City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her city-owned Chevy Suburban in 2008. Photo copyright Steven Hirsch.

To hear Christine Quinn tell it, New Yorkers are crying out for relief from unjust parking policies. Over the last two years, it seems that when City Council members weren’t flogging legislation to add layers of bureaucracy to DOT’s street safety program, they were tripping over themselves to absolve motorists of one responsibility after another.

No matter that most New York commuters don’t drive to work. Or that drivers would be best served by rational prices for on-street parking, not endless cruising for free spots. Or even that one bill, prohibiting the sanitation department from placing stickers on vehicles parked in the path of street sweepers, would put an end to a practice that has benefited the entire city by improving street cleanliness. Nothing has stood in the way of Chris Quinn’s mission to free the put-upon car owner from the tyranny of onerous city edicts.

Including public opinion, it appears. According to a Quinnipiac poll released today, a majority of city voters disagree with Quinn and the council that city sanitation stickers are “unnecessarily punitive.” The poll found that 60 percent of voters, including 57 percent who park on the street, support the use of the stickers.

Support for the yellow stickers ranges from 56 – 40 percent each in Brooklyn and The Bronx to 66 – 26 percent in Manhattan. Men are stuck on the stickers 63 – 33 percent while women want them 57 – 37 percent. There is little partisan difference.

“Even voters who park on the street and do the Alternate Side Parking dance are stuck on the stickers by a wide margin,” said poll director Maurice Carroll in a Quinnipiac media release.

You’ll recall that the sanitation sticker bill was the brainchild of Brooklyn Council Member David Greenfield, who promoted it with characteristic zeal (“I mean, what’s next? We’re going to start slashing people’s tires when they don’t park on the correct side?”). It was also championed by transportation committee chair James Vacca, who called the stickers “cruel.” Weighed against the reality of voter sentiment, such inflammatory rhetoric makes the council look out of touch. It could be that New Yorkers aren’t as worked up about this stuff as their electeds think.

You don’t have to be a political scientist to know that governing by pet peeve is not likely to result in sound policy. Now that Speaker Quinn and the council have impartial evidence that a small number of gripes doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the electorate at large, maybe they will turn their attention to actual problems, starting with the hundreds of fatalities and thousands of injuries suffered on city streets every year.

Peter Vallone (l) and James Vacca

Responding to some 2,500 letters collected by Transportation Alternatives following the hit-and-run death of Brooklyn cyclist Mathieu Lefevre, Vallone announced that his public safety committee would address NYPD traffic enforcement. The hearing will be co-chaired by transportation committee chair James Vacca.

“It’s encouraging that the two chairs are treating this as a public safety concern, and are taking a long look and showing leadership,” says Juan Martinez, general counsel for TA.

In addition to crash prevention, Vallone and Vacca are expected to delve into how NYPD conducts crash investigations, an issue that is making headlines thanks to the Lefevre family’s pursuit of information from the department about the crash that killed their son. Says Martinez, “They have serious questions about the line — that in New York if you want to kill, do it with a car — whether that’s actually true.”

Anyone who wants to testify at next week’s hearing may send an e-mail to Martinez by the evening of Monday the 13th, with the subject line “Feb. 15.”

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Southwest corner of Park Terrace West and W. 218th Street. Photos: Brad Aaron

The city recently replaced four parking spots at Park Terrace West and W. 218th Street, in Inwood, with a no standing zone. The 34th Precinct reportedly requested the change to give drivers exiting Park Terrace West, a northbound one-way street, a better view of east-west traffic on 218th.

Inevitably, car owners accustomed to parking at the intersection complained, and those complaints, many of which were posted on a neighborhood email list, led to a story by DNAinfo. Here’s a taste:

At least seven residents said they were ticketed or towed after the new signs went up late last month.  Local parenting email list InwoodKids was recently flooded with parent complaints about the new parking regulations.

Inwood mother Beth More said she and her husband were ticketed and towed in the new zone on Jan. 5 after arriving home from the holidays.

“We had no idea the new signs were posted,” she told DNAinfo. “In fact, we were sure our car was stolen at first and never even thought to look up.”

The couple has appealed the $75 parking ticket and will fight for reimbursement of the $185 tow charge.

