Iris Weinshall Via Messenger
Commissioner, NYC DOT
40 Worth Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10007

Dear Commissioner Weinshall:

I know you are as shocked and saddened as I am by yesterday's slaughter of the two young mothers and their babies on Atlantic Avenue. As you know, these young people were run down as they waited on a low median strip. No one could have stopped the heroin-addled motorist from careening down the street at 60mph - but if that median strip had bollards or a concrete wall installed on it at the nearby intersection, the young women and their babies would have been unharmed.

On Queens Boulevard you showed that you will act decisively to save pedestrians lives. Transportation Alternatives urges you to move with the same forcefulness to make the median strips and pedestrian waiting areas on major New York City streets, including Atlantic Avenue, safe for pedestrians.

To this end, Transportation Alternatives urges you to take three actions:

1. Protect pedestrians waiting on existing medians on major streets by installing inexpensive, heavy duty, protective bollards, concrete walls, planters or any other effective, quick and inexpensive car-stopping devices.
2. Enlarge pedestrian waiting areas or "refuges" at intersections to a minimum of six feet as recommended by the Federal American with Disabilities Commission.
3. Make sure that the medians on busy streets have planters or high curbs to stop motorists from mounting the curb and driving along the median. Good examples of this are Route 9A / West Side Highway, Park Avenue and Broadway Mall in Manhattan and Kings Highway near Avenue. P in Brooklyn.

Protect vulnerable pedestrian refuge medians with bollards and walls
Very few pedestrian medians in NYC, including those on Atlantic Avenue, are protected by bollards or walls. Thus, there is nothing to stop vehicles which swerve, or are deflected onto the median from killing or maiming pedestrians waiting there. Based on State DMV crash data, Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) estimate that 250 NYC pedestrians are struck and seriously injured by motor vehicles while standing on medians.

If heavy duty bollards or a concrete wall had been installed on the median at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Milford Street, the speeding vehicle driven by John Zapulla would have been stopped in its tracks. A heavy duty bollard costs $2,500 installed. It takes three bollards to protect the median on each side of an intersection, for a total of six bollards per intersection at a cost of $15,000. Protecting all of the pedestrian intersection refuges on a one mile stretch of Atlantic Avenue with heavy duty bollards would cost about $300,000. These bollards, (K12,L2 as rated by the State Department) can stop a 15,000 lb. truck traveling 50 mph. Similarly, but more expensive, steel reinforced, concrete walls and planters are equally effective but can cost more and take longer to install.

Enlarging dangerously small and illegal pedestrian refuge medians
Transportation Alternatives requests that you establish six feet as the minimum width for pedestrian medians. Less than this is unsafe. It is six feet from the toes of a baby riding in a popular style of folding baby carriage to the heels of her mother pushing her. Yet, the median strip on Atlantic Avenue where the young women were killed is under four feet, and less than that on many of New York City's busiest streets. The Public Right of Way Access Advisory Committee to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) recommends a minimum five foot by five foot wide waiting area at all pedestrian medians and refuges. (X02.5.6 Final Report Jan. 2001) We know it will take time and substantial investment to enlarge these medians. But the effort to make these pedestrian crossings safe must get underway, starting with an inventory of the narrowest and busiest median locations, and the initiation of a multi-decade capital project.

Make sure that the medians on busy streets have planters or high curbs to stop motorists from mounting the curb and driving along the length of the median. The Atlantic Avenue median is a pedestrian death trap. Pedestrians are not protected from cars jumping the curb at intersections, or from driving along its length. Other New York City medians successfully use a wide range of styles of planters and walls to stop curb jumping at intersections and mid-block, especially: Route 9A / West Side Highway, Park Avenue and Broadway Mall (Manhattan); Kings Highway near Ave. P (Bklyn.).

Despite the fiscal crisis, the City has federal and state money already available for pedestrian safety.
There is no overlooking the City's devastating fiscal crisis. However, there are numerous funding sources for pressing pedestrian safety problems, including: state "multi-modal" funds, and CMAQ and Surface Transportation Safety (SAF) funds. At a cost of only $15,000 intersection, the DOT can easily afford to quickly install protective bollards, barriers and planters at the most vulnerable median refuges. We welcome the opportunity to work with you to secure additional funds for pedestrian safety and to protect pedestrian medians.

Conclusion
It would be a huge mistake to view what happened on Atlantic Avenue and Milford Street as a random, not to be repeated event. It is well known that motorists mount medians everyday in New York City - median strips are marked by tire tracks and broken headlight glass. This is why the pedestrian refuges on streets like Broadway and Route 9A are protected by stout concrete walls and large steel bollards. Unfortunately, they are the exception.

You are rightly proud of what you accomplished on Queens Boulevard. Because of your leadership and personal involvement, at least ten people are alive and well and many more are safe and sound. I urge you to move with the same urgency and determination to make pedestrian medians safe.

Thank you,

John Kaehny
Executive Director
Transportation Alternatives