Months after a deadly accident that killed two children in a Brooklyn crosswalk, the city announced plans Wednesday to redesign the area in an attempted to make it safer.
The city's plan will narrow the driving lanes along Ninth Street, and add a nearly mile-long bike lane protected by parked cars.
"When you put in a protected bike lane, one of the things we've discovered is it makes the streets safer for everybody," said Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. "It actually kind of slows the traffic down."
The city also will install pedestrian islands to slow turning vehicles while making cyclists and people crossing the street more visible to those drivers.
The redesign will take place on Ninth Street from Prospect Park West to Third Avenue.
The announcement comes after a driver, who was stopped at a red light on Ninth Street, accelerated and drove into pedestrians in the crosswalk.
Joshua Lew, 1, and Abigail Blumenstein, 4, were killed on March 5. Abigail's mother, pregnant actress Ruthie Ann Miles, also was struck. She eventually lost her unborn child.
Authorities said Dorothy Bruns told them that she suffered a seizure, which caused her to accelerate.
Bruns had been told in January not to drive, because of seizures. She has been charged with manslaughter.
City officials said the redesign won't legally lower the speed limit, but that they hope it will slow traffic down.
The city has 140 speed cameras in school zones, but the law allowing them is expiring. Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling on state legislators in Albany to extend the program and expand it to cover an additional 150 school zones.