“I, like many others in the neighborhood, question if this really was a matter of safety or simply an opportunity for the city and police precinct to ticket more,” she said.

Several city and police sources said summonses issued just days after the new signs were installed are likely to be dismissed.

In case the no standing signs still don’t get the message across — a possibility, considering the illegally parked car out of frame in the above photo — on Sunday I saw a couple of homemade posters warning drivers not to park near the intersection.

I have driven this corner. I also walk it regularly. As a driver it was very difficult to detect whether cars on 218th were approaching without either inching into the Park Terrace West crossing or nosing into cross traffic. As a pedestrian I also appreciate that drivers have better sightlines. While it’s understandable that some were angry about being caught off guard, the idea that the city would look to raise revenue by clearing four parking spots at a blind intersection — and installing the proper signage, no less — smacks of Agenda 21-level paranoia.

Southeast corner, with no standing sign in the background.

How’s this for DIY messaging: Summons for parking in a no standing zone: $115. Fee to park almost anywhere else in Inwood: $0. Preserving life and limb through improved visibility: Priceless.

Yankee Stadium parking in its natural state. Photo: Daily News

In today’s Daily News, Juan Gonzalez reports that Bronx Parking Development Company LLC is expected to default this year on the $200+ million in triple-tax-exempt bonds issued by the New York City Industrial Development Agency, the financing arm of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Since the threat of default has loomed for some time now, let’s look at the more recent developments cited by Gonzalez.

The promise of jobs to be created by the garages was never that grand to begin with — 12 full-time and 70 part-time positions, with an average wage of $11 an hour. But Bronx Parking LLC is so desperate for cash, writes Gonzalez, that “the company plans to slash the salaries of a handful of full-time garage employees and to reduce the number of game-day parking attendants from 76 to 57.”

“The people who continue to pay the price for this thing are the kids who lost their park space, and now the handful of people who got jobs and are going to lose them,” says Bettina Damiani, project director of Good Jobs New York, an NGO that has tracked the stadium project from its inception.

On top of that, a proposal to lure a hotel to complement or replace the garages has apparently cratered after four developers who expressed interest in the deal wanted “major city subsidies.” Gonzalez reports that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who inherited the stadium parking disaster from his predecessor Adolfo Carrion, “has been pressing City Hall to come up with an emergency plan to restructure the bonds, tear down some of the garages, and replace them with low-income housing.”

How bad is it for Bronx Parking LLC? According to Gonzalez its garages are 38 percent full on Yankee game days. When the stadium is idle, they have a total of 70 regular customers for 9,000 spaces.

On the other hand, from a neighborhood perspective about the only thing worse than a bunch of empty garages would be a bunch of full garages, a silver lining brought about by malfeasance on the part of the IDA, which approved the parking deal before conducting an economic feasibility study. Also, aides to Mayor Bloomberg tell Gonzalez that neither the city nor the IDA is responsible for backing the bonds.

The garages, however, were exempted from rent and taxes unless they turned a profit, so taxpayers probably shouldn’t expect a return on their investment. More than anything, Damiani sees those empty buildings as an ugly monument to the misplaced priorities of the Bloomberg administration, whose legacy of environmental stewardship and progressive transportation policies will be undercut by acres of new parking across the city.

“This community didn’t need thousands of parking spots,” says Damiani. “I have run out of adjectives to describe how bad this is.”

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

The Times of London has launched what Dani Simons aptly calls a “nearly mind-blowing” pro-cycling campaign. Inspired by a crash that seriously injured a Times reporter, “Cities Fit for Cycling” is the kind of multifaceted public safety program that is normally the province of non-profit advocacy, right down to the eight-point manifesto that covers everything from education and street improvements to truck design.

Here’s a sample:

• “Trucks entering a city centre should be required by law to fit sensors, audible truck-turning alarms, extra mirrors and safety bars to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels.”
• “Two per cent of the Highways Agency budget should be earmarked for next generation cycle routes, providing £100 million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities should be graded on the quality of cycling provision.”
• “20mph should become the default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes.”

The Times is taking suggestions from the public on how to make streets safer. There’s even an online form that puts readers in touch with their local officials.

