TESTIMONY: Oversight Hearing on DOT Transparency

NYC Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Hearing Testimony

Dec 4, 2023

Good afternoon, and thank you to Chair Brooks-Powers and the members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. My name is Elizabeth Adams and I am the Deputy Executive Director for Public Affairs at Transportation Alternatives. Thank you for convening this oversight hearing on DOT transparency.

Today is likely the final transportation and infrastructure hearing of 2023, and we look back on a year marked by traffic violence and stalled projects. We also want to recognize some recent tragedies from Fort Greene to Flushing to Times Square – we’ve lost so many cherished members of our community to reckless drivers in just the past few weeks. 

Streets Plan

DOT is well behind the legal requirements of the Street Plan. As DOT continues to fall short, we need to equip DOT with the tools to treat the traffic violence crisis with the urgency it deserves and to get projects in the ground so we can see real, lasting improvements with better intersections, sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian spaces, sidewalks, bus lanes, and more. When most New Yorkers bike, walk, or take transit to work, there’s no excuse for unsafe streets and intersections. 

With 2024 on the horizon, we need to focus on getting these projects in the ground, and identifying barriers and hurdles to progress and addressing them, not on legislation that will make it unnecessarily difficult to build safe streets. Now is not the time to add bureaucratic processes to slow down proven safety measures. The Council must pass the Intro 417, sponsored by Council Member Restler, that would remove unnecessary barriers to building bike lanes. This legislation would make it easier for DOT to install this critical street safety infrastructure without unnecessarily lags or delays, and we encourage every Council Member to vote yes.

DOT Transparency 

At the same time, New Yorkers deserve to know where projects are and how DOT plans to improve street safety in their neighborhoods. Without a public, frequently updated and transparent tracking system, the public is left in the dark about where many of the Streets Plan metrics stand. 

DOT should create a project dashboard similar to the one used by the Parks Department, showing the design elements and current phases of each project, public engagement opportunities, timelines, status updates, and more. 

When a City official or report makes a commitment to the public, New Yorkers deserve to see those promises met, and to understand how the City is implementing the goals it sets for itself. This includes releasing reports and datasets at regular intervals and in usable open data formats.’

Lastly, while a series of recent tragedies has brought a renewed focus on safe street design, improved intersections, expanded daylighting, and more data tracking, no one should have to die for change to happen. As we move into the new year, New Yorkers deserve a proactive, responsive, and transparent DOT that meets the urgency of the traffic violence on our streets.

Testimony: Oversight Hearing on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

New York City Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Hearing Testimony

Oversight Hearing on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

 June 23, 2023

Good afternoon, and thank you to Chair Brooks-Powers and the members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. My name is Elizabeth Adams and I am the Deputy Executive Director for Public Affairs at Transportation Alternatives. Transportation Alternatives believes that our streets belong to the people of New York City, and we work with New Yorkers in every borough to build a future that rises to the needs of our communities. Thank you for convening this oversight hearing on electric vehicle infrastructure.

New York City is at the forefront of our climate emergency, and we must do everything we can to prevent, prepare for, and mitigate the effects of a rapidly changing climate, and support a just transition. We must act with the urgency required by the climate crisis.

Our mobility goals are directly tied to a sustainable future. Transportation makes up about 28 percent of the city’s nitrogen oxide emissions, and contributes eleven percent of the City’s fine particulate matter. New York must take proactive steps to prepare for the future of sustainable mobility and support the shift away from vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Infrastructure and design serves as the foundation of successful policies, programs, and approaches, and we appreciate it being the focus of today’s hearing. 

Additionally, with congestion pricing on the horizon, the City must help New Yorkers access mobility options that will help reduce the number of personal vehicles crowding the streets and that help people get around the city with ease and safety. 

Electric vehicles are not only electric-powered cars and trucks: EVs also include buses, e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, scooters, and more, commonly known as e-micromobility, and our City must invest in supporting all modes of transportation. 

EV cars and trucks cannot be the main solution of the City’s sustainable mobility efforts. As more EVs enter the market, they are increasingly larger, heavier, and faster than their traditionally powered counterparts.  They cause increased wear and tear on streets, and may be too heavy for our current structures to handle. A report from the British Parking Association raised the alarm for the hazards of storing and parking heavy EVs in parking garages that cannot handle the additional weight of these vehicles. New York must implement measures, policies, and regulations to address the adverse impact these cars and trucks will have on our roadways, bridges, garages, and other infrastructure.

