New Countdown Clock at Flatbush and Fulton

Construction workers installed new pedestrian countdown signals at Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street on Monday as part of a larger citywide effort to make busy intersections safer for folks on foot.

Local politicians and the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation, Janette Sadik-Kahn, touted the signal at the busy intersection, where traffic and pedestrians joust for position on their way to Fulton or Nevins streets.

Between 1995 and 2005 75 pedestrians and cyclists were injured near the intersection, according to crashstat.org. Between 2005 and 2009 32 pedestrians were involved in crashes there, according to Sadik-Khan.

All told, 14 new signals will be installed around the borough.

Councilwoman Letitia James hailed the new signal as a welcome measure for pedestrians.

“I'm thrilled that pedestrian countdown signals installed at high pedestrian crash intersections in Brooklyn…have now arrived,” said James, D-Fort Greene. “Even one traffic death is too much in my estimation, and reinforcing the speed limit will protect pedestrians.”

Sadik-Kahn added that major corridors — like Flatbush and Atlantic avenues — were two-thirds more deadly for pedestrians than smaller, local streets. For that reason, most of the countdown signals will be installed on those major roads.

She also pointed to a city study that determined the countdown clocks were “effective at helping pedestrians avoid getting caught in the middle of a crosswalk."

The pedestrian signals at the busy intersection on the edge of Fort Greene are the only ones planned for the neighborhood in the wave of signals announced on Monday. The city says it plans on installing 1,500 of the signals through next year.

DOT officials have previously said countdown signals are coming to the dangerous intersection of Washington and Atlantic avenues, where 111 injuries have occurred between 2005 and 2009, according to the agency.