Automated traffic enforcement cameras and lockboxes to protect transit funding are at the top of the legislative agenda for transportation advocates in 2012. Image: Wikipedia.

Many of Albany’s biggest transportation issues this year — the bloated and transit-free Tappan Zee, the unfunded MTA capital plan — will be decided by Governor Cuomo. But transportation advocates also have a slate of bills they hope to see make it through the legislature. Last year, the complete streets bill passed after a few prior attempts. Here’s what’s on the table for 2012.

Transit Lockboxes

Last year, lockbox legislation sponsored by Assembly Member James Brennan and Senator Marty Golden passed the legislature unanimously, only to have Governor Cuomo “eviscerate” the bill by amendment. The sponsors have vowed to try for the original language again.

The politics of the lockbox could be different this year if downstate legislators team up with their colleagues upstate. Buffalo Republican Mark Grisanti has introduced his own lockbox meant to protect dedicated funds for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. He is amenable to working with those hoping to protect the MTA. “If we can get the upstate folks talking about a lockbox bill in the same breath as the MTA, then maybe that sends a louder message to the governor,” said Nadine Lemmon, Albany legislative advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

Speed Cameras

Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s legislation to allow speed enforcement using automated cameras hasn’t gone anywhere in the past, but advocates have declared it a top priority for this year. “It’s speed cams all the time when it comes to Albany,” said Juan Martinez, general counsel for Transportation Alternatives.

The bill has support not only from transportation advocacy groups, but the New York City DOT and public health organizations. “There is a good coalition that’s gotten around it,” said Lemmon. That said, the bill still doesn’t have a Senate sponsor, an indication of how much work is left to be done.

Red Light Cameras

Three bills to increase the number of red light cameras permitted by the state, one each for New York City, Nassau County and Suffolk County, passed the Senate last year only to die in the Assembly transportation committee. Assembly transportation chair David Gantt has a history of blocking bills that would allow localities to implement life-saving traffic technology.

The red light camera bills didn’t have sufficient outside support last year, said Lemmon, who expects more action on the issue in 2012. If necessary, she said, the bills’ Assembly sponsors might be willing to use a parliamentary procedure to force a vote in committee. In the Senate, the bills are sponsored by Marty Golden, Chuck Fuschillo and Owen Johnson, respectively.

Transit Commuter Tax Benefit

The federal government may have let the tax benefit for transit fall to $125 per month while raising the parking perk to $240, but that doesn’t mean New York State has to. Senator Chuck Fuschillo’s legislation would reinstate the full benefit for state taxes. The benefit reduction doesn’t matter much for New York City residents — even now, the tax benefit covers a monthly MetroCard — but for those commuting into Manhattan on the LIRR or Metro-North, it’s a major incentive to take transit.

Fuschillo’s bill passed the Senate but died in the Assembly last year. Though it previously didn’t have outside advocates behind it, that will change in 2012.

Commercial Cyclist Responsibility

It seems that almost every community board in Manhattan has complained about unsafe riding by working cyclists. In order to effectively and equitably improve commercial cyclist behavior, Transportation Alternatives is lobbying for a bill sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh.

The legislation would place responsibility for traffic violations by working cyclists on their employers. “It’s the business owner who is in the best position to guide the cyclists’ behavior,” explained Martinez. “In order to make those deliveries, they feel they have to ride the wrong way or ride on the sidewalk.” On construction sites, Martinez said, employers receive violations for workers who don’t wear hard hats; he said the principle should be the same for cyclists.

Transportation Alternatives’ push for the bill comes as City Council Member James Vacca is launching his own campaign to regulate commercial cyclists. Under Vacca’s proposal, police would step up enforcement of existing rules and working cyclists would be required to take a new bicycle safety course.

Curbside Bus Regulation

The curbside bus industry is booming, to say the least. In 2007, 4.2 million people rode MegaBus, Fung Wah and other curbside buses along the Northeast Corridor, compared to zero a decade before, and the number of riders continues to grow rapidly. That means it’s easier to travel the East Coast in a way that’s both affordable and sustainable, but it’s also created significant pressures on the neighborhoods in which the buses load and unload, where passengers and luggage cramp the sidewalks.

A bill sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator Dan Squadron would, for the first time, allow the city to regulate how curbside buses work. In theory, the city would be able to shift curbside operations toward streets with more room, or to locations that otherwise fit the city’s transportation vision. Legislation along these lines was proposed by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign in a 2009 report on improving regional bus service.

The bill doesn’t allow for a situation like that in Washington, D.C., however, where the city attempted to charge bus companies an $80,000 annual fee, which the industry said would result in higher fares. Under Silver’s law, the maximum annual fee for a permit is $275.

Last year, the Assembly passed the bill but it died in the Senate. With Silver’s name at the top, its future likely depends on his willingness to wheel and deal with the Senate.

Kids are more likely to be injured while walking or biking in East Harlem and the Lower East Side than the wealthier areas between them. Click to enlarge. Image: T.A.

Children growing up in Manhattan’s low-income communities are at significantly higher risk of being seriously injured or killed in traffic than their neighbors in wealthier districts, a new study from Transportation Alternatives finds [PDF]. Intersections near public housing appear to be particularly dangerous for children trying to cross the street.

In East Harlem and on the Lower East Side, the number of children younger than 18 who are killed or seriously injured while walking or riding their bikes is significantly higher than on the Upper East Side or in Gramercy and East Midtown, even though there are more total crashes with pedestrians in those wealthier neighborhoods.

The most dangerous intersection for kids on the East Side is Lexington and 125th, where 34 children were injured and one killed between 1995 and 2009.

The disparity can’t be explained by differences in population. In fact, the Upper East Side has the greatest share of residents under the age of 18 of the four areas studied. Rather, children are more at risk of getting hit by a car than adults in the low-income neighborhoods, while they are at lower risk in the high-income areas.

