diff --git a/lib/concurrent-ruby/concurrent/atomic/ruby_thread_local_var.rb b/lib/concurrent-ruby/concurrent/atomic/ruby_thread_local_var.rb
index 55bcca7c5..6d7601afd 100644
--- a/lib/concurrent-ruby/concurrent/atomic/ruby_thread_local_var.rb
+++ b/lib/concurrent-ruby/concurrent/atomic/ruby_thread_local_var.rb
@@ -28,38 +28,27 @@ class RubyThreadLocalVar < AbstractThreadLocalVar
     # But when a Thread is GC'd, we need to drop the reference to its thread-local
     #   array, so we don't leak memory
 
-    # @!visibility private
-    FREE   = []
-    LOCK   = Mutex.new
-    ARRAYS = {} # used as a hash set
-    # noinspection RubyClassVariableUsageInspection
-    @@next = 0
-    QUEUE  = Queue.new
-    THREAD = Thread.new do
-      while true
-        method, i = QUEUE.pop
-        case method
-        when :thread_local_finalizer
-          LOCK.synchronize do
-            FREE.push(i)
-            # The cost of GC'ing a TLV is linear in the number of threads using TLVs
-            # But that is natural! More threads means more storage is used per TLV
-            # So naturally more CPU time is required to free more storage
-            ARRAYS.each_value do |array|
-              array[i] = nil
-            end
-          end
-        when :thread_finalizer
-          LOCK.synchronize do
-            # The thread which used this thread-local array is now gone
-            # So don't hold onto a reference to the array (thus blocking GC)
-            ARRAYS.delete(i)
-          end
-        end
+    FREE                = []
+    LOCK                = Mutex.new
+    THREAD_LOCAL_ARRAYS = {} # used as a hash set
+
+    # synchronize when not on MRI
+    # on MRI using lock in finalizer leads to "can't be called from trap context" error
+    # so the code is carefully written to be tread-safe on MRI relying on GIL
+
+    if Concurrent.on_cruby?
+      # @!visibility private
+      def self.semi_sync(&block)
+        block.call
+      end
+    else
+      # @!visibility private
+      def self.semi_sync(&block)
+        LOCK.synchronize(&block)
       end
     end
 
-    private_constant :FREE, :LOCK, :ARRAYS, :QUEUE, :THREAD
+    private_constant :FREE, :LOCK, :THREAD_LOCAL_ARRAYS
 
     # @!macro thread_local_var_method_get
     def value
@@ -85,7 +74,7 @@ def value=(value)
       # Using Ruby's built-in thread-local storage is faster
       unless (array = get_threadlocal_array(me))
         array = set_threadlocal_array([], me)
-        LOCK.synchronize { ARRAYS[array.object_id] = array }
+        self.class.semi_sync { THREAD_LOCAL_ARRAYS[array.object_id] = array }
         ObjectSpace.define_finalizer(me, self.class.thread_finalizer(array.object_id))
       end
       array[@index] = (value.nil? ? NULL : value)
@@ -95,32 +84,50 @@ def value=(value)
     protected
 
     # @!visibility private
-    # noinspection RubyClassVariableUsageInspection
     def allocate_storage
-      @index = LOCK.synchronize do
-        FREE.pop || begin
-          result = @@next
-          @@next += 1
-          result
-        end
-      end
+      @index = FREE.pop || next_index
+
       ObjectSpace.define_finalizer(self, self.class.thread_local_finalizer(@index))
     end
 
     # @!visibility private
     def self.thread_local_finalizer(index)
-      # avoid error: can't be called from trap context
-      proc { QUEUE.push [:thread_local_finalizer, index] }
+      proc do
+        semi_sync do
+          # The cost of GC'ing a TLV is linear in the number of threads using TLVs
+          # But that is natural! More threads means more storage is used per TLV
+          # So naturally more CPU time is required to free more storage
+          THREAD_LOCAL_ARRAYS.each_value { |array| array[index] = nil }
+          # free index has to be published after the arrays are cleared
+          FREE.push(index)
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     # @!visibility private
     def self.thread_finalizer(id)
-      # avoid error: can't be called from trap context
-      proc { QUEUE.push [:thread_finalizer, id] }
+      proc do
+        semi_sync do
+          # The thread which used this thread-local array is now gone
+          # So don't hold onto a reference to the array (thus blocking GC)
+          THREAD_LOCAL_ARRAYS.delete(id)
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     private
 
+    # noinspection RubyClassVariableUsageInspection
+    @@next = 0
+    # noinspection RubyClassVariableUsageInspection
+    def next_index
+      LOCK.synchronize do
+        result = @@next
+        @@next += 1
+        result
+      end
+    end
+
     if Thread.instance_methods.include?(:thread_variable_get)
 
       def get_threadlocal_array(thread = Thread.current)