Plan would decongest clogged Flatbush Ave. traffic

Daily News Graphic

Graphic illustrating a plan to eliminate one lane of traffic in each direction on busy Flatbush Ave.between Empire Blvd. and Nostrand Ave., replacing them with left turn indents and designated commercial loading zones.

The city hopes to reduce congestion on a busy stretch of Flatbush Ave. by eliminating one lane of traffic in each direction.

The sweeping proposal along the 2.3 miles between Empire Blvd. and Nostrand Ave. would replace the travel lanes with a center portion for left turns and designated commercial loading zones to curb double-parking.

“It’s a really straightforward way of making Flatbush Ave. safer and less congested,” said Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives, which promotes biking over fume-spewing cars.

The stretch in question is one of the city’s roughly dozen “Congested Corridors” being studied by the Department of Transportation.

It runs through the middle of Brooklyn and serves as a connector to the Belt Parkway, downtown Brooklyn and the Manhattan Bridge.

Traffic is particularly heavy near Brooklyn College, and at the major Nostrand Ave. intersection, known as the Junction, home to a new Target store.

Some residents are unconvinced that the proposed changes will help keep cars moving.

“It’s nonsensical,” argued community activist Zenobia McNally. “The problem is the double parking and that’s because they’ve removed all the parking here.”

But Samponaro said new, brighter pavement paint would “create a lot more structure and order.”

The turning lane in the middle of the road will help prevent accidents caused by drivers speeding past vehicles waiting to turn off the avenue, she added.

Flatbush Ave. isn’t the only city spot set to get a makeover.

In Park Slope, the city banned some left turns on jam-packed Fourth Ave., a traffic-calming measure that also eliminated a lane of car traffic in both directions.

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