NYC moving forward with major Third Avenue redesign in Sunset Park, Brooklyn – CBS News

NYC moving forward with major Third Avenue redesign in Sunset Park, Brooklyn  CBS News

The city is moving forward with a major redesign of Third Avenue in Sunset Park. Big changes are coming to one of Brooklyn's most dangerous streets. The city is moving forward with a major redesign of Third Avenue in Sunset Park, which has six lanes of moving traffic, long crosswalks and runs right underneath the elevated Gowanus Expressway. Seventeen people have been killed along the corridor over the last decade. Among the most recent victims is 28-year-old Jiayi Zheng, a nurse who was killed in a hit-and-run in August while heading home from work. Now, the city wants to give third avenue a major makeover. "Beginning next year, the Department of Transportation will heed the years-long calls of this community and redesign more than two miles of Third Avenue," Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday.

"The most notable change is that we're moving the protected bike lane from the curb to the median. This reduces conflicts between cyclists and vehicles," DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said. For one mother whose 5-year-old son was struck and killed by a driver in Queens 20 years ago, this push for safer streets is personal. "I don't think any parent should go through the same thing," mother Fabiola Mendieta-Cuapio said. With schools nearby, educators say protecting children is just as important. "We have little kids every