“Imagine if the NY Times or the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal put their considerable clout and resources behind an effective strategy to promote cycling safety,” writes Simons. Instead, sensationalist fear-mongering, fabricated controversies and shameless victim-blaming continue to be the hallmarks of cycling coverage in New York, where the press corps tends to be embarrassingly regressive even in comparison to other stateside media markets.

Maybe that will change once city bike-share adds thousands of everyday cyclists to the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Or maybe, if The Times campaign generates enough buzz (and the paper itself isn’t felled by scandal), News Corp. will export “Cities Fit for Cycling” to one of its properties across the Atlantic.

Heads up, Cuozzo.

Zhaneya Butcher. Photo via Daily News

Prosecutors say Kent Lowrie, 53, was legally drunk when he hit and killed Zhaneya Butcher last summer as the little girl ran toward an ice cream truck on 104th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. Lowrie pled guilty to manslaughter as part of a deal that resulted in five years’ probation, a $1,000 fine, a six-month license revocation and the mandated use of an ignition interlock device for one year, according to court records. The Daily News reports:

Instead of going to a grand jury, prosecutors opted to offer Lowrie a plea deal. They feared that when a margin of error for the blood-alcohol test was factored in, Lowrie would not have been considered intoxicated and would have faced lesser charges.

There was also no evidence that Lowrie was speeding.

Given that Lowrie faced up to seven years in prison, Zhaneya’s relatives were understandably shocked by the outcome of this case. Implicit in the decision to negotiate such a favorable deal for Lowrie is the fact that, under ordinary circumstances, the driver who strikes a child with deadly force on a neighborhood street is considered blameless by default.

The state legislature has given police and prosecutors new tools to offer a modicum of protection to vulnerable street users like Zhaneya Butcher and, ideally, to deter drivers from acts of deadly recklessness. But as long as those tools go unused, motorists will continue to maim and kill with relative impunity, and victims of traffic violence will be deemed culpable for their own deaths and injuries.

A woman who accompanied Lowrie on Tuesday was quoted as saying, “People should keep their kids in the house and not running between parked cars.” As repugnant a statement as that is, it’s more or less what the criminal justice system is saying, too.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

This is not a graphic from Christine Quinn's transportation report. In fact, the report says nothing at all about transit.

If you’re like most New York commuters, you took a train or bus to get to work today. And like most New Yorkers, you are invisible to the City Council and speaker Christine Quinn.

On Tuesday, Quinn issued a letter, co-signed by transportation committee chair James Vacca, bragging about the accomplishments of a council obsessed with the perceived needs of city drivers. You know the bills: the muni-meter grace period, the elimination of the alternate side violation sticker, the loosening of parking fine deadlines. While she makes mention of the law that requires NYPD to post traffic crash data online, Quinn also touts the council’s success in adding red tape to the installation of bike lanes, a proven safety measure.

November 2010: Quinn and Vacca take aim at safer streets.

The council’s transportation achievements add up to three bills written to address the pet peeves of certain car owners, three bills that allow council members to grandstand for codifying existing DOT protocols, and one genuinely useful bill to help make streets safer.

More broadly, Quinn’s “Transportation Report” contains not one word about public transportation. Framing the council’s transportation agenda as a win for “nearly every New York City driver,” Quinn ignores the 55 percent of commuters who rely on transit. Quinn and the City Council are kowtowing to the city’s motoring elite the same way Republicans in the House of Representatives are writing legislation to please oil companies.

You can find the full text of Quinn’s missive after the jump. Have at it.

January 31, 2012

Dear New Yorker,

A special thank you to everyone who responded to our first NYC Council Transportation Report! We were thrilled with the positive response, and the feedback we received was very helpful and informative.

There’ve been a number of important transportation-related developments since then, many of which you’ll find detailed in our newest report below.

As we explained in our first issue, our goal with these reports is to stay better connected and engaged with you and other New Yorkers about the important and challenging transportation issues affecting our city and communities, so please keep the comments and feedback coming!

If you have any questions about the initiatives below, please feel free to contact either Lyle Frank or Nivardo Lopez in the Council’s Human Services Division at lfrank@council.nyc.gov or nlopez@council.nyc.gov.

Thanks so much, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Christine C. Quinn

Speaker

NYC Council

James Vacca
Chair, Transportation Committee
NYC Council

Making Parking Enforcement in NYC Fairer for Motorists

Nearly every New York City driver has a story about getting a ticket they clearly didn’t deserve.