Transportation Alternatives hasn’t pinned down a cause, but they theorize that the design of public housing projects could be the culprit. Nine of the ten most dangerous East Side intersections for children were near public housing. The creation of large superblocks at many public housing developments could be encouraging children to cross mid-block, for example.

Twelve-year-old Dashane Santana, a resident of the East Village’s Jacob Riis Houses, was hit and killed last Friday while crossing Delancey at Clinton Street, across from NYCHA’s Seward Park Extension at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Leaders from East Harlem and the Lower East Side have decried the unsafe conditions their children face. “My district contains the greatest concentration of public housing in the city and is located in an area of Manhattan where traffic can be quite heavy. That means the children of my district are at risk,” said City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. “We need immediate action to address dangerous driving habits and must improve traffic patterns in high risk areas. Bike lanes in East Harlem are certainly one part of the solution, but more can be done.”

“This map shows us an injustice, pure and simple,” said Damaris Reyes, the executive director of the neighborhood organization Good Old Lower East Side. “Our kids living in public housing on the Lower East Side, including my own children, deserve safe streets just as much as any other child in the city. The NYPD needs to get its priorities straight and crack down on dangerous driving.”

In Harlem, 125th Street, 135th Street and Broadway are particularly dangerous for children and teenagers. Image: CrashStat

Transportation Alternatives launched an updated version of its CrashStat website today, providing a wealth of new data about street safety in New York City and where pedestrians and cyclists are most at risk. The upgrade adds four years of geo-coded data about traffic injuries and fatalities, a smoother interface, and a wealth of interactive features.

More than 13,000 pedestrians and cyclists are injured or killed by motor vehicles in the city every year, according to state DOT data, and CrashStat puts information about those crashes at New Yorkers’ fingertips. If you want to know which streets in your neighborhood are most in need of safety fixes, CrashStat lets you to locate the most dangerous intersections and corridors. Before this update, the most recent data on file in CrashStat was from 2005; the new version includes information up to and including 2009.

The new version also allows users to see who is affected by unsafe streets and what’s causing pedestrian and cyclist injuries. You can filter the crash information to see where children or seniors are particularly vulnerable, for instance, or to highlight the crashes caused by excessive motor vehicle speeds or distracted driving. Users can look at safety stats by legislative district, police precinct or neighborhood, helping activists marshal data specific to their area.

“By revealing where and why motor vehicle crashes occur, CrashStat gives all New Yorkers the information they need to demand better enforcement of our traffic laws,” said TA director Paul Steely White in an announcement about the upgrades. “This is critical to changing behavior on our streets.”

According to the new CrashStat data, the most dangerous intersection for pedestrians in the city is the corner of Park Avenue and 33rd Street, where 163 crashes injured pedestrians from 1995 through 2009. However, safety improvements at that intersection put into place in 2008 reduced total injuries at that intersection by 74 percent.

Crash data is also supposed to be provided monthly by the NYPD under a law passed by the City Council last winter. City Council Member Jessica Lappin’s “Saving Lives Through Better Information” bill required the police to provide regularly updated crash data searchable by intersection. The NYPD only put its first month’s worth of crash data online last night in response to questioning by the New York Daily News.

Extra-wide Delancey Street is one of the most dangerous roads in New York. One pedestrian and one cyclist have already been killed on Delancey this year. Image: Google Street View.

Delancey Street is one of the most dangerous roads in the city. Between 2008 and 2010 alone, 134 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by drivers on Delancey, according to Transportation Alternatives, and two were killed on the street this year.

Last week, Streetsblog reported on a new design for the base of the Williamsburg Bridge which routed cyclists off Delancey and onto calmer side streets. The implication, it seemed, was that the Department of Transportation wasn’t planning to make Delancey safer for cyclists and pedestrians, just less trafficked by them.

Elected officials on the Lower East Side, however, aren’t standing for the deadly status quo. On Monday, State Senator Daniel Squadron convened the first meeting of a new working group meant to improve safety in the area.

“For too long, Delancey has been the scene of far too many tragedies,” said Squadron in a statement. “Our working group is a much-needed step toward ending the cycle of danger. I’m confident that, together, we can find the short-term and long-term solutions to ensure a safe Delancey Street for all types of users.”

Joining Squadron were City Council Member Margaret Chin and representatives from the offices of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Borough President Scott Stringer, Community Board 3, the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, and Transportation Alternatives. Staff from the Department of Transportation and the NYPD, which would have to implement any safety plan, were also in attendance.

The group will meet monthly to create a set of short-term and long-term changes to improve safety for all users of Delancey. “All solutions are still on the table,” said Squadron spokesperson Amy Spitalnick. In an e-mail, she listed a few possible solutions already being considered: “turning restrictions, stop lines, lengthening medians and crossing times, and a real solution for bikes (understanding that they’ll end up on Delancey no matter what).”

We’ll be reporting on the working group’s recommendations as they develop, but for now, it’s encouraging to see this broad and powerful coalition of elected officials and community leaders commit to a safe Delancey Street. Their statements, collected in a press release, are below:

“I am confident that by working together city agencies, concerned elected officials, experts and community members will institute effective and creative ways to increase safety on the Delancey corridor,” said Council member Chin. “The number of fatalities this year alone demand action. It time to make Delancey safe for everyone who uses it.”

“By bringing the community together, we can develop solutions that improve traffic, pedestrian and cyclist safety in the Lower East Side,” said Congresswoman Velazquez.

“It is essential that we do everything possible to make sure we have the most effective safety measures in place to address the problems we have seen on Delancey Street,” said Speaker Silver. “I am encouraged that we now have key stakeholders at the table and I am hopeful that, with the full participation of the community, we can develop some solutions that will increase protections for pedestrians, cyclists and all other users of this important thoroughfare.”

“Last month’s tragic death of cyclist Jeffrey Axelrod was the latest painful reminder of the dangerous conditions that plague Delancey Street on the Lower East Side,” said Borough President Stringer. “For years I have called on the City to improve safety at this location, and this working group is a much needed a step in the right direction. I am committed to working with the NYC Department of Transportation, my colleagues in government, Community Board 3 and safety advocates to identify mitigations that will make Delancey Street safer for all users: pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.”