Additionally, less than half of New York City residents currently own a private car. Expanding green multimodal transportation options, investing in e-micromobility, and reducing vehicle miles traveled, will serve a greater number of New Yorkers while reducing congestion on our already crowded streets.  The City must focus on reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) in order to build a sustainable, healthy, and livable future for all New Yorkers. That means investing in public transit, improving bus and bike lanes, and making it easier for pedestrians to get around safely. As Transportation Alternatives outlined in our Spatial Equity NYC, the more NYC invests in a multimodal transportation landscape, the greater the collective benefits on mobility, sustainability, equity, and public health. 

TA calls for the City to prioritize the following in its EV infrastructure efforts:

• Improve infrastructure and street design: the City needs more space for more modes, helping more people get around. That means painted bus lanes and more busways, and wider protected bike lanes, like the one on 9th avenue.

• Safe and secure public charging for e-micromobility devices, like the deliverista hubs. TA calls for at least 25 percent of on-street public charging stations to be dedicated to e-micromobility.

• Advance low/zero emission truck loading zones, and pilot green loading zones as called for in the City’s Smart Truck Management Plan.

• Speed up the electrification of the City’s bus fleet and build more bus lanes to encourage commuters to ride.

• Support state legislation to legalize e-cargo bikes and incentivize delivery companies to switch to smaller electric delivery vehicles, freeing up space on the roads and reducing the number of large trucks driving through the City.

• Release an RFP to pilot secure on-street e-bike parking and storage.

Last month Transportation Alternatives (TA) released “Building an E-Micromobility Future,” where we outline three key approaches for how to support e-micromobility successfully in our communities.

Transportation Alternatives Submitted Comments on the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Proposed Rule on Electric Vehicle Specifications

For almost 50 years, Transportation Alternatives has been a leading organization advocating for better walking, biking, and public transportation access in New York City. Today, we urge the Taxi and Limousine Commission to reject the amendment proposal to approve electric vehicles that reach 0 - 60 mph in 4.4 seconds as a matter of public safety.

As New York faces a climate crisis, electrification offers an important option in sustainability. But we cannot allow the shift to electric vehicles to lead to an increase in traffic violence and this proposal is a critical opportunity to address a growing challenge. New electric vehicles are getting larger, heavier, and faster, impeding visibility and speeding up acceleration to dangerous speeds for road users. TLC should instead consider implementing measures that address safety and sustainability for their EV fleet through speed limiting technology, limits on vehicle size and weight, and requirements for slower acceleration speeds. 

Supercharged acceleration puts all road users at risk and must be regulated in a dense city like New York. The 0 - 60 mph metric emerged in the 20th century as a way to determine whether drivers could safely accelerate onto a highway. However, its continued use as a safety measurement today ignores the fact that most of today’s slowest cars are faster than the fastest cars of the 1960s. The competition to have the fastest 0-60 electric vehicle speed is not a fight that benefits New Yorkers or street safety, and the proposed rule would allow taxis to accelerate faster than NASCAR drivers could merely fifteen years ago – making it nearly impossible for people walking, biking, or using a wheelchair nearby to get out of the way in time.

At 0 - 60 in 4.4 seconds, a pedestrian walking down 5th Avenue would have only 2.35 seconds to avoid cars accelerating from a stop at the light across the street. That’s faster than the average 2.5 seconds it takes a driver to perceive and react to road conditions. And yet given the average Manhattan taxi cab travels under 10 mph, the potential for TLC vehicles to accelerate at such fast speeds is not useful for New York streets. Other cities have taken steps to address acceleration concerns; in London, the new electric black cab reaches 0 - 60 mph in 13 seconds, and in Paris, one taxicab company suspended usage of the Tesla Model 3s due to unsafe accelerations. We encourage the TLC to look to these other city models in considering permitted acceleration speeds for EVs.

