See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Eli Rosenberg
Brooklyn Daily
It’s more like Ocean Speedway.
The borough’s most dangerous roadway for pedestrians is Ocean Parkway, according to a new study by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Motorists killed six people on the boulevard that runs between Prospect Park and Coney Island between 2009 and 2011, the leading death toll for the borough which suffered the most pedestrians fatalities — 132 — over that time period.
Three of the six fatalities were in the Kensington portion of Ocean Parkway, between Church and Ditmas avenues, where two adults and one person over 60 years old lost their lives.
Neighbors of the roadway said they weren’t surprised by the grim numbers.
“It’s crazy over there because people drive like lunatics,” said Ellen Stein, a longtime resident of the block near Avenue H, who believes the area could use more red light cameras. “There is absolutely zero police presence on Ocean Parkway.”
Surveyors say the six-lane roadway fits into a trend about pedestrian fatalities: a disproportionate number occur on arterial roadways — old, multi-lane roads designed to funnel maximal amounts of traffic through the city quickly.
“From a research perspective, what we’re finding is vast majority of fatalities are coming on these roadways,” said Ryan Lynch, the associate director for the campaign, which examined roads throughout the tri-state area for its latest study. “[Arterial roads] make up 15 percent of the roadways and 60 percent of the fatalities.”
The borough’s second and third most dangerous roadways are Eastern Parkway and Kings Highway, with five and four pedestrian fatalities, respectively.
Ocean Parkway has actually become less dangerous since 2001, when five pedestrians were mowed down on the street in one year, according to city officials.
“We still need to do more to make neighborhoods in Brooklyn and across the city even safer,” said Department of Transportation spokesman Nicholas Mosquera, who noted that borough-wide traffic fatalities decreased by 23 percent from 2001 to 2011.
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.