“While the last four years have been the safest in City history, we’re always working to make our streets even safer,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “We recently installed countdown signals along Delancey Street to help pedestrians cross and a safety redesign is now under way at the pedestrian and bike entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge. We continue to look for ways to build on the many enhancements we’ve made throughout the corridor and to working with elected leaders and other stakeholders to cut the number of traffic fatalities citywide in half by 2030.”

“Community Board 3 is very excited about working with the Delancey Street Working Group to make Delancey safer for everyone,” said David Crane, chair of the Community Board 3 Transportation Committee. “The Community Board has been grappling with this issue for years and has included it as a major problem in the current District Needs Statement. Senator Squadron has brought together agencies, advocates, and elected officials who are all very open to collaborating for the best resolution.”

“It’s about time everyone came together to finally put an end to the dangers on Delancey,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “Delancey Street is one of the most hazardous streets in the city–this is an important first step in making Delancey safe for foot and bicycle traffic. We understand this is a complex corridor that needs to be carefully studied but there are quick solutions that could be implemented to start saving lives now while a more permanent fix is planned. We’re eager to discuss making these solutions a reality in this working group.”

“The LES BID is excited to participate in this important dialogue with our great partners in government regarding the Delancey Street corridor,” said Tim Laughlin, Director of Policy, Planning and Operations for the Lower East Side Business Improvement District. “We look forward to working with our elected officials to implement financially feasible safety improvements that will complement and enhance projects the BID is currently leading the way on, such as our plan to extend the Delancey pedestrian medians at both Essex and Orchard Streets.”

The current configuration of this block of Riverside Drive, which feeds directly onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, makes it impossible to legally bike from the west side greenway (accessible via the overpass at the top of this image) onto local roads. Under a plan approved by CB 12's transportation committee, it will be converted to a two-way street. Image: Google Maps

Right now, Riverside Drive north of 181st Street runs one-way and quickly becomes an on-ramp to the Henry Hudson Parkway. The only entrance to the Hudson River Greenway in the area is on that block, meaning cyclists exiting the much-used path must either illegally ride against the highway-bound traffic or dismount and walk south along the sidewalk. At the same time, drivers parked on that block often drive in reverse to 181st Street rather than go forward onto the highway. That’s created unsafe conditions which local activists have fought hard to fix.

The new configuration would change the section of Riverside before it becomes a true on-ramp into a two-way street with shared bike lane markings, reported Bike Upper Manhattan member Brad Conover, who attended last night’s meeting. Parking would be removed from the west side of the street, a fact which the community board grudgingly accepted, noting in its resolution that it would like to find replacement parking elsewhere.

“Bike Upper Manhattan applauds CB-12 Traffic and Transportation Committee’s resolution last night endorsing DOT’s plan to correct one of the most glaringly unsafe street designs in Washington Heights,” said Conover. “Cyclists exiting the Westside Greenway at 181st no longer will be dumped into oncoming one way traffic.”

In the long-term, DOT told the community board, a redesign of the park could provide cyclists with a ramp that connects directly onto 181st Street. Those changes would be years away at the earliest, however. In the meantime, the changes will help connect Washington Heights to the country’s most-used bike path.

Erica Abbott. Photo via Daily News

A 29-year-old woman was killed Tuesday night while riding her bike in Brooklyn.

Erica Abbott was traveling southbound on Bushwick Avenue at Powers Street when, according to police and media reports, she fell into traffic and was run over by the driver of a Mercedes.

The Daily News says Abbott was riding near a construction site when she “suddenly lost her balance near a pile of loose wood on the street after a car horn honked and she turned her head.” An NYPD summary of the crash simply states that Abbott “fell off of her bicycle.” The driver, an unnamed 34-year-old woman, was traveling in the same direction. She remained at the scene.

Abbott was pronounced dead on arrival at Woodhull Hospital. According to NYPD, “There is no apparent criminality and the investigation is ongoing.”

Gothamist reports that Abbott was a dancer with an MFA from SUNY Purchase. She was the third known city cyclist killed this month. On August 2, Chris Doyle was hit by a truck driver less than a mile away from the Abbott crash site. Jeffrey Axelrod was run over by a cement truck at Chrystie and Delancey Streets in Manhattan on August 18. No charges were filed in the deaths of Doyle or Axelrod.

Update: A reader contacted Gothamist with details regarding conditions on Bushwick Ave.:

I’m not sure if this information will help with anything, I just picture some idiot commenting and saying “who drives a bike through a construction site.” I live on Bushwick Ave and there is a new condo building going up. There were 2 wooden barricade type structures to block off an area. They were both in the street next to the sidewalk, but one blew over with the storm over the weekend and was in the way of any biker or car for that matter. I have no idea why it wasn’t picked up Monday or Tuesday. I can see how you wouldn’t even see it if on a bike. It would put you into harms way if you were trying to swerve around it. Now we have lost someone and an ugly condo is going up. Really not fair.

Image: NYC DOT

On Wednesday, DOT outlined a proposal for new Class II bike lanes in Chelsea between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and the Hudson River Greenway. While safe streets advocates welcomed the news, there is concern that their planned location, on W. 29th and W. 30th Streets, may not be ideal for unprotected lanes.

According to DOT’s presentation to the Community Board 4 transportation committee (PDF), W. 30th ranks in the 89th percentile in fatalities and serious injuries. Lincoln Tunnel traffic and trucks en route to and from a USPS facility are ever-present. Marilyn Dershowitz was struck and killed by the driver of a postal truck earlier this summer while cycling on 29th between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. All things considered, committee members worried that unprotected lanes won’t make the two streets safe enough.

“To encourage bicyclists on these streets is a little like leading sheep to a herd of wolves,” said Bret Firfer, as quoted in a DNAinfo report on the meeting.

