Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Traffic Pattern at Brooklyn Bridge

Via mole333, the DOT is introducing new rules for the crash-heavy intersection of Adams and Tillary next week. My preferred route to the Manhattan Bridge, which is almost always how I get to the city by bicycle, goes across Adams and then left alongside the Brooklyn Bridge approach, and then a right on Sands to the Manhattan Bridge bike path.

The new pattern will mean I won't have to wait as long to cross Adams (and when I do, I will only have to follow one crosswalk signal instead of two). But on the other hand, all of the Brooklyn Bridge traffic that would cross my path at Adams I will now encounter either at Cadman West or at Jay and Sands, both intersections that are already difficult spots for asserting one's right-of-way over turning car traffic. (I do not know what crash statistics are like for those two places, but I suspect that there are fewer serious crashes there due almost entirely to there being less traffic overall.)

We shall see. As mole333 suggests, it's good that they are building a trial period into this change. As admittedly dangerous as the intersection is, there's no obvious quick fix that will make it better, so empirical experimentation like this is necessary.

No comments: