Motor Vehicle Collisions

No such dramatic reduction in accidents has occurred where motor vehicles are concerned. As Table 17 shows, the number of bicycle-motor vehicle accidents and fatalities decreased only slightly from 1987 to 1992. (The reliability of bicycle accident statistics improved markedly after 1986, when the NY State Department of Motor Vehicles revised its report form after prodding from the bicycle community.) The number of accidents between motor vehicles and pedestrians has also been steady, staying in the 13,000-15,000 range, though fatalities declined in 1991-92. Still, the best way — the only way — to make city streets safer is to start with the drivers of motor vehicles.

ENFORCING MOTOR VEHICLE VIOLATIONS

When it comes to ticketing motorists for reckless driving, government exhibits a dangerous leniency. Motorists constantly exceed the speed limit and drive erratically and assaultively, yet they are virtually never ticketed. Over the most recent 4-year period for which data are available, motorists received only 12,000 summonses a year for speeding or reckless driving on city streets — just 30-35 per day. [3] Small wonder that over 300 pedestrians and 15 cyclists are killed on city streets and sidewalks each year, while thousands more are injured and intimidated. Moreover, as discussed in Chapter 4, even legal speeds may be too dangerous, in light of data showing that a car moving at 30 miles per hour is far more deadly than one moving at 20.

Contributing to this “anything goes” climate is a policy known unofficially as the “Rule of Two.” For criminal prosecution to be initiated in a reckless driving case, the New York State Code of Conduct requires motorists to be proved guilty of two simultaneous infractions. In other words, if a driver accidentally kills someone while speeding, it's unlikely that the driver will be prosecuted unless he or she was also breaking another law at the same time.

Under the Rule of Two, cases of pedestrians killed by motorists running red lights rarely lead to criminal prosecution. The enforcement pattern reflects social acceptance of motor vehicle carnage as the price of the wasteful, destructive luxury of private car-centered transportation.

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