To help make parking enforcement in our city fairer, the City Council recently passed a series of bills, collectively known as the “Fair Parking Legislative Package.”

The first bill, Intro. 490, presented by Speaker Quinn during her 2011 State of the City address and introduced by Council Member James Gennaro, is aimed at helping drivers who receive a parking ticket while in the process of paying for a muni-meter spot.

Right now, traffic cops aren’t allowed to cancel tickets for any reason, forcing drivers to dispute tickets at a later date.

Under our new law, anyone who receives a ticket while doing what they’re supposed to do – purchasing parking time from a muni-meter – won’t have to fight it later on if they present their time-stamped muni meter ticket to the agent within 5 minutes of the ticket being issued.

This legislation only applies to tickets written electronically (which account for about 85 percent of parking tickets written in the City), so there shouldn’t be any dispute over the time stamped on the ticket and the muni-meter receipt.

The City will also be required to report the number of cancelled tickets annually to the Council, providing us with valuable information about any trends.

Intro. 610, introduced by Council Member James Sanders, prohibits the City from charging drivers late fees on parking tickets until 30 days after a ruling is made

Motorists have every right to dispute parking tickets and shouldn’t be penalized before a final determination is made in their case.

The way the law currently works, drivers begin to accrue fees 30 days after a ticket is written, regardless of whether they’re fighting the ticket in court.

Our bill will provide parking ticket recipients a greater degree of fairness as they await the ruling of an Administrative Law Judge.

Finally, Intro. 546, introduced by Council Member David Greenfield, prohibits the City from placing adhesive stickers to mark vehicles purportedly violating alternate side parking rules.  These stickers are attached even before motorists are given the chance to prove their innocence.  Besides the fact that many people successfully challenge alternate side tickets, cars shouldn’t be subject to such a nuisance before a finding of guilt.  Actions like these are unnecessarily punitive, and our bill will end this practice once and for all.

We’d like to Council Members Gennaro, Sanders and Greenfield for all the hard work and effort they put into the passage of these bills.  Our Fair Parking Legislative Package will provide relief to motorists while promoting more judicious parking enforcement and ticketing practices citywide, and we urge Mayor Bloomberg to sign all three of these bills into law.

Increasing Community Input on Bicycle Lanes

According to the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), since 2008, over 200 miles of bicycle lanes have been installed, and the City is planning to have installed 1,800 miles of bicycle lanes by 2030.  The City’s bicycle lane network has now been expanded to all five boroughs, including:

• Flushing Avenue (Brooklyn);

• Grand Concourse-Mosholu Parkway (Bronx);

• Columbus Avenue (Manhattan);

• Center Boulevard (Queens); and

• North and South Railroad Avenues (Staten Island).

Now, there’s no disputing that the development of a safer, more accessible biking infrastructure is good for our city.  In addition to the recreational benefits that bicycling offers, bicycle lanes also provide an important, environmentally friendly alternative form of transportation.  However, the expansion of these bicycle lanes has also raised a number of safety and community consultation concerns.

In response to these concerns, the City Council passed Local Law 61 of 2011, sponsored by Council Member Lew Fidler.  Scheduled to take effect later next month, this law will allow local communities the opportunity for greater input in the process of where and how bicycle lanes are installed and removed.  While Local Law 61 doesn’t prevent DOT from installing or removing bicycle lanes, it formalizes a process of consultation with local community boards.  These community boards can then provide additional input to achieve the best and safest means of bringing bicycle lanes to individual communities.

Specifically Local Law 61 requires the DOT to:

• give affected Council Members and community boards at least 90 days’ notice before constructing or removing a bicycle lane; and

• offer to make a presentation at a public hearing held by such affected community board.

If the local community board accepts the DOT’s offer, the hearing must be held within 45 days of the notice given.  The DOT shall then make a presentation of the proposed plans and receive input and will not be permitted to construct or remove such bicycle lane until at least 45 days after the public hearing. However, if no hearing is held, the construction or removal of the bicycle lane may not occur until 90 days after the notification.