The crisis of traffic safety in New York cannot be ignored: every year, crashes seriously injure 3,000 and kill approximately 250 people on New York City streets. Speeding is a major factor in crashes nationwide, and driving at a higher speed directly impacts the likelihood of a person being killed upon impact. We have the tools to save lives and prevent traffic deaths and we cannot go backward in using them. 

By withdrawing this current proposed rule and requiring safer vehicle acceleration standards, New York has the opportunity to support the health and wellbeing of NYC residents and be a leader in creating a positive ripple effect on reducing global traffic violence. TLC drivers deserve to navigate the streets safely, yet the proposed rule would set an unsafe acceleration speed standard and could potentially lead to a greater number of crashes. NYC cannot wait and see how many more people are killed before we regulate acceleration. We urge the TLC to withdraw this proposal.

NYC Council Hearing Testimony on Federal Funding for NYC Infrastructure

NYC Council Hearing Testimony on Federal Funding for NYC Infrastructure

Laura Shepard, Queens Organizer at Transportation Alternatives

Testimony before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts

April 19, 2022

Good afternoon, I’m Laura Shepard, Queens Organizer with Transportation Alternatives. For nearly 50 years, TA has led the movement for safe, equitable streets in New York City. 

We are at a critical juncture when it comes to how we respond to the climate crisis. The decisions we make now will determine the survival and well-being of New Yorkers for generations. 

It is critical that new federal funding is invested equitably to address long-standing infrastructure needs in underserved communities. We can reverse the effects of decades of racist environmental policies in underserved areas by focusing these federal funds on areas that face the worst flooding, slowest buses, highest asthma rates, and fewest Vision Zero investments to prevent traffic violence. 

Our public space and transit system must be a focal point in how we shift to more resilient infrastructure. Better use of streets and waterways can reduce car emissions, clean the air, and improve public health. This is why, alongside more than 200 local partners, we have advanced our NYC 25x25 vision to reclaim 25 percent of street space from cars and return it to people. Cars and trucks are responsible for 29 percent of all air pollution produced in NYC. By putting street space to better use, like building out pedestrian plazas, parklets, and busways, we can reduce these harmful carbon-emissions.

New York should be setting an example for the rest of the country, but our State has seen a significant increase in harmful transportation emissions. Buildings and on-road transportation account for 84 percent of emissions in New York City and after a series of first-in-the-nation laws in New York City, building emissions dropped over 25 percent, yet on-road transportation emissions actually increased in the 4 years leading up to COVID. Research shows that to achieve the city’s necessary climate goals, over 80 percent of all trips must be made by sustainable modes. 

The New York Climate Action Council Draft Scoping Plan released earlier this year found that, “New York will need to substantially reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) while increasing access to public transportation.” The Council’s report estimates that the cost of inaction in addressing our transportation needs exceeds the cost of action by $90-$120 billion: 

• $40 billion associated with the health benefits of increased active transportation (e.g., walking, cycling)

• $50 - $120 billion from 2020-2050 of health benefits from increased air quality

Simply put, to meet our climate goals, we have to immediately transition from car-centric infrastructure to more sustainable methods of transportation. And it starts with investing in communities that have borne the brunt of environmental racism and been denied access to public transportation and healthy environments. 

More space for people to bike, walk, and ride transit will induce those modes, reduce air pollution, result in a smaller carbon footprint, and more space for alternatives that are better for the environment. Public transit consumes half the energy of private transportation and emits only five percent of the carbon dioxide per passenger-mile. converting car driving and storage lanes to bicycle lanes can reduce transportation-related carbon emissions by 11 percent. Converting just one major street from car use into space for biking and walking caused nearby ultrafine particulate matter rates to fall 58 percent when New York City closed Park Avenue to car traffic for Summer Streets, and less space for cars also reduces the heat island effect and particulate matter in the air, which contributes to hospitalizations for problems like asthma. 

One tree can remove the equivalent of 11,000 miles of car emissions from the atmosphere every year, and on-street rain gardens clean the air, cool the temperature, and keep stormwater runoff and street pollution out of our waterways. 

Transportation Alternatives proposes the following recommendations to address New York City’s sustainable infrastructure needs:

• Invest in ‘sponge city infrastructure’ of permeable pavements, stormwater curb extensions, and bioswales in flood-prone areas. Bioswales are cost-effective measures to absorb stormwater runoff and mitigate flooding of our city’s subway stations and busways, which disproportionately harms underserved communities. 

