Officials said the barrier at Monitor Street will also function as a protected bike lane to allow cyclists to ride through the new divider and continue onward:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DOT-diverter.jpeg\")
DOT proposed a traffic diverter that\u2019s still rideable for cyclists on Driggs Avenue and Monitor Street. Screenshot via DOT<\/p>\n
Monitor and Sutton streets intersect right outside the school and adjacent park. In 2023, a driver struck and killed cyclist Teddy Orzechowski, 73,<\/a> at Monitor and Driggs. In 2024, a motorist fatally hit 49-year-old pedestrian Danielle Aber at nearby Sutton Street and Nassau Avenue.<\/p>\n Another part of the redesign will close \u201cslip lanes\u201d on Engert Avenue, one connecting to McGuinness Boulevard and another at Meeker Avenue. Emergency services will maintain access, officials said.<\/p>\n The city also wants to add a new mid-block crossing on Monitor Street at McGolrick Park with shortened crossing distances, and daylighting<\/a> and bumps to calm turns at the intersection where Aber was killed.<\/p>\n DOT\u2019s proposed redesign aims to discourage drivers from using local streets as a \u201ccut-through\u201d from busy roads including Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Meeker Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue. More than half of drivers on Driggs Avenue are cut-through traffic, according to DOT. The new traffic diverters are meant to encourage most motorists to stay on busier roads, while maintaining access to local streets for drivers who need them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe issue that we\u2019re trying to address is a lot of the vehicles on Driggs don\u2019t actually have a destination in that area,\u201d said Melina Lawrence, a project manager at DOT\u2019s public realm unit. \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to access that block of Driggs, you\u2019ll be there. If you\u2019re not specifically trying to access that block, you\u2019ll find another way.\u201d<\/p>\n The planned revamp echoes the \u201clow-traffic neighborhoods\u201d of cities like London and Paris, which have pioneered the use of diverters to keep through-traffic off local streets in recent years. Advocates have called on Mayor Mamdani<\/a> to bring the low-traffic neighborhood concept to the Big Apple. <\/p>\n The city plans to roll out the changes in the fall and is also looking into future neighborhood-wide planning to improve pedestrian and biking conditions, including with \u201ctwo-way cycling\u201d infrastructure, according to DOT\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n Greenpoint emerged as a street safety battleground under Mayor Eric Adams, as the owners of local soundstage company Broadway Stages, Gina and Tony Argento, lobbied the then-mayor to stop a redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, leading to corruption charges<\/a> against the brother and sister duo and the mayor\u2019s top advisor.<\/p>\n De Blasio first proposed the McGuinness redesign after a hit-and-run driver killed<\/a> Matthew Jensen, a teacher at P.S. 110, in 2021.<\/p>\n North of P.S. 110, Broadway Stages tried to privatize a block of Monitor Street<\/a> and turn it into their own backlot for their studios in 2024, but the company\u2019s zoning application<\/a> with the city never went anywhere as prosecutors indicted the Argentos, along with Adams\u2019s former top deputy, Ingrid Lewis Martin<\/a>. That case remains ongoing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DOT-slip-lanes.jpeg\")
Two slip lanes on Engert Avenue, at Meeker Avenue and McGuinness Boulevard, will go car-free. Graphic: DOT<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Eastern-Greenpoint-Map.png\")
The redesign aims to keep more cars off local streets. Map: DOT<\/p>\n