Local Law 61 further requires that if the notification is given between June 20 and August 6, the period for a public hearing shall conclude on September 20, and the bicycle lane may not be constructed until 90 days following the notification or 10 days after the hearing, whichever time period is later.  This is done to ensure maximum participation of community boards, most of which are in recess during the summer.

We’d like to thank all of our colleagues, especially Council Member Fidler, for helping us ensure that the DOT is working with community boards and fully considering feedback from neighborhood residents on where, and how, bicycle lanes are installed.

TrafficStat – A Reality!

Good news: Accident and summons data is now available to the public for the first time on the New York City Police Department’s website, thanks to Local Law 12 of 2011, sponsored by Council Member Jessica Lappin.

The crash data, which includes the number of moving violation summonses, the number of traffic crashes, and the number of injuries and fatalities citywide and by borough, can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/traffic_reports/motor_vehicle_accident_data.shtml.  The summons data can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/traffic_reports/traffic_summons_reports.shtml.

Having this data available online to the public will help us come up with better solutions to the many traffic and pedestrian safety issues affecting many of our communities.  Armed with this information, we’ll be better able to make our streets safer for everyone.

A special note of thanks to Council Member Lappin and our colleagues for helping to make this happen.

City Council & Mayor Bloomberg Launch Interactive Street Closures Map

Residents will now find it easier to navigate the City, thanks to the launch of NYC Street Closures – a new interactive website that maps closed-off streets across the five boroughs.

This online tool came out of legislation, sponsored by Council Member Garodnick, requiring the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication (DoITT) to create an online, interactive map displaying current and planned closings due to construction, street fairs, and parades.

The map is available online at NYC.gov and will be updated as often as practicable and necessary but not less than once a week.  Users can search the map based on date, time, and location.

With this information literally at their fingertips, New Yorkers will be better able to navigate the city and get from point A to B with less hassle.

We’d like to thank the Mayor and his Administration for working with us to help make New Yorkers’ lives a little easier.  Our sincere thanks as well to Council Member Garodnick for his leadership and support authoring the bill that created this new online tool.

Interagency Consultation PRIOR to Major Transportation Projects

In a continuing effort to involve and notify community boards and affected Council Member of transportation projects in their districts, the City Council passed and the mayor signed into law Local Law 64 of 2011, sponsored by Council Member James Vacca.

The law, which goes into effect February 12, 2012, requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to consult with the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Department of Small Business Services and the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities before undertaking any new projects.   (The term “major transportation project”, is defined as “any project that, after construction, will alter four or more consecutive blocks, or 1,000 consecutive feet of street, whichever is less, involving a major realignment of the roadway, including either removal of a vehicular lane(s) or full time removal of a parking lane(s) or addition of vehicular lane(s).”)

When the City takes on a major transportation project, it stands to reason the DOT would consider input from relevant city agencies.  Thanks to Local Law 64, not only will city departments be involved in the planning of new transportation projects,  but Council and Community Board members will have full access to the data, ensuring that the soundest decisions are made to better our neighborhoods.

Statistic Reporting AFTER Completion of Major Projects

Another new law related to major transportation projects was also recently passed by the City Council and signed by Mayor Bloomberg.

Local Law 66 of 2011, sponsored by Transportation Chair James Vacca and scheduled to take effect February 10, 2012, requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide statistics related to a major transportation project not less than 18 months following the completion of that project.  These statistics must include data on the average number of crashes over the five-year period prior to installation and the one year subsequent to the project.

In addition, DOT must also measure the impact the project has had on the flow of traffic in the area following the completion of the project, most importantly as to emergency vehicles.

All of the information must be made available to the affected community boards and council members and posted on DOT’s website.

Transportation & Our Quality of Life

Transportation-related issues are among the most pressing quality-of-life issues facing our communities today.

In addition to working collectively on these initiatives, the City Council is also working individually in our respective districts to help identify and respond to transportation-related issues and concerns at the local level.

As always, community input and involvement in these efforts are key, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to your local Council Member if there’s a transportation-related concern or issue in your community that needs addressing.  Contact information for all 51 members can be found on the City Council’s website at www.council.nyc.gov.

Together we can make our neighborhood and city a much better place to live!

Last week, Streetsblog reported that NYPD had released a detailed description of how the crash unfolded, supposedly based on security video from a business located at 157 Morgan Avenue. But the footage NYPD gave the Lefevre family does not convey the same details as the descriptions of video in the police investigative file.

