NEW YORK CITY-Traffic fatalities in the city have fallen to the lowest level on record, dropping by nearly 63% since the bad old days of 1990, but the Bloomberg administration wants to accelerate the decline. Over the next several months, it plans to re-align about 60 miles of city streets and install pedestrian countdown signals at 1,500 intersections.
Both actions stem from a report from the city’s Department of Transportation released Monday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other administration figures. Titled the Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan, the report also recommends implementing a pilot program to lower the speed limit from 30 to 20 mph in some neighborhoods, reconfiguring some 20 intersections along Manhattan’s major two-way streets and removing curbside parking spaces at all left-turn approaches on major Manhattan avenues that have high rates of left-turn pedestrian crashes. The report sets a target of reducing traffic fatalities to 137 per year by 2030, half the 2007 rate.
New York City’s traffic fatality rate, at 3.49 deaths annually per 100,000 residents, is higher than that of Berlin, Paris or London but about one-third that of Detroit or Atlanta. It’s also lower than the fatality rates in Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Los Angeles, according to the NYCDOT report.
Even so, motor vehicle crashes rank high in social and other costs. The US Department of Transportation estimates the national impact of crashes at $230.6 billion per year, approximately 2.3% of the country’s 2000 GDP. In New York City, the annual expense is $4.3 billion, or 1% of gross city product, according to NYCDOT.
Reducing the number of motor vehicle crashes, in common with lowering the crime rate, will help the city attract and retain residents, the NYCDOT report states. It also goes hand in hand with the Bloomberg administration’s sustainability initiatives: “As New York City continues to grow, the greenest and most cost-effective way to expand the transportation system will be to increase usage of transit and nonmotorized modes,” the report states. “For example, in Marin County, CA, the number of children walking to school increased by 65% following the completion of pedestrian improvements around seven schools.”
Via a corridor ranking system, NYCDOT will identify and address safety issues with intensive redesigns on a minimum of 60 miles per year of city streets, says the report. Depending on feasibility, the projects may include pedestrian refuge islands, road diets, sidewalk extensions, pedestrian plazas, bicycle lanes, lane reconfigurations, signal timing modifications, countdown signals, markings, signs and parking regulation modifications.
The Bloomberg administration already has installed countdown signals at 24 intersections in a citywide pilot program. Based on the results of that program, the city will install 1,500 more such signals at wider intersections, with the initial installation of 250 starting within a month, according to a release.
“Pedestrian countdown signals can help cut out any guesswork in crossing busy intersections to keep pedestrians from being caught in the middle of a dangerous situation,” transportation commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan says in a statement. Following the initial 1,500 installations by the end of 2011, countdown signals will be installed at other intersections where NYCDOT identifies a need.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
