An outline for safety: Activist group raising pedestrian concerns
The New York Daily News
By Joyce Shelby

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On the sidewalk at the corner of Atlantic Ave. and Bond St. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, an orange stencil outline of a fallen pedestrian stretches out in a memorial to a 49-year-old man named Juan Delacruz.

Yellow letters alongside the macabre outline give his name and the date he was struck down by a taxi in May 1995.

A block away, at Hoyt St. and Atlantic Ave., is another orange stencil, this one a memorial to Antonia Monge, 88, who was killed by a car in November 1995.

The body outlines are among about 100 that have mysteriously appeared on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan in recent months, silently calling attention to pedestrian fatalities.

A small group of community activists is responsible. Periodically and quietly, they have traveled to different neighborhoods and put down the stencils.

Most recently, they were in Borough Park, the home territory of City Councilman Noach Dear, chairman of the Council's Transportation Committee.

The stealthy stencilers were concerned that Dear had recently opposed plans for a bike lane though his district. More people are killed by cars than bikes, they said.

Charles Komanoff, an economist who is one of the stencilers, said: "We are a group of concerned New Yorkers who began gathering about a year ago to see what they could do about motor vehicle endangerment."

The group is not formally organized. "We've gone into different neighborhoods in the city and stenciled on the pavement and sidewalks," he said. "It's one standard image cut in the shape of a human body struck down and killed. Below it is the name of the person who was killed and the date when they were struck down and the words 'Killed by an automobile.' We've gone out about a dozen times for about 100 victims or sites."

Transportation Alternatives, a not-for-profit group, estimates that 250 pedestrians are killed each year in New York City by motor vehicles alone.

In addition, 12,737 pedestrians were injured in 1995, according to the transportation group, and 226 drivers, passengers and motorcyclysts were killed.

Elizabeth Ernish of Transportation Alternatives stressed that the group was not responsible for the stencils but applauded the effort to highlight the problem: "We're glad that somebody's doing something to bring attention to pedestrian fatalities. Our elected officials and the Department of Transportation pay very little attention to them."

Ernish said Transportation Alternatives is in favor of traffic-calming devices such as speed bumps, curb extensions and small traffic circles within intersections.

The group also is trying to get state legislation to let New York City lower the speed limit to 15 mph in residential areas and school zones, Ernish said.

Alan Mukamal, a computer programer who lives in Ditmas Park, estimated that 20 people are involved with the stenciling. They met mainly through the Internet.

Komanoff said: "All of us who are doing this are people who have put in time trying to engage the civic process to make the streets safer for walking and bike riding."

The City Department of Transportation did not return calls for comment on the street stencils.

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