Here is the description of a security video from 157 Morgan submitted by Detective Gerard Sheehan. It delves into specific detail about the crash:

Here are two videos captured from 157 Morgan that NYPD gave to the Lefevres and their attorney, Steve Vaccaro, showing footage at the intersection immediately before Leonardo Degianni, who fatally struck Lefevre and then left the scene, turned on to Meserole Street. In the first clip, the crane truck operated by Degianni enters the frame at about the 4:50 mark, and a cyclist is briefly visible at about the 5:02 mark. In the second clip, the truck enters the frame slightly after the 6:50 mark. In neither video is the moment Degianni struck Lefevre plainly visible.

Adding to the discrepancies, a second police description of security video does not match Sheehan’s description or the videos in the investigative file. The description from Detective Sheehan says that Lefevre was initially struck by the “passenger right side” of Degianni’s truck, which threw him “into the roadway” before Degianni struck him again. A second description, from officer Armand Tasca, says Lefevre “rode directly into the side of the truck as it made the right turn” (note that both Sheehan and Tasca wrote that Degianni and Lefevre were traveling north on Morgan, when they were in fact traveling south — see crash diagram at the end of this post):

“The FOIL documents raise more questions than they answer,” said Vaccaro. Even with a close viewing of the videos posted here — two of the four released by NYPD — it’s impossible to corroborate NYPD’s version of how the collision unfolded. (The third video shows the truck traveling on Meserole Street, leaving behind what appears to be Lefevre’s bike mid-block, and the fourth video shows Degianni parking the crane truck, then driving away in another vehicle.)

NYPD’s public information office has not responded to Streetsblog’s request to speak with Detective Sheehan about the discrepancy between the videos and the descriptions of the videos in the investigative file.

On January 27, Vaccaro demanded that NYPD certify that he and the Lefevres have received accurate copies of all videos in the department’s possession. He has not yet received a response. “The NYPD’s account of the crash doesn’t hold water, unless there is video or other evidence they are withholding,” Vaccaro says.

Diagram of the crash from NYPD’s investigative file:

Videos from 157 Morgan Avenue as NYPD submitted to the Lefevres and Vaccaro:

Good on you, Jimmy. What's next? Photo: DNAinfo

Bravo, James Vacca.

On Wednesday Vacca joined Council Member Gale Brewer in calling attention to the needs of blind and sight-impaired pedestrians, particularly as they apply to new pedestrian plazas.

Brewer has introduced a bill requiring textured pavement around the perimeters of plazas and bike lanes, while other bills would speed up the installation of audible pedestrian signals and mandate accessible online notifications concerning changes to street design. DNAinfo reports:

“This is a serious civil rights issue,” said City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, who said he first became aware of the challenges of new street designs from his father, who was blind.

Vacca’s assessment is spot on. Being able to navigate your way to the grocery store without fear of being run over is a civil rights issue. As is taking a bike ride through your neighborhood. As is crossing the street with your elderly mother. As is surviving the walk home from school. Especially so when the risk of being hurt or killed in traffic is higher for some New Yorkers than others.

Vacca has spent a lot of time on camera since taking the helm of the transportation committee, and he has yet to call attention to the hundreds of road deaths and thousands of injuries that occur annually. He has yet to credit the new pedestrian spaces, bike lanes, and street redesigns for making New York a safer city.

After a year devoted to nitpicking street safety improvements and targeting those who need them while pandering to parking scofflaws, maybe he and the council will at last turn to the business of safeguarding the rights of everyone who deserves to move about the city safely.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Craig Esswein, chief of the vehicular crimes bureau, told Streetsblog that reviewing deadly traffic crashes is standard procedure. “Any time there’s a fatality the NYPD does their investigation, and we do our own.”

Lefevre’s death at the hands of a hit-and-run truck driver in Williamsburg last October has made headlines, owing to revelations that NYPD withheld details of the crash from the victim’s family and failed to gather evidence at the scene. Asked about NYPD’s handling of the investigation, Esswein said, “We will be looking into the matter.”

