I welcome your effort to put this issue on a quantitative and analytical footing. But I still don't see evidence supporting an NYPD role in reducing pedestrian (or other) traffic crashes and injuries.

For example: major intersections may indeed have experienced sharp declines in crash rates. But do they really account for a significant share of total NYC crashes? I'm dubious.

-- Charlie

See http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/04/09/pedestrian-safety-new-york-city-vs-london/)

Another thing (that's not terrible by itself, just something I remember), ahead of the 2004 RNC, Scagnelli is the guy who set TA a letter telling them to call off the Critical Mass that was going to coincide with the eve of the RNC, seemingly mistakenly thinking TA was affiliated with Critical Mass.

But that misinformed preparation by him for Critical Mass together with NYPD's military response to that particular Critical Mass (which marked the start the real ugliness between the two parties), suggest that Scagnelli might have been one of the guys behind the whole vicious, paranoid, and crazily unnecessary anti-CM policy.

Aside from that ticket agent story which I thought was worth re-repeating, I don't know enough about Scagnelli to like, hate the guy or anything (looks like a nice guy in that picture, right? Maybe DeNiro could play him? And that misguided letter he sent to TA about CM was respectful in tone, if I remember), and my stuff above about his role in anti-CM policy is speculative, but I do think that overall he represents some NYPD attitudes whose time for dying is long overdue.

(I seem obsessed with the guy. It's just that I remember him from reading that Critical Mass letter he sent to TA (did TA put it out in an email?) and, still a CM participant back then (no longer), I immediately wrote him a letter myself, asking NYPD NOT to crack down hard on CM, as it would start the whole RNC weekend off on an unnecessary and negative "cops vs. protesters" course. Uh, my letter didn't make much difference...

"Today we agree with our sister circuits and hold that driving is not, in itself, a major life activity. The version of the ADA applicable to Ms. Winsley’s action, see note 1, supra, does not define the term 'major life activity,' but an EEOC regulation states that 'Major Life Activities means
functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.' 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(I). Although this list does not purport to be exclusive, the items on
the list have several things in common with each other that driving does not share with them. Most importantly, the listed activities are so important to everyday life that almost anyone would consider himself limited in a
material way if he could not perform them. This is not the case with driving. In fact, many Americans choose not to drive and do not consider the quality of their lives to have been diminished by their choice. Moreover, the
importance of the listed activities does not vary depending on where a person lives. The value that people assign to being able to drive, on the other hand, most certainly does. A great number of Manhattanites drive only rarely, while residents of more sparsely populated areas of our country rely heavily on their own automobiles for transportation. Finally, unlike the listed activities, no one has a right to drive; driving on public highways is a privilege subject to revocation for a number of reasons. As the
Eleventh Circuit has noted, '[i]t would at the least be an oddity that a major life activity should require a license from the state, revocable for a variety of reasons including failure to insure.' Chenoweth, 250 F.3d at 1329."

With all the talk about safety, I think we lose sight of the fact that walking is a fundamental human right, like speaking; driving is not.

I agree with Dartley, who last week ID'd Scagnelli's disgraceful harassment of a traffic agent who ticketed his SUV in 2004 as his real legacy.

There are myriad factors that, in combination, explain the heartening drop in NYC traffic fatalities: increased driver sobriety (both BAC-wise and more generally), improved ER treatments, and wider appreciation of pedestrian rights. I fail to see NYPD's contribution to this list.