The plan creates a “gateway” to Park Slope/Gowanus by creating a large pedestrian plaza on Fourth Avenue (transforming into event space on weekends), rehabilitating the subway station area, and installing a Class I bikeway along Ninth Street including special treatments to encourage biking and walking. The bikeway would be buffered from vehicles by a planted median, establishing a context for non-motorized systems within the area.

Issues:
• Prevailing conflicts to pedestrian crossings.
• Heavy vehicular volumes causing congestion.
• Constraints to bike lanes/traffic along Ninth Street due to double parking.
• Uninviting space below subway overpass creating a barrier between neighborhoods.
• Perception as a “traffic intersection” as opposed to a potentially vibrant “destination”.

Approach:
• Reprioritize: Maximize street space for non-motorized use; minimize vehicular use while accommodating realistic traffic operations; reconfigure street space to prioritize pedestrian safety/mobility, improve bicycle access, and provide sufficient capacity to process vehicles.

• Reconnect and Interconnect: Enhance the multi-modal aspect to connect adjacent neighborhoods and be a “gateway” to Park Slope/Gowanus.

• Redefine: Redesign the intersection to create a sense of ‘place’ by creating destinations and an overall inviting pedestrian atmosphere.

Solutions:

1) Rehabilitate F subway station: Restore the bridge over Fourth Avenue and install lighting treatments under the bridge to transform this section to an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere. Reopen the subway entrance on the east side of Fourth Avenue and provide additional access to/from the street and bus connections. Banners labeled “4th and 9th” -- the new “destination” identity -- would attract pedestrians. Park Slope/Gowanus would appear on the banner to celebrate historic neighborhoods.

2) Create wide pedestrian plazas: A wide center median on Fourth Avenue would serve as passive space and commuter bike parking during the week, and could be an ideal venue for local artists to publicly display their art. This space could host a farmers market, local outdoor vendors, and other weekend events.

3) Give Fourth Avenue a Road Diet: Fourth Avenue would be narrowed from its existing configuration to two moving lanes with curbside parking. During peak commuter hours, parking lanes would be converted to moving lanes to provide additional capacity.

4) Create a Bikeway: Create a two-way Class I bikeway (physically separated from traffic) on the south side of Ninth Street. The bikeway would extend from Prospect Park to Third Avenue where it would transition to the existing Class III bikeway. To accommodate the bikeway, Ninth Street would be restriped to one moving lane in each direction with parking except at bus stops.

5) Relocate Truck Route: Relocate the existing local truck route on Fourth Avenue between 3rd and 16th Streets, and on 9th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues to Third Avenue, also a truck route. This would minimize truck traffic and conflicting pedestrian-vehicle movements through the intersection, and improve air quality/noise.

6) Revive Street Life: Reopen vacant storefronts under the F subway bridge and create a green space. These treatments would transform a desolate atmosphere into a vibrant and inviting pedestrian space.