Though no photos of the scene have been released to the Lefevre family — police reportedly didn’t take pictures due to a broken camera — Esswein says they do exist. He says those pictures will be examined along with video of the collision, which according to NYPD records shows that the truck driver dragged Lefevre and his bike for several yards as he made an unsignaled right-hand turn. “We’re going to review it all,” said Esswein.

In a statement issued this week, Mathieu’s mother Erika Lefevre revealed that NYPD has charged the driver, identified by police as Leonardo Degianni, for failure to signal and failure to exercise due care. To date, no charges have been issued for the victim’s death, or for leaving the scene of a fatal crash. “We urge the Kings County District Attorney’s Office to carefully review this case,” wrote Lefevre, “and bring appropriate charges.”

Lefevre’s family and friends have launched a letter-writing campaign to Hynes’ office asking for a careful review of the case. More information is available here.

Francesca Maytin (inset) and Lynette Caban. Photo: Post

On January 2, 2003, 82-year-old Francesca Maytin was crossing Third Avenue between East 107th and East 108th streets when Lynette Caban backed her Jeep Cherokee into the intersection, striking Maytin hard enough to throw her a distance of over 18 feet, according to a Vance press release. Caban, now 39, was driving with a suspended license at the time of the collision, and had received four summonses for “similar conduct” in the three months prior. She also had a plastic bag taped over the right rear window of her vehicle, which obstructed her view. On January 13, Caban was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March. (The Post reports that Caban may not face jail beyond time served, and says she continues to drive using a different name.)

The Caban case was brought by Vance’s predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, and concluded only after the Court of Appeals ruled in 2010 that driving with a suspended license can be used as evidence of criminal negligence. That decision was another big win, and was hailed by Vance as “a significant step in holding drivers accountable for dangerous and unsafe operation of a vehicle.” Which makes the case of Edwin Carrasco all the more puzzling.

On June 30 of last year, Yolanda Casal, 78, and her 41-year-old daughter Anais Emmanuel were crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 98th Street when Carrasco, 38, backed into them with his Ford Explorer. Casal was killed, Emmanuel hospitalized. Like Lynette Caban, Carrasco was driving with a suspended license. Vance did not charge Carrasco for killing Casal or injuring Emmanuel, though Carrasco was reportedly breaking at least two laws at the time of the crash. According to the online database of the New York State Unified Court System, Carrasco pled guilty to a top charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, a misdemeanor stipulating that he drove without a license when he knew or should have known that he didn’t have one. Carrasco’s penalty: a $500 fine.

It was reported that Carrasco, like Caban, had a history of license suspensions and recklessness behind the wheel. It’s unknown whether the specifics of his record were considered in the decision not to prosecute for causing death and injury. Nor do we know if the Court of Appeals ruling — which distinguished between license suspensions for dangerous driving and, for instance, unpaid parking tickets — was a factor. We asked Vance’s office for insight into the differences between the two cases, but a spokesperson would say only that each case is decided on its own merits, and declined to elaborate.

So, as often happens when it comes to matters of traffic justice, the public is left to speculate. It is baffling that the nearly identical details surrounding the deaths of Francesca Maytin and Yolanda Casal could bring such disparate outcomes for their respective killers. It also seems the conviction of Lynette Caban shows that prosecutors can be successful with the type of case that the city’s district attorneys, including Cy Vance, are not otherwise pursuing.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Jason King was in a Madison Avenue crosswalk when a dump truck driver backed into him and dragged him 30 feet. King's death prompted then-Senator Carl Kruger to take action -- not for tougher penalties for deadly driving, but for a ban on listening to music while walking. Photo: DNAinfo

But a closer look reveals some major caveats. First, the study relied on notoriously unreliable media reports to come up with 116 cases, between 2004 and 2011, in which pedestrians were killed or injured while wearing headphones (total U.S. pedestrian deaths during those years numbered in the tens of thousands). The majority of victims cited in the study were struck by trains, not cars, which as much as anything could call into question the perils of walking on train tracks — or the need for safer pedestrian thoroughfares.

Researchers noted that the overall use of headphones probably increased during the study period. If the study has any evidence that not wearing headphones is safer than wearing headphones, none of the press accounts we’ve seen have picked it up.

Then there’s this detail, reported by NPR:

The study is not the last word on the subject, the researchers concede. Because the data are drawn from media reports, they cannot say conclusively whether accident victims might have also had mental problems or drivers might have been at fault, for example.

