rid of the excess roadway, and to induce slower traffic.
Avenue U has the largest amount of changes.
- Gerritsen Northbound at Avenue U (toward Nostrand) you will only be able to go straight and make a right no lefts onto Avenue U.
- Install left turn bay on Avenue U Westbound (going toward Kings Plaza).
- Install left turn bay on Gerritsen Southbouth (coming into beach, across from Engine 321).
- Install a painted pedestrian island on Gerritsen South of U. This would an area with you can stand in the middle of the street between chinar and that new liquor store.
Gerritsen at Knapp (the fork/angle/On the Run)
Install southbound right turn lane with additional green arrow time.
This is all to improve pedestrian safety, traffic crashes, reduce delays and most importantly reduce speeding, because the study shows that most people go between 40-50 MPH on Gerritsen Avenue, when 30 is the limit.
Previous Post: DOT’s assesment of Gerritsen Avenue traffic configuration 2007
Maybe while they are at it the could do something about the wide left turn from Gerritsen Ave onto Avenue W. Parked cars are constantly hit on Avenue W from high speed drivers trying to make the light and not taking into account how wide they have to turn in order to avoid oncoming traffic. Just a thought from someone who has seen at least 15 to 20 accidents there in the past years.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Sonova %^$&^%#!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Maybe they could put angled parking on Gerritsen Avenue. With the ballfields, parking is getting harder. Angled parking would provide more parking and should cut down on double parking. Just a thought.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
GOD DAMNIT! Enough! Enough White Stripes, Enough Concrete Medians!
Stop fucking making it harder to move a vehicle around stalled traffic! This is gonna bring traffic in that area to a fucking standstill. This is horrible, outright horrible. Especially no Left Turns on U. What they need to do is install a left turn light!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Arthur B,
You are ABSOLUTELY right!
While there, they should fix the timing on the light on stuart and U, which causes traffic to backup the intersection of U and Gerritsen. If they don’t do that, nothing is going to help.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Arthur B, There will be no concrete medians in the plan as far as I know.
Sounds great. I can’t believe it took so many years to get a designated left turn lane going South on Gerritsen onto Eastbound Ave. U. By the way, correction needed, Avenue U westbound direction travels away from Kings Plaza, not toward it.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Here is another solution for traffic calming. Put in speed bumps that you have to really slow down for. That would be much cheaper and much less confusing. Just make sure that is someone is speeding that the will wreck their undercarriage. I had been mentioning this on and off for years. What say you folks there?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
One more question. WHAT ABOUT THE BUSES?????
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@snoreasaurusrex,
and all the double parked cars
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Let them eat tickets.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Where’s the traffic light Marty Golden and George Broad head were going to pursue by St James, all we ever see is more street graffitee
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Losing patients, are you a doctor?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
sorry for the typo, but we still need a traffic light.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
What? No left turn onto Avenue U from Gerritsen? Are you kidding? Where is that traffic going to go? I’ll tell you where. If this plan goes through, it has no choice, it has to get off the commercial streets and move onto the residential streets like Avenue T.
This is a bad idea.
Gerritsen and U is a simple 4 way intersection. There is plenty of real-estate at that intersection, seems to be a perfect candidate for a traffic circle, which will keep traffic moving. Pedestrians can get an operational “push to walk” button and cars can keep moving. Put speed bumps in the traffic circle if you want, but please keep the traffic moving along the shortest route and away from our houses.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pete,
TRAFFIC CIRCLE?!?!?!?!?!?!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Anonymous, RAlso called round-a-bouts.
The UK uses them extensively. Its an intersection with an island in the middle. The rules are traffic in the intersection has right of way, and traffic entering must yield to traffic already inside. Overall, traffic keeps moving because if there is light traffic, the traffic never has to stop. When traffic is heavy, it can keep moving as long as the streets feeding the intersection can absorb the traffic coming through.
Anything would be better than the plan to ban left turns onto ave u from gerritsen (towards nostrand).
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I agree with Arthur & Pete (tho not sure about traffic cirlcles.) Just put left arrows on Ave U & on Gerritsen. People will know to stay right to go straight, left if they want to make a left.
