Testimony From Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives at City Council Hearing on Vision Zero
On Tuesday, October 26, the City Council’s Transportation and Oversight Committees held a joint hearing on Vision Zero — covering pedestrian and cyclist safety improvements, stopping illegal placard parking, and discouraging car usage. This includes Int. 2159-2020, which would allow everyday New Yorkers to report illegally parked vehicles.
Statement from Families for Safe Streets
On behalf of everyone in Families for Safe Streets, we are grateful to the City Council for your dedication and commitment to safe streets. We urge you at this critical juncture to get Vision Zero back on track. Please finish out this Council term strongly and then partner closely with the next administration to achieve the promise of Vision Zero. Help us end the unnecessary loss of life and needless suffering to life-altering injuries.
Too many people are dying. Drivers have killed more than 1,800 individuals since Mayor de Blasio took office. Even before the pandemic, traffic violence was rising. We are now horrifically on track for the deadliest year since de Blasio became mayor.
We urge the City Council to rapidly pass Int 0009-2018, Int 2073-2020, Int 2073-2020, and Int 2417-2021 under consideration today.
But we also urge you to go over and above the package of bills in this hearing to get Vision Zero back on track.
Int 2159 is critical to stopping the widespread, dangerous practice of blocking bike lanes. A Hunter College study found 3 vehicle obstructions for every 10 blocks and stated, “As would be expected, motorized vehicular obstructions were less common in protected than conventional bike lanes.” There is precedent for using civilian reporting successfully with the law on vehicles idling. Please, for Madison Lyden and so many others killed because of a vehicle obstructing the bike lane, pass Int 2159.
Int 708 will make our sidewalks safer and less crowded with cars from auto-dealers. Please for 26-year-old Sherena Hundalini pass Int 708. Int 1763 to establish a three-foot law will make biking safer and we urge passage in memory of Dan Hanegy, Aaron Padwee and countless others.
Int 2282 to redesign truck routes with daylighting and other safety features will help address the danger trucks and poor lighting pose on our streets. Please — for the beloved physician Carl Henry Nacht who rode his bike to see patients, 22-year-old Asif Rahman on his way to his first day on a new job teaching, 13-year-old Kevin Flores cycling near his school with friends, and so many, many more — pass In 2282 now.
We urge the Council to take on a strong oversight role to ensure rapid and effective implementation of Speaker Johnson’s Streets Master Plan, including a long-overdue need to streamline the community board notification requirement for DOT street safety projects. With traffic violence a public health epidemic, solutions to save lives cannot be delayed. Please also build on this commitment to well-designed streets by introducing and passing a bill on 25x25 — dedicating 25% of our streetscape to pedestrians, cyclists and public plazas will get people out of their cars and save lives.
Finally, we also urge you to undertake better oversight of the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program and implement new, stronger measures for recidivists. The City needs to seize the vehicles of drivers who take the course but continue to get tickets. Please, for three-month old Apolline Guillemin. Nothing cries out for getting Vision Zero back on track as much as this horrific crash. New Yorkers need to know that you can take your baby for a walk on the sidewalk and still all come home alive.
Thank you.
Testimony of Families for Safe Streets member Liza Martinez
Thank you for allowing me and other members of Families for Safe Streets to speak first today. It is so important that everyone in this hearing, and beyond, hear what I have to say. That you know the torture, pain and heartache this epidemic of traffic crashes is causing.
My name is Liza Martinez and on September 27th, 2019, my dear, sweet, beautiful, healthy mother, Ada Martinez, became the 177th New Yorker and 27th cyclist to be killed in a traffic crash that year.
Ada was an amazing, devoted mother to three of us, a proud grandmother to our seven kids, a loving wife, and a dear, dear friend to too many people to count. She was our family matriarch and a connector — she brought everyone together. She loved to spend time on the boardwalk near my parents’ home in the Rockaways — and she danced. She loved to dance. She was the love of my father’s life and the two of them had a marriage that was the envy and admiration of all who knew them.
She was two steps away from completing the American dream. She moved to New York City from Puerto Rico and together with my dad, started a family business — a hardware store in Bedford–Stuyvesant — and put me and my siblings through college. They were getting ready to retire and spend more time in the sunshine of Puerto Rico, basking in all they’ve accomplished.
But that dreadful evening, after she and my dad biked to the Rockaway pier to enjoy the sunset, only ten blocks from their home — she was struck by a vehicle and stolen from us.
We are all adrift without her. Two years later, this month is impossible for us. Seeing my broken father reliving the crash, her cremation, and her birthday, all within just a few weeks — she was just 66 when she was taken from us — we are all broken. Two years later, there is nothing we can do to make my father feel better.
And to learn that NYC is on track to have the deadliest year since Vision Zero began is like pouring salt on our wounds.
We feel like she was murdered. By a weapon. By a dangerous road. By leaders who have let my family and too many others down.
As I shared in a previous testimony, whoever is responsible for making sure our systems work is failing us. How can our city be so unsafe when there are known solutions?
We should not have to live in the most beautiful city and fear for our lives each day. There should be a way for us to safely co-exist — cars, people, children, getting to work, getting to school. People say the best part of NYC is its people — and my mother was one of the best. Shouldn’t the main responsibility of our mayor and our public servants be to keep people alive?
How can our city be letting 1,800 people die when we should be getting closer and closer to zero traffic deaths? I am here today for you and your family — that you’ll never have to stand here to speak about your own mother, spouse, child, friend.
I beg of you. Please show your leadership and take action now. I urge you to implement, without delay, the known measures it will take to keep New Yorkers safe. Vision Zero can work and must get back on track. NYC trucks and large vehicles like the ambulance that killed my mom should not be enabled to speed down our streets. NYC should be a leader in street design and in car and truck safety standards. A photo was published in the Rockaway Times of my mother’s ghost bike, with the beautiful decorations we added on the two-year anniversary. In the photo, you can see an NYPD truck parked in the bike lane. I cringe and cry knowing a cyclist would have to go around that truck and could be killed right there, in the same spot.
There are so many proven solutions, both in the bills discussed today, like Intro 2159 and in others. I urge rapid passage of these bills and share more in my written testimony about this. We deserve it. Everyone deserves it.
You must get Vision Zero back on track so that no one else experiences this heartache.
Thank you.
Testimony of Families for Safe Streets member Irma Rosenblatt
My name is Irma Rosenblatt and I am a member of Families for Safe Streets.
On March 24, 2014, my very active 88-year-old mother, Ida Rosenblatt, was on her way from her meditation class at the Riverdale Senior Center in the Bronx when she was struck by a speeding SUV driver making a left turn. She was so severely injured that she lost consciousness and after two long terrible days, she died in the hospital.
She was a vital and energetic mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She was involved in many activities such as yoga and tai chi — and she was very active on the social action committee at the center too. She advocated for services to the senior community and often went to City Hall to protest and have her voice heard. She was well known by members of the NYC Council, NYS Senator and Assembly and never hesitated to go to their offices when she had something to say.
Needless to say, she is sorely missed. Not only by our family but by the community. My grandson Jacob, her great grandson, still talks about his Gigi and says she is with the earth and sky watching over us.
There is no question. If my mother was alive, she would be at hearings like today's. She would be outraged and appalled that 1,800 people have been killed while our City has been implementing Vision Zero. That 1,800 families know our same pain and heartache. As a member of Families for Safe Streets, I know that is not because Vision Zero is failing. It is because we need to be doing more. And without delay. NYC has indeed been leading the way on Vision Zero. We have passed historic legislation thanks to this Council — but precious lives are at stake. Communities are at stake.
We cannot read any more headlines about seniors like my mother or babies like Appoline or teachers like Matthew — or anyone — sacrificed to a city which prioritizes cars over people.
This is an epidemic. The year my mother was killed was when our city was supposed to be implementing Vision Zero. 1800 is a far cry from zero.
Please, use all the power you have in the City Council to pass the laws being discussed today, particularly Intros 2159 and 2282 — and many more needed laws that aren’t even on today’s calendar which I have included in my written remarks.
You have the power to prevent this from continuing to happen to us. In memory of my mother and too many others, thank you.
Testimony from Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris
First, I want to acknowledge and thank the City Council for its leadership on street safety and giving streets back to people. Under your tenure, New York City has led the nation in this work from Open Streets to the Streets Master Plan. And, for a period, we bucked the national trend and our streets got safer even as the nation’s streets got more dangerous.
On behalf of Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets, we and all New Yorkers, are grateful for your life saving work as no one should fear death or serious injury when crossing the street.
But, I come to share that despite your track record, your success is at risk amid rising levels of traffic violence, hit and runs, car registrations, and car traffic. 1,800 people are dead on our streets under this mayor. And, as things get worse in his final year, we are traveling from vigils to vigils when we need to be traveling from groundbreakings to groundbreakings. No more blaming, obstruction, false promises, and long-term plans, we need action on our streets today.
That is why I urge you to vote in favor of Intro 0009, 2073, 2417, and 2422 that are on today’s agenda, as well as important bills not heard today, specifically Intro 708 to make our sidewalks safer and less crowded with cars from auto-dealers, Intro 1763 to establish a three-foot law to make biking safer, Intro 2282 to redesign truck routes with daylighting and other safety features, and Intro 2159 to help prevent dangerous parking that harms and slows down all New Yorkers.
Additionally, I urge you to consider advancing new legislation to streamline the community board notification requirement for DOT street safety projects, which will be necessary for DOT to implement the vital Streets Master Plan, passed by this Council, within the required timeframe.
New York City is now facing the deadliest year on our streets since Mayor de Blasio took office. And, this is not a COVID problem as our numbers have been rising for three consecutive years. Today, in New York City, babies in strollers and police officers on the beat and essential workers biking to work are equally susceptible to the dangers of reckless driving, larger and more powerful vehicles, and a city that continues to prioritize a driver in a 6,000 pound SUV to a child walking to school.
Across each of your boroughs and districts, the rising numbers tell a story of failure under this administration, and the personal stories scream outrage and heartbreak at continued death from preventable crashes. According to our polling, 30% of New Yorkers have been injured in a crash and 70% know someone killed or injured in a crash - and these numbers are higher for Black New Yorkers, those over 50-years-old, households making under $50,000, and residents of Staten Island. Traffic violence is now a near-universal experience across New York City.
As an advocate, as a crash survivor, as a parent with children here, as a son with parents aging in place here, and as a New Yorker, I urge you to take action. In the face of rising traffic violence, inequality, and climate change, you must act quickly and boldly to save lives. Please move without delay to advance Intros 0009, 708, 1763, 2073, 2159, 2282, 2417 and 2422. As a city, we must look to our streets as a pathway to recovery. And our council can help to ensure this happens for the benefit of all New Yorkers.
Thank you.