• Instruct the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Transportation, and the Parks Department to designate “Tree Cover Priority Districts” where asthma rates, air pollution, and summer surface-level temperatures are highest, and fund a tree planting campaign that fills all remaining tree pits and replaces 10 percent of all parking spots with trees in these areas.

• Expand bus lanes and busways in areas of the city least served by subways to enable more residents to choose public transit over car use in underserved areas. The median income of bus riders is substantially lower than those of subway riders or New Yorkers overall, and they are more likely to be foreign-born or have a child at home, yet face unequal access to public transit options. 

• Preserve and restore natural wetlands, and daylight waterways acknowledging the ecological services and sensitivities of these habitats.

• Prioritize water-dependent land uses adjacent to our waterfronts and wetlands. We must reclaim the space allocated to vehicle infrastructure on this ecologically, economically, and culturally valuable land and going forward, we must abolish parking minimums for new development immediately. We cannot improve our resiliency, while exacerbating the existing harms caused by vehicular emissions and impermeable surfaces. 

• Invest in the working waterfront and expand capacity for maritime freight to reduce dependence on trucking and truck miles traveled. This will make our streets safer, reduce congestion, improve our air quality and reduce emissions.

• Reduce dependence on short-haul air travel by investing in high speed rail. 

• Improve substandard bike and pedestrian access to bridges across New York City, including the Queensboro and RFK bridges in Queens, and fully realize Bridges for People with protected bike lanes on the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges in Brooklyn, and the Washington Bridge in the Bronx. 

• Build a public waterfront greenway network that connects  all five boroughs to increase public access to our waterfront and connect communities throughout the city by building out fully protected bike path infrastructure that is safe and accessible to people of all ages and abilities. We support the NYC Department of Transportation’s Greenways: Filling the Gaps Planning Grant Proposal for the USDOT RAISE Program to develop a comprehensive plan and equitably develop and implement a pipeline of shovel-ready projects. We are also calling for clear standards for path widths, materials, signage, and maintenance for all future greenway development because the current piecemeal approach is slow, inequitable, and results in substandard sections where greenways cross agency jurisdictions or private developers are given wide latitude or public-private partnerships are in effect. 

• Implement #Citibike4All with public funding to make it available for the first time for many low-income communities and communities of color that currently live in transit deserts. We are also calling for robust, secure, covered bike parking for the personal bikes, including e-bikes, cargo bikes, and adaptive cycles. 

• Complete the Grand Concourse, installing life-saving improvements to the entire Concourse with traffic calming measures, protected bike lanes, curb extensions, and dedicated bus lanes. 

• Cap the Cross Bronx Expressway, which will dramatically reduce vehicle pollution causing some of the highest asthma rates in the United States. 

• Significantly increase investment in park space and work with city agencies to expand public access to pedestrian plazas as required under the NYC Streets Plan, and city waterfronts where parks are not available.

Testimony From Families for Safe Streets Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the City Budget

New York City Council Hearing Testimony on the FY23 Preliminary Budget

Debbie Marks Kahn, Founding Member of Families for Safe Streets

Testimony before the Committee on Finance and Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

March 16, 2022

Good morning. My name is Debbie Marks Kahn. I am a Founding Member of Families for Safe Streets. Our group is made up of New Yorkers who have lost loved ones or who have been critically injured in traffic crashes. We are a club that nobody should ever have to join.

I am only here still because of sheer will. Every minute of every single day is excruciating living without my only child Seth Kahn who was the joy of my life —  pure light and love and fun. He was smart, charming, creative, and talented.  When he called me at night to say he loved me and we'd speak again tomorrow, I could have never imagined that would be the last time I'd hear his voice.  On November 4, 2009, Seth walked out of the subway, picked up a cup of coffee, waited for the light to change, walked across the street in the crosswalk and was killed by a speeding bus driver who made a left turn right into him. After being knocked down, he yelled for the bus to stop but it kept coming. Our city robbed us of our child. A multi-ton bus on our dangerously designed streets squashed my 22-year-old son’s life. I became a founding member of Families for Safe Streets and currently sit on the Steering Committee. We work with leaders like you to ensure no other families have to experience the anguish we have experienced.  