DOT emphasized that 29th and 30th are the only streets between 23rd and 34th that would allow for an eventual uninterrupted river-to-river route for crosstown cycling. But members of the committee offered 25th and 26th Streets as an alternative, while acknowledging that 25th would mean a couple of turns to reach the Greenway, and in the future would require riding around Madison Square on the East Side.

DOT reps believe 29th and 30th would be no more dangerous than other area streets, and said they don’t believe cyclists would take a detour to find a safer route.

“We are also very concerned about this block, but the fact of the matter is that there are cyclists that exist on this road,” said DOT’s Josh Benson. “We’re very limited in what routes work at all for cyclists. I don’t know if there are better choices out there.” At this point, DOT plans to stripe lanes on the south side of 29th and 30th, along with other traffic lane alterations, in the fall.

“I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer,” transportation committee member Christine Berthet told Streetsblog. “We are just trying to find which pair the cyclists would use most.”

Marilyn Dershowitz was fatally struck by the driver of a USPS truck on W. 29th St. in July. Will planned bike lanes offer adequate protection for crosstown cyclists? Photo: DNAinfo

Cyclists looking for a safer route between protected bike lanes on Eighth and Ninth Avenues and the Hudson River Greenway could soon see a measure of relief. Tonight, DOT will meet with the transportation committee of Community Board 4 to discuss plans for dedicated lanes on 29th and 30th Streets.

Currently, cyclists traveling east-west between 17th and 43rd have few options that don’t include jockeying with car and truck traffic on wide streets.

“There are concerns about the large USPS trucks,” says Christine Berthet of the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety. In July, cyclist Marilyn Dershowitz was killed by a postal truck driver while riding underneath a building overhang that straddles W. 29th between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, a stretch dominated by USPS vehicles. Following the Dershowitz crash — a hit-and-run; no charges filed — Berthet noted that a neighborhood advisory committee has “proposed a number of east-west connections” to DOT. “Unless these bike paths are protected,” said Berthet, “nothing will prevent another tragedy like this one.”

How much help Class II lanes would provide remains to be seen. DOT declined to release design details prior to the meeting. To find out what’s in store, and to speak up for giving cyclists the means to travel crosstown without risking their lives, head to the Holland House, Piano Room, 351 W. 42nd Street, this evening at 6:30.

The News presents the NYPD’s reasoning like so:

“The bicyclist was at fault,” a police source said. “He should have seen the driver was about to turn. The bicyclist tried to rush by and you can’t do that. The driver had to be going about 5 m.p.h.”

While we soon learn that the cyclist was wearing a helmet, the piece does not inform readers whether the truck driver signaled his turn, whether the truck was equipped with the proper mirrors, or whether the driver should have been able to see the victim before turning into him and crushing his skull.

To cap it off, the Daily News included this poll:

So I guess that’s how to settle the question of what causes crashes. If only there was some rigorous data and analysis the Daily News could get its hands on instead.

Bike-sharing users might be safer because they take fewer risks while riding. These two women trying out Boulder's new bike-sharing system don't look like daredevils. Photo: dgrinbergs via Flickr

People riding shared public bicycles appear to be involved in fewer traffic crashes and receive fewer injuries than people riding their personal bicycles. In cities from Paris and London to Washington, D.C. and Mexico City, something about riding a shared bicycle appears to make cycling safer.

Paris’s Vélib’ is perhaps the most iconic bike-sharing system in the world. Launched in 2007 with 20,000 bikes, its widespread popularity not only transformed how Parisians traveled across their city but set off an explosion of new bike-sharing systems worldwide. With a few years of practice at this point, the Parisian experience is particularly telling.

“The accident rate is lower on a Vélib’ than on ‘normal’ bikes,” a spokesperson for the office of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë told Streetsblog. In 2009, the most recent year for which data is available, Vélib’ riders were responsible for one-third of all bike trips in Paris but were involved in only one-fourth of all traffic crashes involving a bicycle.

The numbers are if anything more striking in London, where the Barclays Cycle Hire system — or “Boris Bikes,” to borrow the phrase locals have adopted in honor of their mayor, Boris Johnson — opened at the end of last July. Though the London government didn’t track the relevant safety stats of bike-share users compared to other cyclists, they provided us with the data to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations.

So far, after 4.5 million trips, no bike-sharing user in London has been seriously injured or killed in a traffic crash, according to Transport for London. Only 10 bike-sharing users were injured at all in the first 1.6 million trips on the system, a statistic that was compiled earlier. A spokesperson also told Streetsblog that they estimate that half a million bike trips take place across London each day, 20,000 of which are on Boris Bikes. Finally, during 2010, 10 people were killed, 457 seriously injured and 3,540 non-seriously injured while cycling in London.

Crunching those numbers, no people were seriously injured or killed on the first 4.5 million trips on Boris Bikes, while about 12 people are injured for every 4.5 million trips on personal bikes. And over 1.6 million trips, ten bike-sharing users received non-serious injuries, compared to an average of 35 such injuries for the same number of trips on personal bikes.

Stateside, transportation officials are seeing the same effect.

Chris Holben, the project manager for Washington D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare system, told the Boston Globe in May that bike-sharing users had a much safer rate of crashes than bike owners. He told Streetsblog that his observation was merely anecdotal, but it turns out that his instincts are likely correct.

In its first seven months of operation, Capital Bikeshare users made 330,000 trips. In that time, seven crashes of any kind were reported, and none involved serious injuries. In comparison, there were 338 cyclist injuries and fatalities overall in 2010, according to the District Department of Transportation, with an estimated 28,400 trips per weekday, 5,000 of which take place on a Capital Bikeshare bikes.

So while only seven bike-sharing riders were injured in 330,000 trips, on average, 13 people riding personal bikes are injured over the same number of trips. And bike-sharing riders suffered no serious injuries, while riders using their own bikes suffered injuries that were sometimes serious or even fatal.

In other systems, apples-to-apples comparisons with personal bike riders are impossible, but extremely low injury rates among bike-sharing riders still stand out.

