I’ve had people pull around me (via a bike lane or empty parking spot) at a light in order to pass me in the intersection as soon as the light turns green. I’ve seen cars cross double yellow lines at intersections with traffic going both ways, again in order to pass just one car which was traveling at an ordinary speed.

I have yet to EVER see a driver come to a complete stop at the stop sign at the corner of Eagle and McGuinness in Greenpoint. Not a single car. And I’m at that intersection at least twice a day. Which is especially funny since drivers seem to expect me to dismount my bike and do jumping jacks at every stop sign.

Last year Brian Kavanagh and Andrew Lanza got a law passed that enabled TEAs to use their handhelds to cite for “blocking the box,” and Dan Garodnick’s got a bill in City Council that would do the same for idling.

I don’t know if those were the first times the idea was used, but it needs to get a lot more use. From what I gather from drivers, TEAs issue summonses very consistently, while, as the recent T.A. reports corroborate, regular cops don’t.

And finally, an irresponsible thing to speculate, but I’ll say it anyway: I worry that the more TA comes out with reports like this, a greater sense of spite among NYPD people will grow (just look at Inspector Mullen’s tone above), which could conceivably result in even worse enforcement, if temporarily. Check out NYPD Rant–one of the biggest themes there is “don’t like us? Then we won’t do anything for you.”

So, let me see if I’ve got this straight:

Years after the US military dropped it, the NYPD is actually using a body count to measure traffic safety outcomes on NYC streets. In Iraq and Afghanistan the US military now measures the overall rate of “violence” as a way to determine success and failure. But here at home Ray Kelly is still boasting about his declining body counts. That’s somewhat astounding.

I’d suggest the NYPD do something similar to the US military. In NYC the “violence” you want to measure would be things like horn honking, blocking the box, pedestrian and cyclist INJURIES, motor vehicle speeding, car crashes, trucks using illegal routes, double-parking. These are, clearly, the things that need to be accounted for in measuring the safety and successful management of our streets.

Someone with access to the Commissioner needs to let Ray Kelly know how moronic he sounds in citing a body count as his primary measure of success in managing NYC streets and traffic. Or someone in the mayor’s office just needs to take this entire street management portfolio away from the NYPD and let DOT add enforcement to its portfolio. As Buford notes, good luck with that.

BTW: I suspect that one of the reasons why fatalities dropped in recent years is because of increasing traffic congestion. More traffic congestion means slower vehicle speeds. Slower speeds mean that people die less often when they are hit by cars.

So, how much of that 15% decrease is a true, sustainable decrease, and how much will evaporate once the economy recovers?

Simply put, New York does not have a culture of compliance, and it affects EVERYONE, from drivers to pedestrians to NYPD. The city has a me-first, my-time-is-more-important-than-yours attitude that simply must change if we want to see serious drops in the pedestrian fatality rate. In my opinion, the amount of vigilance in enforcement that would be required by NYPD would make a significant impact on their ability to police “real” crime. Citing a driver who is attempting to make a left turn in midtown or pedestrian walking downtown streets is unlikely to be met with popular support.

As if I couldn’t possibly imagine that the NYPD was more out of touch with the livable streets agenda, today I saw the a squad car “patrolling” the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. I cannot think of a place that is less suited to cars than that kind of pedestrian space.

If I didn’t yell, he could have been run over.

Those signal police do this all the time.