In recent years, the New York City Council has been a leader in the mission to achieve Vision Zero. Advocacy by members of this body have helped make city streets more equitable, accessible, and safe. Council Members have also stood by our members at vigils and memorials during some of the darkest days of their lives.

This year, FSS is respectfully making four requests in the upcoming budget: 1) Funding for the NYC Streets Plan; 2) Funding for Vision Zero; 3) Funding for FSS Support Services; and 4) Funding for the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program. 

Right now, New York City faces a horrific traffic violence crisis. 2021 was the deadliest year on our streets since 2013. The numbers show no signs of slowing down in 2022. Already this year, crashes have killed 56 people – including 27 pedestrians, like my son Seth. With these numbers, we are very likely to exceed last year’s horrific records.

But with specific investments in next year’s budget, the City Council can be a leader on Vision Zero and to help save lives on our streets. 

First, we urge the Council to fully fund the NYC Streets Plan, with $170 million in funding for its first year. This forward-thinking approach to street design was approved by overwhelming support by the previous Council, and we urge you to equip DOT with the resources needed to achieve the plan’s annual benchmarks. The plan’s benefits must be equitably distributed to residents in every corner of the five boroughs to make streets safe. 

Second, we urge the Council to bolster funding for DOT’s Vision Zero work. This funding should be dedicated to projects that redesign streets for safety, and will help the Adams administration reach their previously-announced commitment to strengthen 50 percent of bike lanes with concrete protection and raise 100 crosswalks across the city.

Third, we respectfully request your attention to the Families for Safe Streets application for $100,000 in Council funding for our critical support services, including multilingual direct services, vigils and peer mentoring.  No one should have to go through this nightmare alone, and FSS provides diverse programming and support to help families and survivors through their most painful days after crashes and for years down the line.

Beyond funding critical lifesaving Vision Zero redesign work, we implore the Council to fund additional programs to get reckless drivers off the road, most crucially, the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program (DVAP). We also believe this legislation should be strengthened.

As members of Families for Safe Streets, we are tormented witnessing the devastating consequences of serial reckless drivers on our New York City streets. In September, three-month-old Apolline Mong-Guillemin was killed by a driver who had racked up 91 camera-issued violations since 2017. Just this month, a driver with 120 violations crashed into and destroyed a war memorial in Park Slope. This car had significantly more speed safety camera violations than needed to trigger a mandatory safety class under the DVAP. In fact, it had some of the highest number of violations out of any car in New York City. But this driver was not notified until three months after NYC DOT began sending out DVAP notices. This delay is unconscionable, especially when we know it could make the difference between life and death. More funding must be allocated for DVAP to avoid any delay in notifying reckless drivers and getting them into NYC DOT’s critical safety courses. 

To make matters worse, this car had been cited for multiple parking violations after failing to pay hundreds of dollars in earlier fines. But traffic agents just continued to write tickets, instead of using their authority to get this car off our streets. We need to ensure agencies work together and have the funding to more quickly get reckless drivers off the road. And with 40 percent of speed camera violators having cars registered out of state, authorities must also address illegal registration, too.

The Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program must also be strengthened legislatively. The Council should lower the threshold at which drivers are required to take a safety course or face impoundment. Last month, 99-year-old Holocaust survivor Jack Mikulincer was killed by a driver of a car that had amassed ten school-zone speeding tickets and four red-light tickets since 2016. However, this driver faced zero consequences before killing Mikulciner because the previous administration watered down former Council Member Brad Lander’s original legislative language of the bill. Initially, after five camera-issued speed safety zone violations in a year, drivers would have been required to take a safety course. The finalized legislative language raised this to fifteen camera-issued speed safety zone violations. We should be making it easier, not harder, to identify and correct the behavior of reckless drivers, especially as traffic violence spikes. And, in the case of the driver who killed baby Apolline in September, if behavior does not change after completion of the remedial class, the legislation needs teeth for additional action to prevent reckless driving.  If needed, we would encourage the Council to work with state legislators in Albany to ensure the City of New York has all the tools necessary to get reckless drivers off the road as effectively and efficiently as possible. 

