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Winter 2005, p.14 Reclaiming the Streets
Expanding car-free hours in Central Park to include after school hours would a safe place for neighborhood kids to play. Though pedestrian deaths in New York City remain near an historic low, our streets are far from healthy. Seniors living in East Harlem have stopped going to their daily exercise class for fear of crossing First Avenue, and kids are spending more time indoors watching TV in part because their streets are too dangerous for playing and their parks are surrounded by speeding drivers. While not as shocking as the tragedy of those struck by cars and trucks, the chronic plight of speed-trapped kids and seniors is more widespread, affecting millions of New Yorkers. But change is afoot. In 2004, political leaders and health and transportation professionals publicly acknowledged that walking, bicycling- and playing-friendly streets and parks can prevent death, injury and the growing epidemic of inactivity-related illnesses including obesity, heart disease, depression, high blood pressure, and diabetes. From the American Lung Association of NYC’s crucial endorsement of a car-free Central Park, to the City Department of Transportation’s unveiling of a citywide Safe Routes to School program, to Mayor Bloom-berg’s strong endorsement of new safety priorities on Queens Boulevard, to City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden’s call to action in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health for “modifications of the physical environment to promote physical activity,” 2004 was a landmark year. Below are eight advances in healthy transportation made in 2004 and the critical next steps for NYC to take in 2005. 1. Fixing Deadly Streets 2004 Advances To the City’s credit, NYC streets did get safer in 2004, but not for pedestrians. While the number of total traffic fatalities declined dramatically this year from 343 to about 286, pedestrian fatalities actually held steady (178 in 2003 and 179 in 2004). For people who cross Queens Boulevard, however, 2004 was a relatively good year. In 2003, five pedestrians were killed trying to cross Queens Boulevard, whereas in 2004, one pedestrian, 81 year-old Margarite Braun, was killed on the so-called Boulevard of Death. The Boulevard of Death became much less deadly—though it still has a long way to go—because in early 2004 the DOT finally made some serious safety improvements, including narrowing and eliminating some driving lanes to slow drivers and protect pedestrians. 2005 Priorities The DOT should learn from this important lesson on Queens Boulevard that strong pedestrian safety measures will not result in gridlock and similarly apply strong safety measures to all of NYC’s big, scary streets and intersections. The agency could start by giving pedestrians more time and space where the political trade-off between pedestrian safety and driver convenience is already tipped well in favor of pedestrians, including Times Square and Upper Broadway in Manhattan and Grand Army Plaza and Downtown Brooklyn in Brooklyn. 2. More Time for Pedestrians 2004 Advances In October 2004, the DOT announced that it is making the Midtown Thru Streets pro-gram permanent. The program, which began in the fall of 2002 and eliminates turns for drivers on certain cross town streets in Mid-town Manhattan, includes 49 “split phase” signal locations. Split phase signals allow pedestrians to cross undisturbed while drivers in both directions are held at a red light. Kudos to the DOT and Mayor Bloomberg for standing up for Midtown Manhattan’s much-beleaguered walking masses. 2005 Priorities The DOT should expand on its successful efforts and provide pedestrians with more time and more exclusive crossing time throughout the city. More crossing time can mean the difference between life and death, particularly for the city’s growing senior population. “Not enough crossing time” is the number one complaint that T.A. hears from seniors throughout the city. Seniors walk at an average pace of three feet per second or slower; the DOT times the city’s traffic signal walk phases for a four feet per second pace.
3. Safe Streets for Kids and Seniors 2004 Advances Being struck by a driver is the leading cause of preventable injury and death for children 5 to 14 in NYC, and 43% of New York City kids are overweight or obese. In February 2004, the DOT launched its own Safe Routes to School program, the citywide successor to T.A.’s pioneering Bronx Safe Routes to School program, which in 1997 introduced school-based traffic calming and street safety changes to NYC and the nation. 2005 Priorities The City is already spending hundreds of millions on new gyms to get kids more active. Why not invest tens of millions in making walking and bicycling a part of everyday life for the city’s two million children? Investing in play-friendly streets would increase physical activity and save kids from being killed and injured by drivers. The DOT should pursue $3-5 million a year for the next 20 years for capital expenditures to expand the program to all schools in the city. The DOT should not be shy about engaging elected officials eager to find more money for the program. Senior citizens citywide account for 40% of pedestrian fatalities, though they are only 14% of the total population. The DOT should implement the recommendations that T.A. has developed with senior centers in Northern Manhattan as part of our New York State Department of Health funded Safe Routes for Seniors program to provide seniors with the safe streets they need to stay active and healthy. 4. Neighborhood and Landmark Traffic Calming 2004 Advances The DOT regularly gets complaints from communities throughout the city about too much traffic and dangerous drivers. And sometimes the DOT responds, including at Fulton Street in Brooklyn, Stadium Avenue in the Bronx and Kissena Boulevard in Queens. Congratulations to the DOT for improving walking and living conditions at these locations.