In Mexico City, for example, only three ECOBICI riders have required a trip to the hospital after a traffic crash in the 1.6 million trips taken so far. That’s an impressive safety record in a city known for its dangerous traffic. Mexico City does not, however, compile the necessary data to accurately compare the ECOBICI safety rate with that of other cyclists, said a representative of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which provided technical assistance on the city’s bike-sharing program.

Similarly, Minneapolis’s NiceRide system reported “no significant accidents or major injuries” in its first year of operation. In that time, Minnesotans took 37,000 NiceRide trips.

This is encouraging news for cities like New York that are eyeing bike-sharing systems of their own. Some have worried that bike-sharing would bring a flood of inexperienced new cyclists onto roads that are too dangerous, but if New York’s experience is anything like that of its peers, cycling will be safer overall once shared bikes are added to the mix.

Bike-sharing users are struck and injured less often than people on their personal bikes. One theory is that they're more likely to stick to safe routes like this one in London. Photo: d1v1d via Flickr

For now, we can only speculate as to the reasons for this phenomenon. Streetsblog spoke with two experts on road safety, Professors Norman Garrick of the University of Connecticut and Ian Walker of the University of Bath. Each offered a number of possible explanations for the discrepancy in safety numbers.

“It’s shorter trips, maybe,” proposed Garrick. If bike-sharing users are generally taking trips of less than thirty minutes so as to avoid additional fees, each trip might be fewer miles, leading to a lower crash rate per trip.

Walker hypothesized that bike-sharing users might be less experienced riders than those who own their own bike. “They therefore avoid mixing with traffic as much as regular riders, and ride slower, and so have fewer serious collisions,” he theorized. That might be easier to achieve if bike-sharing stations are sited near bike lanes, added Garrick.

Garrick said that even apart from experience in cycling, people who have avoided cycling until bike-sharing presents them with the option might be, by their nature, less tolerant of risk and stick to safer cycling behavior. “It could be that they’re more cautious people.”

Or the other case may be true, said Walker — bike-share users could be more dedicated cyclists with an above-average skill level. “Most people don’t hire bikes from such a scheme, suggesting that the people who do hire from them might be those with a greater than average interest in cycling.” That could be especially true of the tourists taking them out, who might not have brought their own bike along with them.

The physical qualities of the shared bikes themselves might be responsible for their increased safety. “They are slower and they are very visible,” said Garrick.

That visibility might help motorists not only notice the bike-sharing user, but respect her as well, said Walker. “I suspect they are also, in most people’s minds, a sign of a novice or occasional cyclist. As such, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if drivers took more care around people using them than they do around ‘professional’ looking cyclists.” Walker’s own research has shown that drivers passed cyclists more closely if they were wearing helmets or appeared to be male.

Significantly more research will be needed to determine which combination of these factors actually explains the better safety record of bike-sharing users. But in the meantime, cities with bike-sharing systems on the horizon should be pleased to hear that the program will likely be a boon for street safety.

A Central Park cyclist was killed at this pinch point on the 66th St. transverse in 2006. Photo: rusticumjudicium via Flickr

A plan to open Central Park to east-west bike traffic is poised to move forward, and proponents are encouraged to turn out Thursday night to voice their support.

Phase one of the Central Park Conservancy project, which took root last year, will convert two existing pedestrian paths for shared use in the northern area of the park, one around 103rd St. and one near the 97th St. transverse. If all goes well, the conservancy plans to revamp three additional paths to the south — one south of the 86th St. transverse, another near the 72nd St. transverse, and a third to the south of the Sheep Meadow, in the mid-60s. Only two of the trails, 103rd St. and 72nd St., will require engineering work beyond markings and signage.

The plan is not subject to community board approval, and though Community Board 8 does not border the part of the park involved in phase one, the conservancy will on Thursday night present its plans to the CB 8 parks committee. As Streetsblog readers know, CB 8 is not known for its hospitable attitude toward cyclists. As always, the more friendly faces at this meeting, the better.

The benefits of cycling as transportation being self-evident and all, talking points abound. But the primary reason these trails are necessary is that cyclists currently have no direct way to cross the park that is both legal and safe. The transverses at present are deadly by design, and the city has no plans for improvements that would prevent crashes like the one that killed a cyclist on the 66th St. transverse in 2006.

If you can make it, let CB 8 know that thousands of bike-riding park users need routes that will allow them to go east and west without breaking the law or risking their lives. Details on the meeting are here.

Last night a service member was killed on the West Side Highway by a driver who won't face any charges. Good thing police are ramping up bike enforcement. Image: ABC via Gothamist

Basically, the editorialists at the Post believe that everyone on a bike in New York City is an outlaw who has at one time or another endangered the life of a pedestrian. No surprise there. But things get hairy when they aim to support their position with what seems to be an attempt at empirical fact:

Even Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan’s ubiquitous bike lanes haven’t made the streets any safer.

Whether the Post is ignorant of safety gains brought about by bike lanes, or simply chooses to pretend they don’t exist, this is unadulterated crap. Here are a few actual facts to the contrary:

• Since the installation of the protected bike lane on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, injuries to pedestrians are down by 29 percent.
• The protected bike lane on Grand Street has reduced pedestrian injuries by 21 percent.
• A 2008 traffic-calming project on Skillman Ave. and 43rd Ave. in Queens, including bike lanes on both streets, resulted in a “65% reduction in the number of crashes involving injuries to pedestrians on the corridor,” according to city data.
• On First and Second Avenues in Manhattan, injuries to all users are down 8.3 percent following the installation of bike lanes.
• A city study released last summer found that citywide, controlling for other factors, serious crashes on streets with bike lanes were 40 percent less deadly than on other streets.

It could be that the Post is inept at the whole pedestrian safety thing because the paper is so new at it. After years of blaming the victim and doing its damnedest to tear down street designs that have saved lives, it will take a while to turn the ship around.