We thank you for your commitment to safe streets throughout the five boroughs. With necessary funding to key programs and a renewed focus to getting reckless drivers off the road, we know we can save lives and reach Vision Zero. No more families should go through the nightmare we at Families for Safe Streets know too well.

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Testimony from Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing on Transportation Equity

New York City Council Hearing Testimony on Transportation Equity

Testimony before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives

Good afternoon Chair Brooks-Powers and members of the Committee. Congratulations on your first hearing of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. We look forward to partnering together in the coming years.

I am Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. For nearly 50 years, TA has led a grassroots movement for more equitable, accessible, and safe ways to get around our city.

At present, New York City’s streets are failing us all. Buses are stuck in traffic. Children breathe polluted air. Seniors are struck and killed while crossing the street. And when our streets fail, the harm is not equally distributed. In this city, if you are Black or brown, a child, from an immigrant or low-income community, disabled, elderly, or any combination of the above, you bear the brunt of this harm. 

Transportation Alternatives believes that there are two key ways that the City Council can help correct these historic inequities. One: Fully fund the New York City Streets Plan, passed by the previous City Council, to ensure that all neighborhoods receive significant investments in safer, healthier, and more accessible streets. And two: Support the NYC 25x25 vision, endorsed by over 200 local organizations, to put people first on our streets by repurposing 25 percent of the space currently devoted to private vehicles and putting it to better, fairer use. 

We need change: right now, our congestion is the worst in the nation. Emergency responders and people who need to commute by bus or car are all stuck in gridlock. Summer sun bakes asphalt and creates urban heat islands. Seasonal storms flood basement apartments. Hundreds of New Yorkers are killed each year on our streets, horrible and intangible losses which ripple throughout families and communities forever.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

NYC 25x25 envisions a more equitable city, using just a fraction of our streets. Opening the street in front of every public school would give our kids safer trips to school, more space to play, and cleaner air to breathe. Daylighting every intersection by removing one parking spot closest to each corner would make it much safer to cross the street. On existing road space, we can build 1,000 lane miles of protected bus lanes, providing faster commutes to every neighborhood. With more efficient and reliable transportation options, New Yorkers would shift away from needing to make so many trips by car. 

This shift isn’t just good for bus riders. For workers who do need to drive, traffic — and all of the costs and stress it brings — would recede. 

To build fairer streets and a fairer transportation system in New York City, we don’t have to look far. Many of these solutions are already here. 

On Manhattan’s 14th Street, adding a busway has reduced bus travel times by 47 percent, an invaluable gain for bus riders who are disproportionately low-income, single parents, women, foreign-born, and disabled.  And with more bus commuters working in healthcare than any other industry, improving bus speeds is an integral way to support New York City’s invaluable healthcare workforce. 

On Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue, adding a protected bike lane reduced injury-risk to people on bicycles by 65 percent. Even though three-quarters of the city’s cyclists live outside of Manhattan, these four boroughs have less than half of the city’s protected bike lanes. The consequences of our inequitable bike infrastructure are deadly: 92 percent of people killed while riding bicycles died on streets where the median income is below the city average. To maintain and grow New York City’s ridership, we must create a network of protected bike lanes that connect every neighborhood, and provide public funding to Citi Bike so it can expand more quickly into transit-starved neighborhoods that still do not have bike share. 

It’s time to ensure that opportunity and investment are extended to all corners of our city. We look forward to working with Chair Brooks-Powers, Speaker Adams, and the new City Council to ensure that the NYC Streets Plan is funded and that concrete steps are taken to bring the benefits of NYC 25x25 to all.

No New Yorker should fear death or injury on our streets. No New Yorker should be left behind by our inequitable transportation system. No child should struggle to breathe because endless roads and highways wind through our neighborhoods.  With your leadership, an equitable city is possible. 

Thank you.

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Wendy Feliciano, Families for Safe Streets member

My name is Wendy Feliciano and I recently became a member of Families for Safe Streets. March 4th marked the one month anniversary of my baby sister's sudden and gruesome passing after being hit by a school bus driver while she was riding her e-bike in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Her name is April Damani Reign, and she was 2 months and 12 days shy of her 33rd birthday.

