Good afternoon. My name is Paul Harrison, and I represent Transportation Alternatives, New York City's 3,500 member citizens group working for better walking, cycling and mass transit. I am here today to ask for three things:
1. Enforcement of existing traffic laws;
2. A Resolution calling for 15 mph neighborhood streets, and;
3. A resolution supporting community requests for traffic calming.

New York is America's Walking City, yet last year, 249 pedestrians were killed, and 35 a day were sent to the hospital after getting hit by motor vehicles. A pedestrian in New York City is twice as likely to get hit crossing with the walk signal than against it. New York's pedestrians are dying at a rate much higher than that of other similar world class cities like London and Tokyo because NYC streets are designed to move motor vehicle traffic, not pedestrian traffic. Traffic signals are timed for motor traffic, not walkers and police enforcement is minimal and motorists don't yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. This must stop.

We urge the council to endorse the use of Traffic Calming, a form of traffic engineering that would make our dangerous intersections much safer to cross and relieve our neighborhoods from the effect of too much speeding and through traffic. The number one cause of death and injury for New York City children ages 5-14 is getting hit by a car.

Transportation Alternatives strongly supports strict enforcement of traffic laws. We've spoken to the council before on this topic, especially on the subjects of dangerous cabbies and scofflaw drivers. Although traffic enforcement is vital, but the police can not be everywhere at once. That's why we challenge this committee and the Council to learn about traffic calming and to promote it. This summer a new coalition of community groups and block associations was formed, called the Neighborhood Streets Network. It has four city-wide policy goals:
* First, to create a 15 mph residential street speed limit;
* Second, to create support for use of traffic calming, including from you;
* Third, to develop Safe Routes to School programs in each borough, and;
* Fourth, to adjust spending by the State and City DOTs so that traffic safety spending more accurately reflects the risk New Yorkers face.

I've brought with me today a draft resolution that would request that the DOT use traffic calming with community participation and bill language that would set NYC's residential side street speed limit at 15 mph. It's crazy that the speed limit on Manhattan's First Avenue is the same as on quiet, residential streets around the city.

Cities known for their quality of life, like Seattle, Portland and Boulder use and promote traffic calming. New York City is falling behind and we need to catch up.
DOT has been asked by at least two Community Boards in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn to create a 15 mph zone. A resolution from this council supporting the creation of such zones would be a big boost to communities all over the city beset by speeding and heavy traffic.

These resolutions tie in well to the Council's interest in reigning in the anarchy on our streets. Transportation Alternatives strongly supports today's Resolution 332 as a first step and looks forward to providing whatever assistance we can to the council in its efforts to stop dangerous driving. But, the neglected aspect of traffic safety is roadway design. The council, and chairman Dear, have expressed interest in signal timing. Even if we re-time lights, our dangerous intersections will remain dangerous. The physical design of an intersection has a much stronger impact.

Take the example of 59th and 7th, where two women died under wheels of a laundry truck earlier this summer. The intersection would be safer if redesigned using engineering methods like sidewalk extensions. If sidewalk extensions had been in place, which extend the sidewalk into the parking lane at the crosswalk, these women would have had 18 to 20 fewer feet to cross and the truck driver would have had to make a sharper, slower turn. It's likely that these two women would have been with us today.

NYC is lagging far behind in protecting its pedestrians and neighborhoods from motor vehicles. America's Walking City is a place where neighborhood quality of life is very important. 56% of us don't own cars and even those that do are dependent on walking and transit. To not have traffic calming here is unacceptable--communities want it, the council should hold a hearing on it and pass a resolution asking the DOT to use traffic calming when communities ask for it.