OPINION: Kudos for Squadron for curbing Heights’ ‘mad turners’
When I worked at the old Brooklyn Daily Eagle building on Henry Street near Middagh Street, I often found myself waiting an interminably long time at the traffic light to cross Hicks Street. Almost as soon as the light turned green, an almost never-ending stream of cars turning at fairly high speeds off the BQE heading south began. Often, the cars wouldn’t stop until the “walk” period was almost over. Privately, I nicknamed these high-speed turning cars the “mad turners.”
I have nothing against cars that need to turn — I drive myself. But the green lights were designed first for pedestrians, and only secondly for cars waiting to make a turn. The problem exists at intersections like this one, I believe, partially because the streets of Brooklyn Heights are so narrow and weren’t built to accommodate a steady stream of fast-moving automobiles.
That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised to read, in the pages of this newspaper, that at the request of State Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Downtown Brooklyn/Downtown Manhattan), a Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI) is being installed further down in the Heights, at the intersection of Hicks Street and Atlantic Avenue.