The 2 problem spots are southbound gerritsen making lefts, and westbound U making lefts. LESS lanes of traffic cannot be the answer.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
everyone will stomp their feet like children so the planners and politicians become numb and the sensible answers will not get thru . I hope someone can sit down well mannered and calm enough to get us something that works.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I HAVE THE SOLUTION.
We need to call the politicians and tell them we need our dirt roads back.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
All I can say is, it’s about time!!!!
Once they complete this perhaps they will look at other problem areas like Ave. S, Ave T and provide designated left turns at Bedford Avenue, Ocean Avenue and Coney Island ave.
Oh, also add designated left turns at Ave. W and Knapp St.
This will definitely expedite traffic and relieve anxieties most drivers demonstrate during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@trainman,
what are you talking about?? ocean avenue and coney island avenue already have left turn lanes and bedford avenue is only one lane in each direction, where would you put a turn lane???
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Anonymous, He means turn lanes actually on Ave S & Ave T, but I agree with you, where could you put them on a one lane street???
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@,
Thank you for clearing this matter up with your counter part. I thought my statement was simple enough to interpret when I stated
“Provide designated left turns “at†Bedford Avenue, Ocean Avenue and Coney Island Avenue.â€
Anyway, like many intersections throughout the city that are similar to the ones I mentioned above, all you need to do is eliminate one or two parking spots on the corner of the street entering the intersection, in this case we’ll say Bedford Avenue, create a left turn lane for Bedford Avenue and that will allow vehicles to maneuver to the right of cars waiting to make the left turn therefore eliminating the backup we all witness during rush hour traffic.
On most mornings while traveling on Ave. W. and approaching Knapp Street it’s not unusual to see 8 to 12 cars backed up waiting to make left turns onto Knapp Street towards the Bell Parkway. If we had a left turn lane at that intersection it would be easy for cars that want to continue on Ave. W. to do so and that will eliminate congestion.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
this is retarted how is this going to ease traffic? the city gets dummer n dummer the traffic is going to be backed up for bocks now with only 1 lane what happens when a bus or turck is blocking the lane ? if they do this i would rather move to somplace else its gettin ridiculous and if you cant make a left turn then where ddo you expect people to go this is going to make things 100x worse people dont think
ideas may sound good on paper but for the people that live here and use them the suck we need a local to desisn the roads…they dont even neeed change to start off with
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I urge everyone who has a something to say please leave your concerns or praise for the plan!
I think the city needs to STOP bottle necking traffic in attempt to get people to slow down. IT WONT WORK. They’ll still speed, they’ll just fight to cut each other off to get the head spot at the traffic light or to beat the bottle neck.
This whole trend the city has of adding zebra lines and bike lanes on every god damned wide street in the city is fucking infuriating. They added them to Gerristen Ave, and I still see people speeding during the day (granted I’m a tad guilty too, my apologies) and my customers have told me that people still race at night so they have done NOTHING but congest traffic by forcing drivers to wait behind slow or confused drivers instead of allowing to go around them. And please lets face it, anyone not native to GB goes slow as fuck as they try to find the street they are need to turn on.
They added them to Neptune Ave and screwed that street up too, and now people think it’s more ok to cross in the middle of the street making it MORE dangerous.
GRRRRAH!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Has anyone ever noticed the incredible amount of traffic on Ave. U and Gerritsen at rush hour in the evening? And anytime the Belt Pkwy has traffic going east (translated=ALWAYS) the backflow traffic of people getting off the Belt to take the streets home leaves a huge mess right at that intersection, in front of Key Food’s parking lot. Now its gonna be one lane? It’s gonna be a nightmare.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
what about Knapp st? It’s 2 lanes, which goes into 2 lanes on Gerritsen. What happens when gerritsen is 1 lane? Backups on Knapp St?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
What the city is not realizing, is that when the belt is backed up,knapp street as well as Gerritsen Ave. become backed up. Everyone takes the streets to the flatbush ave entrance than. How much more traffic is that going to cause?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
[...] Previous Post: Gerritsen Avenue to Get “Traffic Improvements†[...]
Like or Dislike:
0 
0