Come again? With no accounting for driver error, this study isn’t worth the paper its printed on. In taking motor vehicles and their operators out of the equation, you might as well pin pedestrian deaths on Chuck Taylor tennis shoes or Orbit chewing gum.

Even if you start from the premise that the onus is on pedestrians to protect themselves from powerful multi-ton vehicles, the findings here are suspect at best. And though lead author Richard Lichenstein acknowledges that the study is basically a conversation-starter, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Stories like the ones circulating today lend credence to the idea that traffic crashes are as unpreventable as natural disasters, and the best we can do is remain vigilant and hope we don’t die. When a paper like the New York Post sees a chance to pen a victim-blaming headline, it doesn’t sweat the small print.

From today’s speech:

We’ll also make our city smarter and safer by deploying Traffic Enforcement Agents to safety hot spots at key intersections, doubling the number of 20 mile-per-hour zones for schools, and continuing adding more miles of protected bike lanes.

Now, I realize the debate over bike lanes has sometimes been hot and heavy. But the reality is more and more New Yorkers are biking, and the more bike lanes we put in, the fewer deaths and serious injuries we have on our streets.

This year, we’ll take steps to enforce the law requiring every delivery rider to have proper safety equipment and clothing that identifies the name of the business. At the same time, we’ll launch the largest bike share program of any city in the country. Those bikes will create another option for getting around town faster and easier, and so will new Select Bus Service in Brooklyn, which we’ll launch in partnership with MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.

Watch it live here.

Update: Bloomberg also talked a little about parks and waterfront development. Read more after the jump.

All across the city, we’ll continue reclaiming and revitalizing our waterfront. We’ll open Rockaway Park in Queens. We’ll complete the reconstruction of McCarren Pool in Williamsburg, and the first phase of Calvert Vaux Park in Bensonhurst and we’ll transform Pier 5 of Brooklyn Bridge Park into soccer fields and open space.

Here in the South Bronx, we’ll begin construction of Soundview Park. And out in the harbor, we’ll continue transforming the island that time passed by, with 30 new acres of parkland that will make Governors Island one of the great waterfront destinations in the world.

And across the city, we’ll join with AT&T to bring Wi-Fi service to a dozen city parks — so even if you’re enjoying a beautiful day, you can still work or study or play ‘Words with Friends.’

Reclaiming the waterfront and wiring our parks are just two of the ways we’re re-orienting our city around the needs of people today, not the needs of people 30 years ago.

Admitting the problem is the first step. Photo: Brooklyn Paper

“Any driver who has been towed knows that a trip to the impound lot can be one of the most frustrating experiences in New York City,” Greenfield said.

Under the new legislation, instead of towing, vehicles would be locked with devices called “boots,” which prevent drivers from moving until they call in and pay their outstanding fines, plus a $50 processing fee. Once paid, drivers receive a code that allows them to unlock the boot and drive away, as long as they return the boot.

Cars left booted for 72 hours could be towed under the bill, as could cars parked in tow zones, bus stops, crosswalks, fire hydrants or driveways.

Greenfield said the bill comes after numerous complaints from residents who accused the city of unfairly targeting them to make cash.

Drivers whose cars are towed under the current system have to schlep to an impound lot and then pay $185 in towing and $20 in storage a day, in addition to tickets, Greenfield said.

“This bill would give drivers a chance to pay their debts to the city without wasting an entire day trying to retrieve their vehicle,” he said. “It’s a simple and fair way for the city to enforce its parking laws without excessively punishing drivers.”

Retrieving a car from impound has got to be a frustrating ordeal, which is pretty much the point. Not that the boot itself isn’t a deterrent, but if nothing else this is further evidence of a City Council preoccupied with making life easier for motorists who believe laws should not apply to them.

Of course this is old hat for Greenfield, whose obsession with loosening parking regulations seemingly knows no bounds, and who a year ago went online to rant about the city clearing snow for safer walking and biking. Yet when reckless drivers inflict serious injury and death in his district, Greenfield has nothing to say.

Greenfield’s bill has been referred to the transportation committee, with support from council members including Brad Lander, Tish James, Lew Fidler, Robert Jackson and Ydanis Rodriguez.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill