Traffic and safety concerns on Grand Street and Metropolitan Avenue have long been a focus of NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT). Both of these streets are designated Vision Zero priority corridors and truck priority safety corridors due to senior pedestrian safety concerns and injury and fatality statistics. These streets also have access issues where conflicts arise due to blocked bike lanes, bus stops, sidewalks, and loading areas.
NYC DOT is conducting a study around the possibility of Grand Street becoming a one-way eastbound road and Metropolitan Avenue becoming a one-way westbound road between Union Avenue and the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge.
This option is being considered in order for NYC DOT to address ongoing community concerns around pedestrian safety, parking and loading challenges, blocked bike lanes, and slow bus speeds on Grand Street. As the current two-way configuration limits the safety improvements that could be applied, the conversion of Grand Street and Metropolitan Avenue into one-way streets could yield the most benefit to all types of road users.
“The outcome of a public workshop and subsequent stakeholder conversations resulted in a request to further study a one-way conversion of Grand Street coupled with Metropolitan Avenue. Grand Street is not wide enough to accommodate improvements across every area of community concern. Converting both Grand St and nearby Metropolitan Ave to one-way streets could reduce competition for the roadway and curb, decrease conflicts and improve traffic flow,” states the Grand St and Metropolitan Ave Street Improvements overview webpage.
The NYC DOT is asking for feedback via a survey and feedback map of the area. The survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GM_PP . Those taking the survey will be asked to choose one of the two roads to comment on. Questions address what the: frequency of use is, purposes of travel are, types of transportation that are used are, and duration of travel is. In addition, it askes for input on safety concerns and what the biggest transportation issue is.
The feedback map here: https://nycdotprojects.info/project-feedback-map/grand-st-and-metropolitan-ave-feedback-map as of this writing (08/18/2026) has collected 199 comments. Metropolitan Avenue at Meeker Avenue and Grand Street at Union Avenue have the most comments, currently.
“Most dangerous crosswalk in the city that I regularly use is the crosswalk across Metropolitan on the west side of the BQE. When pedestrians have the walk signal the cars on Meeker have a yellow turn signal. But the cars are coming off of a freeway and are antsy and they don’t really understand they do really have to yield. The cars constantly threaten pedestrians; someone is going to get killed … ,” states one comment.
In addition to the potential benefits of the one-way conversion, the NYC DOT is weighing the potential drawbacks. These could include: impacts to parking and loading, changes in bus routes and bus stop relocations, among others.
The Greenline 