Good afternoon. My name is Paul Harrison. I represent Transportation Alternatives, New York's 3,300 member citizens group working for a more pedestrian-friendly New York, better conditions for cycling and improved mass transit.

Transportation Alternatives applauds the Council for taking up the issue of pedestrian safety. Despite the fact that almost all New Yorkers walk a significant distance every day, New York's streets are not a welcoming place for pedestrians, especially for children and senior citizens. Almost every day someone is run down and killed walking or cycling on the streets on New York. Each year over 14,000 New Yorkers are put into the hospital after being hit by a moving vehicle. It is particularly sad because children and senior citizens are most often the victims.

Councilman Fusco's bill is a wonderful step in the right direction. Providing a safety zone around school can only make it easier for the children of your districts to go to school, to learn and to play. Children used to be able to play stickball on New York's streets-not anymore. It is right and good for the city council to aim to make the streets safe for children once again.

We expect the Department of Transportation and the Police to have concerns about this bill. Many schools front arterial streets, and they may have a problem with reducing speeds to 15 mph on those streets on a 24 hour basis. If such a speed limit is imposed, and then not strictly enforced, drivers will ignore it. The council should avoid legislating rules that will have an effect opposite that intended-suggesting to drivers that it's okay to ignore the speed limit will only make things worse.

We suggest the following modifications:

First, the council should add language to direct the Department of Transportation to study and implement traffic calming devices on streets surrounding schools. Devices like neck downs, where the sidewalk at the intersection is extended out into the parking lane, or raised crosswalks, have worked wonders in cities across Western Europe, Scandinavia and Canada. DOT engineers are increasingly familiar with traffic calming techniques-school zones are ideal places to use them.

Second, the council should direct the DOT to work with the Board of Ed to determine which streets children use and then to do what can be done to make those routes safer. For example. in Toronto the City Council directed the DOT and the Board of Education to work together to establish "Safe routes to school," Once these routes were determined, traffic calming devices were installed to make it safer for children to walk to and from school.

For the council to take on pedestrian safety is a big step towards making New York City a place where families will want to live. Transportation Alternatives thanks the Council, Councilman Fusco and all the other sponsors for tackling an issue that is of vital importance to all New Yorkers.