After years of hectoring the New York City Police Department to take dangerous driving seriously, Transportation Alternatives scored a giant success in 1998 when the police launched an unprecedented “Zero Tolerance” for speeding and dangerous driving campaign. In March, the mayor kicked off the campaign with great fanfare, when he identified streets as perhaps the city’s most important public space and vowed that pedestrians should be able to cross the street without fear. On this issue we couldn’t agree with the mayor more.

We congratulate the NYPD for taking on speeders and for establishing the crucial “Traffic Stat” process in which police commanders are held responsible for traffic deaths in the neighborhoods they patrol. As T.A. has been aggressively pointing out for years now, “Speed Kills.” As police speeding enforcement has vastly increased, pedestrian and cycling deaths have decreased even more. Clearly there remains much do. NYC streets remain filled with motorists who think nothing of cutting off pedestrians in crosswalks or cyclists in bike lanes. For many, cycling still remains as an activity for the bold or crazy. That said, the police crackdown on dangerous motorists is off to an excellent start and is a huge success for T.A. advocacy.