Unfortunately, the Post has plenty of material to work from. As Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson pointed out on Twitter, over the last five years 766 city pedestrians have been killed by drivers, along with 98 cyclists, while three pedestrians died from collisions with cyclists. Now that the Post editorial board has taken up the cause of street safety, we await a commensurate response. That’d be one motorist-bashing editorial a day for the next two-plus years. And counting.

Why is Montreal outshining every U.S. city on cycle tracks? Photo: Richard Layman/RPUS

Though the debate has grown bitter at times, neither group has had much in the way of rigorous peer-reviewed research to argue their case through the years. However, in the last decade a small but energetic group of academics has started to publish regularly on the topic.

The latest salvo, published online in February and in the current edition of Injury Prevention, comes from Harvard University researcher Anne Lusk. Her study compares crash rates at six cycle tracks in Montreal to nearby streets that had no bicycle facilities, and bolsters the argument that cycle tracks are safer. Lusk found that relative risk of injury was 28 percent lower on cycle tracks compared to the on-street routes.

In addition, she found that about 2.5 times as many cyclists used the cycle tracks than the on-street routes. The finding agrees with the conclusions of a number of other recent studies that show protected bicycle lanes improve safety and help attract new riders.

While cycle tracks are common in European countries, they remain rare in America due to institutional inertia. That inertia was not countered effectively enough by a bicycling movement divided over anti-cycle track arguments made by vehicular cycling advocate John Forester, author of Effective Cycling, in the 1970s and 1980s.

As Jeff Mapes recounts in Pedaling Revolution, Forester helped codify and popularize the idea that cyclists fare best when they are treated as “drivers” of vehicles. He encouraged riders to take the full lane when needed, avoid riding on sidewalks, and move with the flow of traffic.

He also vigorously opposed bike infrastructure, fearing that bike lanes and cycle tracks would give authorities an excuse to ban recreational riders from the road. And he argued cycle tracks and other types of bike infrastructure were more dangerous than on-road riding.

Ninth Avenue cycle track in New York City. Photo: Beyond DC

Though a shrill and controversial figure, Forester had an undeniable influence on cycling standards in the United States. He served as the President of the League of the American Wheelman (now the League of American Bicyclists) beginning in 1979, and developed a training program called Effective Cycling that the League adopted.

Within a few years, however, the League warmed to bike infrastructure and he was pushed out. Much to his chagrin, the League started using a slimmed-down version of his training program.

Despite the constant controversy surrounding Forester, one organization that wholeheartedly embraced his ideas was the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. AASHTO’s influential design guide, which serves as the blueprint for most of the nation’s bike infrastructure, echoes many of his arguments about bicycle infrastructure.

The guide, last updated in 1999, recommends strongly against putting separated bike paths near roads for safety reasons, though it doesn’t mention cycle tracks explicitly. And it leaves out many of the more innovative and promising types of infrastructure — such as buffered contraflow lanes — entirely.

This has led, Lusk argues, to the widespread installation of standard bike lanes rather than separated cycle tracks in the United States, an approach that has reduced the number of people — especially women, children, and seniors — who find cycling safe.

Lusk notes, for example, that due to more than 29,000 kilometers of cycle tracks in the Netherlands, 27 percent of trips made in that country are made by bicycle, 55 percent of riders are women, and the injury rate is low. In the United States, in contrast, just one-half of one percent of commuters bike to work, only 24 percent of adult cyclists are women, and the injury rate is at least 26 times that of the Netherlands.

AASHTO began circulating an updated draft of its guide in February for comments. Unfortunately, the updated draft, though somewhat more inclusive, still leaves out critical life-saving types of infrastructure — notably cycle tracks and buffered bike lanes.

According to Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, AASHTO has already received more than 1,500 comments on the revised guide and hopes to produce a revised draft by May or June.

Leaving cycle tracks out of the guide would alienate most cycling advocates. Some American cities have already started installing cycle tracks, and an alternative guide produced by the National Association of City Transportation Officials includes many of the same promising types of infrastructure that AASHTO continues to omit.

Though AASHTO has taken some positive steps to create national bicycle routes, the group recently raised the ire of cyclists for arguing that state DOTs shouldn’t be required to adhere to a new federal policy that puts pedestrians and cyclists on a more equal footing with motorists. They’ve reversed that policy. Here’s hoping they reverse their aversion to cycle tracks as well.

• Put Pedestrians first
• Stop at Every red
• Ride in the right Direction — with traffic
• Stay on the Asphalt, off the sidewalk
• Pick a Lane, and stick with it (This one is intended to encourage cyclists not to weave between cars.)

Gruskin has focused her organizing on Tribeca to start with and has signed up more than 40 restaurants so far. Participating businesses get a decal to put in their window and pins for their working cyclists advertising their commitment to safe cycling. “The public can vote with their wallets,” said Gruskin.

Gruskin was joined by Bike New York’s education programs director Rich Conroy and City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca. “It’s imperative that all cyclists, whether riding for commuting, work or fun, know and follow the rules of the road,” said Conroy. “More resources should be available for commercial cyclists.” Bike New York will work with the Gruskin Foundation to provide additional safety training for restaurants that request it.

Vacca focused his remarks on the importance of education and safe behavior. “Whether you’re on two wheels or on four wheels, you have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” he said. When Streetsblog asked him after the event about possible engineering solutions to improve bike-pedestrian relations, he said that any design had to be site-specific and turned the conversation back to the pledge campaign.

Seaton’s blow-by-blow masterfully sets the scene: the controversial, effective transportation chief, her wealthy, well-connected detractors and their high-profile corporate lawyers, all engaged in a battle over a few hundred feet of asphalt in a drama playing out on the front page of the “world’s finest newspaper.”

But unlike local media, Seaton puts all the pieces in one place:

Two days before the lawsuit was launched, the Sunday edition of the New York Times’s Metro section led with a feature about how much Sadik-Khan had upset people with her highhanded approach to policy-making. Putting aside the implicit sexism of the piece, there was no attempt to report the facts — the booming commerce in the newly pedestrianised Times and Herald Squares, the improvements in road safety, particularly pedestrian casualty numbers, from the traffic-calming effect of installing bike lanes, and the increase in cycle use itself.

