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Dear Mayor Eric Adams,

We, the undersigned, demand immediate action to improve the Bay Ridge section of Fourth Avenue with regards to safety, environment, and mobility.

Fourth Avenue is a crucial north-south transit corridor in Brooklyn that connects Bay Ridge and the rest of southern Brooklyn to Sunset Park, Park Slope, Downtown Brooklyn, and the rest of New York City. Despite being a major transit artery for Bay Ridge and southern Brooklyn, Fourth Avenue remains inhospitable and dangerous for people whether they’re walking to the R train, riding their bike home, making deliveries via truck or trying to leave the neighborhood in a car.

For the safety, mobility, and environmental benefit to ourselves and our neighbors, we demand that New York City and the Department of Transportation (DOT) deliver and implement a redesign for a better, safer Fourth Avenue.

Safety

Two highways – the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) to the north and the Belt Parkway to the south – feed high-speed traffic onto Fourth Avenue. Wide and straight car lanes encourage motorists to continue through Bay Ridge at dangerously high speeds in an otherwise residential neighborhood.

Traffic crashes occur an average of once every four days along Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge. And, tragically, there have been three pedestrian deaths on Fourth Avenue since 2020 – most recently at the intersection of Senator St. and Fourth Avenue on July 16th, 2023.

The evidence is clear. The current conditions on Fourth Avenue create an extremely dangerous situation for our neighborhood – one that will continue to injure and kill New Yorkers until a change is made. We demand that DOT take action to save lives by implementing pedestrian safety and traffic-calming measures along Fourth Avenue.

Environment & Mobility

Climate resiliency projects and infrastructure improvements on Fourth Avenue to the north in Sunset Park and Park Slope have not been extended south past 65th Street to Bay Ridge.

The protected bike lane that serves as a major bike network connector down Fourth Avenue ends abruptly to the north of Bay Ridge, leaving cyclists on Fourth Avenue to contend with dangerous traffic conditions without any protective infrastructure.

Additionally, the flood mitigation and climate resiliency projects currently under construction to the north on Fourth Avenue have no planned extension into Bay Ridge. Any comprehensive plan for Fourth Avenue must include environmental improvements to mitigate the effects of climate change and extreme weather events.

With unsafe traffic conditions, areas of completely treeless, shadeless blocks and no planned environmental improvements, Fourth Avenue fails to meet the needs of our community. We call on DOT to extend the existing protected bike lane and green infrastructure in Sunset Park and Park Slope into Bay Ridge.

Bay Ridge deserves better.

We demand a Finished Fourth Ave!

cc: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, DOT Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Bray

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