NYC DOT Launches Redesign Of Conduit Avenue In Brooklyn, Queens

BROOKLYN, NY — The New York City Department of Transportation recently announced the launch of a new community-driven study to redesign Conduit Avenue in Brooklyn and Queens in an effort to reduce traffic crashes.

Conduit Avenue is a major, three-mile arterial street that connects Atlantic Avenue and Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn to the Belt Parkway and JFK Airport in Queens.

In the past five years on the Conduit between Atlantic Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard, there have been more than 40 severe injuries and five traffic deaths, officials said.

Heavy through-traffic and limited pedestrian infrastructure leaves residents with few options for safe travel along and across this stretch of roadway.

The study will build on the agency’s prior safety efforts along the Conduit. NYC DOT has implemented several safety improvements along the corridor in recent years, including a reduced speed limit, new speed cameras, and several new pedestrian head-start signals at major crossings.

"Brooklyn and Queens Residents deserve a Conduit Boulevard that improves daily life, not a roadway that puts pedestrians and drivers at risk and physically divides entire neighborhoods,” NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said. “Now is the time to let your voice be heard, at community workshops this month, we want to hear what New Yorkers think The Conduit should look like, and how it should serve our communities. It is time to let New Yorkers decide how the Conduit corridor can best serve the needs of the locals who use it most, while keeping them safe.”

Community workshops will begin on June 10 at Robert H. Goddard JHS 202 in Ozone Park. A virtual workshop will be held on Thursday, June 12.

Both sessions will gather public input on how the corridor should be redesigned. An online feedback map is also available on the DOT website for residents to share ideas.

For years, the Conduit has been one of the most dangerous corridors in our city — falling significantly short of meeting the safety needs of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. But thanks to the advocacy of many city and community partners, I’m proud to say that a study to redesign Conduit Avenue is finally getting underway,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. said. "No matter how you use our roadways, you deserve to get to your destination safely. That's the ultimate goal of this Conduit Avenue study, and I encourage everyone from South Queens or East Brooklyn to make your voices heard as we center the surrounding community in reimagining this critical corridor.”

From 1934 to 1940, the city widened Conduit Avenue, severing neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens as part of a broader vision to reimagine the outer boroughs for car travel. The roadways were initially built to function as arterials alongside a larger elevated highway that would have been constructed in between them — but was never built.

Residents can register for the two sessions here.