“What is more,” Seaton writes, “the article made occasional use of an interview with Sadik-Khan evidently recorded some weeks earlier; so clearly, this feature had sat on the stocks until an editor decided the moment was ripe. And that moment just happened to be the Sunday before the Monday when the lawsuit was filed.”

Media conspiracy theories aside, Seaton, like Rob Hoell before him, illustrates how outsiders have a better grip on the politics at play than our own media. And he certainly shows a keener understanding of what’s at stake.

New York City justly sees itself as the world’s greatest city: here, in some sense, people live the way everyone would live if they had the chance. How New York — the city that still has a uniquely low level of car ownership and use — manages its transport planning in the 21st century matters for the whole world: it is the template. If cycling is pushed back into the margins of that future, rather than promoted, along with efficient mass public transit and safe, pleasant pedestrianism, as a key part of that future, the consequences will be grave and grim.

“If we want to give meaning to multi-modal transportation … and if we want a vibrant city, then we must encourage safety for people who walk and bicycle.”

That was Phil Mendelson, the city council member in Washington, DC, who chaired a hearing on pedestrian and cyclist safety earlier this month (as quoted by TBD). Contrast his opening remarks with the intro to a hearing last December by New York’s own James Vacca, the transportation committee chair who considers sound bike policy a “tradeoff” between safer streets and more parking.

The DC hearing was marked by emotional testimony from victims and family members of DC residents lost in collisions with drivers. Several spoke of mistreatment at the hands of police. Among them was Ruth Rowan, the mother of Alice Swanson. In July of 2008, 22-year-old Swanson, riding in a bike lane on her way to work near Dupont Circle, was killed by the driver of a garbage truck. According to Rowan, shown in this video from David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington, the investigation into her daughter’s crash was stalled by a detective who went to great lengths to blame Swanson for her own death, despite a mountain of contradictory evidence.

What is clear is that, whether in DC or New York, pedestrians and cyclists are routinely held to a model of care and responsibility not expected of their counterparts sheathed in glass and steel. Vacca has shown substantial interest in pedestrian safety, slowing down speeders, and opening up crash data, so maybe he would consider convening a council hearing that shines a spotlight on the vital issue of NYPD crash investigations, which all too often seem to reach conclusions before all the facts are in.

Given the current topsy-turvy climate, where cyclists and pedestrians are singled out for scorn and scolding while their killers are spared comparable scrutiny (at least two pedestrians dead in the last two days), it would be nothing short of revelatory to hear Vacca and other prominent council mems echo Mendelson, who — while issuing the obligatory call for enforcement “against pedestrians and cyclists as well” — at least acknowledged that, “If someone is driving a 2,000 or 4,000 pound machine, they need to be held to a higher standard.”

James Vacca and Jessica Lappin at a November City Council transportation committee hearing. Photo: Noah Kazis

Three bills to open up information about traffic and street safety to the public cleared the City Council’s transportation committee unanimously today. According to committee chair James Vacca, the bills are scheduled for a floor vote this Wednesday. Two of the bills, in particular, should provide New Yorkers with a much clearer picture of what’s happening on their streets and empower them to fight for increased safety.

Jessica Lappin’s “Saving Lives Through Better Information” bill will require the Police Department to provide monthly data on both traffic crashes and summonses. The crash data will be searchable by intersection and include the types of vehicles, number of injuries and fatalities, and any factors contributing to the crash, like speeding or driver inattention.

The summons data will be disaggregated into the type of summons, but only broken down into borough and police precinct totals — a step down from the detailed geographic information attached to crash data.

Last November, the Council amended Lappin’s bill to require DOT to release the data, which the transportation department would have received from the police department. As passed today, the bill returns that responsibility to NYPD. “DOT had a pretty legitimate objection to being required to report data that another agency tracks,” said Bret Collazzi, Vacca’s spokesperson. Switching the mandate to DOT had been an attempt to “force the data out even if PD didn’t want to give it out,” he explained, but “it’s preferable to have the agency that actually records the data distribute it.”

When Lappin’s bill first received a hearing last April, the police testified that they were opposed to the legislation both on the grounds that it would require significant amounts of manpower — a claim which strained the Council’s credulity at the time — and because they didn’t think the public should be interpreting traffic data in the first place.

“This information is only valuable to those with the training, knowledge and experience to understand its context and interpret it correctly,” said NYPD Chief of Transportation James Tuller at the time. “That is the role of the police commander.” We have a request in with NYPD to see if its stance has changed over the last year.

Rosie Mendez’s bill, Intro 374, would require DOT to track all bike crashes that are reported to a city agency, which aren’t all currently collected formally. DOT would prepare a yearly report listing all collisions between a cyclist and a motor vehicle, pedestrian, or other cyclist, including all injuries and fatalities from those crashes. That information would be available by borough and precinct.

Gathering that kind of crash data has been a top request of Nancy Gruskin, who established the Stuart C. Gruskin Family Foundation after her husband was killed by a cyclist in 2009. It should also make clear the relative dangers of and to cyclists on New York City streets.

Vacca’s bill, Intro 377, would require DOT to explain why it rejected certain requests for traffic control devices. If a community board or Council member requests, say, a stop sign and DOT rejects that request, DOT must send a summary of the federal warrants it used to guide its decision, along with the date and time it collected the traffic data. The community board or Council member may then request that DOT send them a summary of any traffic study it conducted.

The bills were voted on as a package, and received “aye” votes from the eight committee members in attendance: Vacca, Lappin, Dan Garodnick, Ydanis Rodriguez, Deborah Rose, Jimmy Van Bramer, Vincent Ignizio and Peter Koo.

The recommendations to improve pedestrian safety include widening crosswalks from 12 feet to 40 feet near the 74th Street-Broadway subway station. Image: NYCDOT

When large numbers of pedestrians, trucks and cars battle for limited space, you get a traffic mess. When that traffic mess is in one of the nation’s first high-density garden communities, which now is also one of the nation’s most diverse communities, you get Jackson Heights.

City transportation planners are taking another shot at untangling congestion in the commercial core of this Queens neighborhood, and on Saturday unveiled their recommendations to an audience of nearly 200. Afterward, local Council Member Dan Dromm voiced support for the plan.

Among the proposals topping the list:

• Converting one block of 37th Road and a small stretch of 73rd Street to pedestrian ways, which may accommodate vendors and bike parking for the neighborhood’s nearby transit hub.
• Create truck-unloading zones on commercial streets for several hours each morning, and metered parking fees that vary according to demand.
• Reverse traffic on 75th Street to allow southbound Q47 and Q49 bus service to shift to that street, providing quicker trips to a major transit hub.

The full set of recommendations, which you can browse through on the DOT site, includes many of the city’s sustainable transportation priorities: encouraging pedestrian, transit and bicycle use and creating open space where possible. And for motorists, planners say, traffic will move faster by reducing truck double-parking and trimming the number of left and right turns allowed.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that congestion is a really big problem,” said David Stein, director of community initiatives for planning and sustainability at DOT, during his presentation at P.S. 69.

No one argued with that, but Stein met with skepticism from several participants steeped in the belief that City Hall often ignores views from non-Manhattan neighborhoods.

“These are not set in stone,” Stein assured them. “We want to hear from you — if there are things that you like, or don’t like.”

The $1.4 million DOT study has been 18 months in the making. The agency held three earlier sessions for the public and conducted surveys of 1,445 pedestrians, 1,843 drivers, and 75 local businesses. The project covers the area from 69th Street to 82nd Street, and 35th Avenue to 41st Avenue, which includes the northern edge of Elmhurst.

Joe Sciberras, a 61-year-old executive, said he’s tired of bus delays between the transit hub and his home, north of the study area.

“Sometimes you sit there 15 to 20 minutes,” said Sciberras, who was skeptical that planners had come up with winning solutions.

Mary Rooney, 77, who lives in senior housing north of the study area, liked the focus on pedestrian safety, especially after a neighbor was struck by a car several months ago.

“I like longer traffic lights because sometimes you can’t get across the street before the light changes,” she said.

Council Member Daniel Dromm, who represents the area, said he liked the plan and hoped it wouldn’t meet the fate of two previous studies that were never implemented. “Let’s do it and see how it goes,” he said. “If it needs tweaking, we’ll do it.”

DOT Queens Borough Commissioner Maura McCarthy said the department would sort through the public’s suggestions and hoped to make the changes in about six months.

The initial work would be done using inexpensive, temporary fixes — for instance, using large planters to close streets to traffic — before the changes become permanent.

A NYC DOT map of every traffic fatality in the city in 2010. For a larger version, see this PDF.

According to DOT data, 269 people died in traffic crashes on the streets of New York City last year, 11 more than in 2009. While that total shows New York City’s streets to be the safest of any major American city and less deadly than a generation ago, as Mayor Bloomberg said when announcing the same data last year, “even one traffic fatality is too many.”

The rise in traffic deaths last year was largely driven by a spike in crashes that killed motorcyclists, from 29 in 2009 to 39. The number of cyclist deaths also increased from 12 to 18. (In 2008, 26 cyclists were killed in traffic.)

More pedestrians lost their lives in traffic than any other category of victim: 151 pedestrians were killed by traffic in 2010, five fewer than the year before. Traffic crashes also killed 61 motorists and passengers, an increase of one from the previous year. The number of traffic injuries was not included in today’s data release, but is always orders of magnitude larger than the number of deaths.

One year’s worth of changes shouldn’t be taken to suggest a longer-term trend, but since 2001, traffic deaths have become substantially less frequent on the city’s streets. The total number of traffic fatalities in New York City fell 31 percent between 2001 and 2010, and pedestrian deaths dropped by 21 percent over the same period.

New York City’s unique transportation system makes it far safer than any other large American city. In part because so much of the population walks and takes transit rather than driving, the rate of traffic fatalities here is half that of other large American cities and one quarter the national average. “The low per-capita traffic fatality rate in NYC is real and is an important (and not sufficiently recognized) aspect of NYC’s overall quality of life,” said Charles Komanoff, author of “Killed by Automobile” [PDF].

Today’s announcement of traffic fatality information was lower key than last year’s announcement, where Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Mayor Bloomberg, and NYPD traffic chief James Tuller all appeared at a press event. This year, the announcement was limited to a press release from DOT.

There were fewer traffic deaths in 2009 than in any other year since New York City started keeping records, and 2010 was the least deadly year after that. However, while some of the most dangerous intersections of 2001, like Herald Square, have been tamed, a DOT map showing each of the 269 traffic deaths displays clusters of road deaths in places like the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge and the intersection of Kings Highway and Ocean Avenue.

Compared to other global cities, New York still has a lot of ground to make up on street safety. Tokyo and Berlin’s traffic fatality rates are less than half that of New York City.

In its announcement of the 2010 fatality information, DOT also reiterated its commitment to the pedestrian safety action plan it enacted last year. This year, that will include the city’s first 20 mph zone, sixty miles of safety upgrades to the most dangerous corridors, and twenty redesigned intersections on Manhattan’s deadly two-way arteries.

Reichbach says the initial meeting will serve to outline long-term goals — one possibility is to lobby DOT for a 20 mph pilot zone. Brooklyn DOT Commissioner Joseph Palmieri will be asked to the next meeting. Levin plans for the group to meet every six weeks to two months, says Reichbach.

The membership roll at this point consists of Levin and Reichbach as co-chairs, plus two members of the Boerum Hill Association. Community Boards 2 and 6 will also be invited to participate. Now would be the time for livable streets advocates to get involved as well.

Tonight’s meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Community Board 6, 250 Baltic St., at Court.