Last week, DOT quietly revealed that it was planning to narrow Fourth Avenue and transform Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Sixth and Seventh Avenues in to one-way streets. Agency officials say that the the changes are being proposed for no reason other than "to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street."

Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues — the streets that DOT wishes to redesign — all terminate at the edge of the Atlantic Yards development. Naturally, many are wondering if DOT’s plan has anything to do with Forest City Enterprises’ basketball arena and 16-skyscraper mega-project.

Adding fuel to the fire is the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Atlantic Yards project (Chapter 19-11) which proposes closing off the northbound side of Fourth Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush to motor vehicles (which, actually, could be a really nice thing to do regardless). Could it be that DOT’s Park Slope plan is aimed at shunting Fourth Avenue’s Manhattan Bridge-bound morning traffic jam over to Sixth and Eighth Avenues?

We put the question to DOT. We’ll let you know the answer when they get back to us.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Atlantic Yards FEIS: