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Read the press release here.

Perilous Meeker Avenue Slated for Safety Improvements, City Says

By Gwynne Hogan | June 13, 2017 6:02pm
 A section of Meeker Avenue is slated for a redesign to better protect pedestrians, according to the DOT.
A section of Meeker Avenue is slated for a redesign to better protect pedestrians, according to the DOT.
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DOT

WILLIAMSBURG — The city is aiming to redesign a section of the traffic-clogged and dangerous Meeker Avenue with extended curb cuts, more crosswalks and by barring some left turns for drivers, in order to better protect pedestrians and cyclists.

The Department of Transportation is pitching the upgrades for a section of Meeker Avenue between Lorimer Street and Graham Avenue, where two people — a driver and a cyclist — have died since 2010, according to Vision Zero statistics.

Three more people were seriously injured and another 24 had sustained minor injuries during that time, according to the city.

Under the city's proposal, which goes before Community Board 1 this month, several left hand turns across Meeker Avenue at Lorimer Street, Leonard, Manhattan and Graham avenues would be forbidden.

Nine spots selected by the DOT would get painted to bring the curb out further to eliminate soft right turns off of Meeker Avenue that drivers often veer off of, threatening pedestrians.

 

 

 

Here's how curb cuts would improve pedestrian conditions along Meeker Avenue. (DOT)

Additional crosswalks will be painted in areas without them, according to the plan.

The latest project adds to revamp of the troubled intersection of Meeker and Union Avenue last year and the DOT hopes to extend the Meeker Avenue upgrades seven blocks east of Graham Avenue to Vandervoort Avenue in the future.