The DOT has also made some movements toward pedestrian improvements at Times Square and Astor Place in Manhattan. At these and other increasingly popular destinations, such as Corona Plaza in Queens, many agree that widening sidewalks and limiting driving space is a long overdue correction to the sidewalk narrowings and roadway widenings that the City made to accommodate drivers in the mid 1900s. 2005 Priorities In the past, the DOT has botched experiments with raised intersections and raised crosswalks by not building them to specification, and has been shy to experiment with trial street closures, much less make permanent changes. In 2005, the DOT should re-pilot strong traffic calming measures in Downtown Brooklyn, and use barricades and other temporary measures to test increasing pedestrian space at popular destinations, starting with Times Square. 5. Car-Free Parks 2004 Advances At 7 pm on January 3rd, 2005, T.A. and Councilmember Gale Brewer joined the Parks and Police Departments to close Central Park’s Loop Drive to overnight driving for the first time in perhaps a century, making Central Park safer and more attractive to millions of New Yorkers. The agencies have also permanently closed five entrances and exits to drivers, reduced the speed limit to 25 mph and instituted an HOV policy on the park’s West Drive from 7-10 am. Congratulations to the DOT for taking a long-awaited step forward to make New York’s most popular playground even more inviting. The broad coalition that intensified the call for a car-free park in 2004 was strengthened by the support of the American Lung Association and leading NYC health advocates like Dr. Barbara Barlow of Harlem Hospital. 2005 Priorities The City should immediately eliminate the southeast corner cut-through in Central Park. The road is little-used by drivers and dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians and means that the park is not truly car-free from 10 am to 3 pm. The city survived without the cut-through before it was instituted in the early ‘80s, and it will survive without it again. The DOT should heed the call of Brooklyn councilmembers whose districts surround Prospect Park and completely eliminate holiday car hours in the park. In addition, the City should improve access to Prospect Park by closing the 3rd Street entrance to drivers and fixing the deadly intersections near the Grand Army Plaza and Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrances. 6. Crash Mapping 2004 Advances A July Baruch College survey found “dangerous intersections” to be the number one concern of neighborhood leaders through-out the five boroughs. In October, T.A. provided all New Yorkers with a powerful tool to act upon their concerns when we unveiled CrashStat.org, NYC’s first publicly accessible pedestrian death and injury map. With a few simple clicks, residents can now see the number of historical injuries and deaths at each intersection in their neighborhood, and the crash frequency trend at particular locations. A valuable public health tool, crash mapping has made it much easier to identify patterns and causes in what used to be reams of seemingly unrelated crash data. 2005 Priorities In 2005, the City DOT should develop its own crash mapping system and make it publicly available. The agency should use crash maps to evaluate where, why and how drivers are killing and injuring pedestrians and bicyclists, and what safety measures are most effective at reducing the carnage. 7. Bus Rapid Transit 2004 Advances Environmental Defense’s “Dangerous Days of Summer” study linking vehicular traffic to NYC’s 190,000 juvenile asthma suffers was one of the many 2004 studies that linked driving to a host of illnesses.
Given the MTA funding crunch, improving New York City’s dismally slow buses, which are the slowest in the nation, is a cost-effective option for making public transportation an attractive alternative for cur-rent car commuters. In 2004, the MTA and the DOT began work on a $3 million study of Bus Rapid Transit (think sub-ways on the surface) options for some of New York City’s slowest bus routes and earmarked $22 million in its 2005-2009 capital plan to build the improved bus stations, bus lanes and signal timing solutions that will likely be recommended by the study. 2005 Priorities In the next two years, the MTA needs to earmark more money for Bus Rapid Transit using an amendment to the capital program. Twenty-two million dollars will only bring Bus Rapid Transit to one or two bus routes, and several routes are in dire need of improvement, as identified in the 2004 Pokey Awards. Meanwhile, the DOT should install more bus bulbs, creating more exclusive space for buses dropping off and picking up passengers, and reducing congestion through discouraging driving. The NYPD should continue to step up bus lane enforcement. 8. Zero Tolerance for Dangerous and Killer Drivers 2004 Advances New York long ago acknowledged that maintaining an actuality as well as feeling of safety is crucial to retaining residents, business and tourism. Similarly, cracking down on killer and reckless drivers is crucial to making people feel safe walking on the street, and thereby encouraging them to walk more. In 2004, the State Legislature finally approved A.11663/S.7599, the extension of NYC’s successful red light enforcement camera program. The bill, which had been held hostage in the State Assembly, will extend the program for five years and bodes well for the future passage of additional enforcement cameras. 2005 Priorities As we went to press, Governor Pataki and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, were still negotiating on passing legislation that would make it easier to prosecute killer drivers. The Governor and Speaker Silver should quickly pass the pack-age of laws that the Governor proposed in 2003. New York State law currently makes it extremely difficult to prosecute killer drivers, which creates a feeling of disrespect on our streets. One of the most prevalent dangers on NYC streets is speeding. Though NYC is a fast paced town, drivers regularly use that as an excuse to use streets as NASCAR tracks. Their anti-social driving is responsible for scores of deaths and thousands of injuries each year, increased noise and an altogether hostile feeling on the street. The State Legislature should support a speed enforcement camera program for NYC. The current form of the bill, S.00674, which was introduced by State Senator Stavisky (D-Flushing and Northeastern Queens) and referred to the State Senate Transportation Committee in January, would allow NYC to operate a three year speed enforcement camera program. |
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