Showcase projects have been built in a matter of weeks throughout the city this summer. This community has been waiting over a decade for basic pedestrian safety improvements and children are still being injured and killed.

This is not rocket science. DOT and DDC need to get their act together on the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Plan and be accountable for the commitments they make to the public.

Every time there is an injury from a car or truck, that place should become an area of intense scrutiny and improvements in ways to prevent another one ever happening again.

People who can take the responsibility to create the truly effective highly talented swat-team type task force would likely be: The Mayor, DOT Commissioner, Health Department Commissioner.

All have proven themselves to be up to the task.

If you look at the plan, you'll see that the area is broken down into the following categories:
· Travel Streets
· Community Streets
· Living Streets

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/brooklyn_3.pdf

God forbid if you live on or travel through a Travel Street, since...

"All Travel Streets described here should be managed with the aim of optimizing their traffic performance, because acting as traffic conduits is their primary function. In many cases, traffic performance can be optimized through improvements to intersection operations; in some cases, improvements can also be achieved through rationalization of mid-block operations."

My guess is that just like the Adams Street "Improvements" to a Travel Street that contributed to the death of Alexander Toulouse, these will not result in an appreciable safer environment for anyone other than an automobile driver.

Perhaps these improvements are better than nothing, but until the DOT decides that even one death is too many and works to provide more car-free options through Downtown Brooklyn, I fear we will continue to have these tragedies.