An Island Grows on Union:

From the January, 2008 Civic News:

An Island Grows on Union: Recent years have seen a large increase in people crossing 4th Avenue to and from the Union Street subway station. This fall, the Civic Council’s Liveable Streets Committee broached the idea of banning northbound left turns at the intersection to make crossing the busy thoroughfare safer for pedestrians. The committee argued that drivers turning left could go just one block on Union before it became one-way the opposite direction. The idea won support from PSCC Trustees and State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and was quickly implemented by the Department of Transportation.

“We looked at the volumes of pedestrian and automobile traffic at that intersection,” said Chris Hrones, downtown Brooklyn transportation coordinator for DOT, “and our engineers determined that it was legitimate to ban the left turn there to provide an extra measure of pedestrian safety.” Hrones said the existing median will eventually be built out to replace temporary bollards now blocking the left-turn lane. The enlarged median has been added to the more than 100 capital projects related to the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Plan, which already include “neckdowns” to slow traffic turning onto Union Street from 4th Avenue. Hrones predicted that work at the intersection will be completed sometime in 2009. “These changes are a good example of DOT working with the community, leading to a simple intervention that helps pedestrians at a key intersection,” said Hrones.