April’s daughter had just celebrated her 16th birthday one week before the crash. She had 2 nephews and a niece (my children) that she helped to raise like they were her own. She has an ailing mother for whom April is the 2nd child gone too soon. She had more friends than I can count and was loved by them all.

My sister was young, but she had what we call an old soul. She wanted to change the world. She wanted to leave as small a footprint on this Earth as possible; that's just one reason why she bought her ebike. She felt more people should ride bikes to avoid hurting the environment. She also rode to save money and stay safe from Covid. She wanted to buy a farm and to build a community around it. She thought she could teach people a better, happier way to live. She wanted this for the world, not just her family. She was also an organ donor and when she passed anything that could save or change a life was given, including her eyes. Even in death, she wanted to help others. She also rode to save money and stay safe from Covid. Her goal was to have another part time job doing deliveries and make enough money to get us out of here.

There is no way to look at this and find the silver lining. My sister died face down in the gutter on a cold, rainy day in Brownsville, Brooklyn. She deserved better. Brownsville deserves better. Every neighborhood in our city deserves better.

That's why I'm here today. If I can help to get safe street infrastructure, including protected bike lanes, in our poorer neighborhoods, where people are less likely to be able to own a car and it can save a life, then it can bring meaning to her tragic death and take her one step closer in her dream to help people.

My sister was love and light. She loved life and had big plans that we’ll never see realized. She was the morning person in our house that would give us the pep to get up and go. The mornings are bleak and quiet now. Her room sits empty, her daughter has chosen to live with her grandmother because our walls shout my sister’s absence. The rooms echo the silence. We've lost 2 people in a way, and the ache is too much for words.

We were not ready; we were not prepared. This was never in the game plan. My sister was supposed to bury me.

Don't let her death be nothing but a number. Don’t let any other family know our pain. Please, I know we have the solutions to prevent deaths like my sisters. We need these solutions without delay – and we need them in all of our neighborhoods.

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Elke Weiss, Families for Safe Streets member

My name is Elke Weiss, and I am a member of Families for Safe Streets. My grandfather, Jack Miklincer, was killed last month by the driver of an SUV, in a known dangerous intersection close to his home in South Brooklyn.

I’m still coming to grips that my grandfather will never see me married. He will never again celebrate his favorite holidays. And he will never listen to me and make me feel heard the way no one else could, to love me unconditionally. I miss his voice. I miss his advice.

That dreadful Saturday, my grandfather was using his wheelchair and was on his way to synagogue to lead prayers. He was a devoted servant of his community and the next day, he was excited to celebrate his great-granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah.

My grandfather loved to travel. He loved his wheelchair. He loved to stroll around the neighborhood with his friends. The neighborhood is full of seniors like my Dad. They walk to enjoy the sea and the boulevards and each other.

To think that my grandfather could survive the terrors of the Holocaust and not be able to safely cross his New York City street is something we will never forget. It terrifies me to think that's what killed him. He was even wearing a reflective vest. While losing him was traumatic, it’s the terrible, preventable manner of his death that has us reeling. I think about Yehuda Lindenblatt, my grandfather’s dearest friend, a fellow Holocaust Survivor who experienced the unthinkable,, who had to watch his best friend die in front of him on a dangerous NYC street at the hands of an SUV driver.

My grandfather was loved and he loved so many. Despite being 99, he was independent and happy and enjoying every day. He could have lived many more years. One more day would have been precious.

If only he could get himself safely across Oriental Boulevard, The closest intersection that felt safer would have meant going six blocks further, which just shouldn’t be necessary for seniors like my grandfather. How can we not have a city that is safe for them? That is safe for everyone?

I ask you to remember my niece, whose Bat Mitzvah will always be tied to the death of her beloved grandfather. Remember my mother, who had to endure getting a phone call no one should receive. Remember his friends and neighbors. Remember every event he will miss. And remember how much we all miss him.

Most importantly, remember the power is in your hands. We aren't asking for you to split
the sea but to think of the seniors, of the children, of all the families, in every neighborhood – to take action to make our streets safe for everyone.

We know it doesn’t have to be this way. I beg of you to think of my grandfather and of your own grandfather. And do everything in your power to get Vision Zero back on track and without delay. We can not lose one more.