Q: Why were pylons installed at some of the turns along Fulton Street in Brooklyn? They’ve made it much more difficult to turn off the street.

A: The pylons were put at those intersections for the very reason you mentioned, to make turning off Fulton Street a little tougher. The idea was not to ruin to your day but to slow your car.

The turns in question are where Fulton Street intersects with Putnam Avenue, Hanson Place, and Gates Avenue. The intersections each jut off Fulton at an acute angle, making it exceedingly easy for cars to zip through, although drivers are supposed to slow down as though they were making a 90-degree turn.

The city’s Department of Transportation decided to make the intersections 90-degree turns by painting markings and installing the pylons, or “gateways,” last fall. That, traffic engineers determined, would reduce the speed of vehicles. The pylons were part of a larger effort to make travel safer along Fulton between Flatbush and Nostrand avenues. The effort includes new parking spaces, wide turn zones for trucks, additional bus lane indicators, and paint markings.

How come I’ve seen credit-card readers in certain taxicabs but not in others? Will there be a time when all cabs will take credit cards?

Yes, there will be a point in the not-too-distant future when all yellow cabs should take credit and debit cards, according to a mandate set from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. The March 2004 mandate states that each cab must take plastic payments by the beginning of November 2005. Given last May’s fare hikes, it’s no wonder so many New Yorkers are asking to charge their rides. The cabs you’ve seen are ahead of the curve. Indeed, the commission just put out a request for proposals this week, looking to find a contractor to implement the technology in the city’s 12,000-plus medallion cabs.

In addition to the new payment options, each cab is also to be outfitted with an “interactive passenger information monitor.” (Not to worry: The term means information for passengers, rather than about them.) The monitor will feature a global positioning capability, allowing passengers to watch the progress of their trips on an on-screen map. For some readers who have been abroad, that will be nothing new. For some time now, cabs in European cities such as Paris have had such devices.