Comments on: Can the New York City Council Wrest Crash Information From NYPD? http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/03/16/can-the-new-york-city-council-wrest-crash-information-from-nypd/ Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: BicyclesOnly http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/03/16/can-the-new-york-city-council-wrest-crash-information-from-nypd/comment-page-1/#comment-220121 BicyclesOnly Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:02:51 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=169631#comment-220121 Brad and Charlie said it all. Go get 'em, Gale! Brad and Charlie said it all. Go get ‘em, Gale!

]]> By: Komanoff http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/03/16/can-the-new-york-city-council-wrest-crash-information-from-nypd/comment-page-1/#comment-220011 Komanoff Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:28:43 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=169631#comment-220011 From late 1987, when NYC traffic crashes became manifest as a political issue to me and others at Transportation Alternatives, to 1994, when the Giuliani administration turned public information into an oxymoron, I received monthly updates from the NYPD of citywide counts of traffic crashes between motor vehicles and bicycles, motor vehicles and pedestrians, and bicycles and pedestrians. We regularly published this data in "City Cyclist." Our table box, "Who's Really Getting Hurt?," juxtaposing the ongoing drop in bike-ped crashes with the relentlessly high rates of motor vehicle crashes with both bikes and peds, was an important consciousness-raiser among T.A. members and some elements of the media and the political class. The withdrawal of this information over the past 16 years behind the NYPD's Iron Curtain is a travesty of democracy. T.A.'s Paul White is correct: "There is absolutely no reason for government to wall this data off from the public eye." From late 1987, when NYC traffic crashes became manifest as a political issue to me and others at Transportation Alternatives, to 1994, when the Giuliani administration turned public information into an oxymoron, I received monthly updates from the NYPD of citywide counts of traffic crashes between motor vehicles and bicycles, motor vehicles and pedestrians, and bicycles and pedestrians.

We regularly published this data in “City Cyclist.” Our table box, “Who’s Really Getting Hurt?,” juxtaposing the ongoing drop in bike-ped crashes with the relentlessly high rates of motor vehicle crashes with both bikes and peds, was an important consciousness-raiser among T.A. members and some elements of the media and the political class.

The withdrawal of this information over the past 16 years behind the NYPD’s Iron Curtain is a travesty of democracy. T.A.’s Paul White is correct: “There is absolutely no reason for government to wall this data off from the public eye.”

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