Greenwood Avenue footbridge

Notwithstanding the expense and logistics, the footbridge is an efficient solution to the incompatibility of foot and car traffic. I’ve been thinking about this since my visit to Atlantic Mall a couple weeks ago (see December 11 posting). We can dream of a series of connected, elevated walkways over the Flatbush tangle, but it will never happen. In New York City, footbridges are built for pedestrians to cross busy roadways, like the Prospect Expressway.

To construct a bridge exclusively for foot traffic over an intersection would be an admission of failure by the Department of Transportation:  vehicular traffic is out of control, a menace to people attempting to get from one side of the street to the other – we have not done our job.

For pedestrians, there is always the underground alternative of the sprawling Atlantic-Pacific subway  just under the roadway (the B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5  subway lines and the LIRR stop here). But, to maneuver through the station it helps to have some familiarity of the station, and a tolerance for stairs, of which there are many. There is also the the subway fare. I, for one, will dodge the cars before I pay to cross the street.