Streetsblog New York City

A map of New York-area pedestrian fatalities. Because so many people in the region walk, pedestrian safety measures can prevent a large number of deaths and injuries. Image: Transportation for America

Despite streets that remain far too dangerous for walking — 3,485 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes during the past decade in the New York metro area alone — efforts to pass a complete streets bill are still stalled in the state legislature.

The legislation, which would require all street projects that receive state and federal funding to accommodate the needs of everyone who uses the street, has passed the Senate Transportation Committee but hasn’t even been introduced in the Assembly yet. With less than a month left in the legislative session, a complete streets bill is going to need powerful supporters to clear the Albany gauntlet.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is urging complete streets supporters to go straight to the top: Governor Andrew Cuomo.

One of the most powerful letters to the governor comes from Sandy Vega. Vega’s daughter Brittany was killed last year while crossing Long Island’s Sunrise Highway, the second-deadliest road in the New York region. She wrote:

Dear Governor Cuomo,

I need your help. New York State needs a Complete Streets law, now, and I am requesting your support and advocacy to make sure this bill is passed before the legislature goes home.

New York has some of the most dangerous roads in the nation, and it is time to stop the carnage. In the fall of 2010, my daughter, Brittany Vega, a 14-year-old walking to school on Long Island, was struck and killed by a car while crossing the road. This particular road, Sunrise Highway, is a 6-lane, arterial road that bisects the central business and residential areas of our hometown in Wantagh. With no count-down clock, there was no way Brittany could tell how long she had to get across. With no pedestrian island in the roadway, she had no safe refuge. She made a guess, and it cost her life.

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Complete streets provide safe spaces for all users, not just motorists. Photo: Streetswiki

Earlier this week, 12 senators, led by Tom Harkin (D-IA), introduced the Complete Streets Act of 2011 (S.1056), a companion to the House bill we reported on a few weeks back. The purpose of the bills is to push states and metropolitan planning organizations to fully consider incorporating pedestrian and bicycle safety measures when roads are built or reconstructed.

Like the House version, the Senate bill would require states and MPOs to craft and adhere to complete streets policies. It goes further than the House bill, however, in that it also requires agencies to consider cyclists, pedestrians, and transit when building roads with federal funds. Both bills have been weakened from a previous incarnation, however — they no longer carry penalties for noncompliance.

Complete streets are streets with safe places for everyone, whether they’re in a car, on foot, on a bicycle, or riding transit. Some “street treatments” that are used to make streets more complete are sidewalks, bike lanes, special bus lanes, comfortable and accessible public transportation stops, frequent and safe crossing opportunities, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, and roundabouts, just to name a few.

Twenty-five states and more than 200 local jurisdictions have adopted Complete Streets policies. Every state except Maine, Nevada, Alaska and South Dakota has at least one city or town that has enacted a Complete Streets policy, according to a recent report [PDF]. According to the National Complete Streets Coalition:

The power of the Complete Streets movement is that it fundamentally redefines what a street is intended to do, what goals a transportation agency is going to meet, and how the community will spend its transportation money. It breaks down the traditional separation of “highways,” “transit,” and “biking/walking,” and instead focuses on the desired outcome of a transportation system that supports safe use of the roadway for everyone, by whatever means they are traveling.

The importance of the legislation is underscored by this week’s release of “Dangerous by Design,” a report by Transportation for America on pedestrian fatalities caused, many times, by streets designed without consideration for people on foot.

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A map of New York-area pedestrian fatalities. Because so many people in the region walk, pedestrian safety measures can prevent a large number of deaths and injuries. Image: Transportation for America

Compared to other American regions, the New York metro area is, by and large, a safe place to walk. Only two large metros, Boston and Cleveland, perform better on Transportation for America’s pedestrian danger index, as described in the new report, “Dangerous By Design,” which Tanya covered earlier today on Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

The index measures how likely someone is to be killed while walking, given the total number of pedestrian fatalities and the amount people walk. New York and its suburbs are sufficiently compact to make walking a common activity, and the region has enough pedestrian infrastructure to keep people relatively safe as they do it.

But New York isn’t doing so well when it comes to the total number of people killed while walking. With an average of 1.9 pedestrians per 100,000 residents killed in crashes each year, the region ranks 13th worst in the nation, with only slightly fewer pedestrian fatalities per capita than Houston. Between 2000 and 2009, 3,485 pedestrians in the New York area pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes.

So while New York’s transit-oriented transportation system makes the area much safer than the typical American region, the “Dangerous By Design” numbers should still be a wake-up call: With so many pedestrians on the street, New York and its suburbs need to be that much safer for people on foot.

One of Transportation for America’s recommendations is particularly timely for the New York region: passage of complete streets policies. A proposed complete streets law for New York, which would have required projects with state and federal funding to be designed with all users in mind, passed the State Senate last year but died in the Assembly. An updated version of the bill is in front of the legislature right now, but needs a push in both houses if it is to become law.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver could make a slew of transportation bills move through his chamber or let them languish as in years past. Photo: Daily News

This year’s legislative session is rapidly coming to a close in Albany. With the state legislature wrapping up its regularly scheduled official business on June 20, the Capitol is entering a period of intense activity as legislators and lobbyists make a final push for their priorities.

Albany has some big items on its agenda this month: rent regulations, a property tax cap, ethics reform, and gay marriage. Somewhat below the radar, the push is on for a number of street safety and sustainable transportation priorities as well. Time is of the essence, as advocacy momentum built up over the year dissipates after the session ends. Bills that falter this time around will have to start over again after the legislature reconvenes in January.

If support gels for any of the following bills, the legislature can act extremely quickly to turn them into law. That’s especially true in the Assembly, where Speaker Sheldon Silver controls a large majority and where most of this legislation is currently stalled or has died in past sessions.

Complete Streets

Complete streets legislation would require planners to consider the needs of all road users when designing a road receiving state and federal funding. Last year, it passed the State Senate but stalled out in the Assembly.

After talking with the legislation’s opponents, complete streets supporters made some revisions to the language, and an updated version of the bill is headed to the Senate Transportation Committee today, said Nadine Lemmon, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Albany legislative advocate. As now written, the complete streets bill would cover the large set of projects that already need to conduct extensive reviews as part of the federal approval process, which involves filling out thick binders of paperwork. “We’re targeting projects that already have to do a lot of review and we’re just adding two pages to their world,” said Lemmon.

Purely local projects wouldn’t be covered, but Lemmon argued that as towns or counties prepare complete streets plans on some projects, they’d grow more familiar with the concept, leading to what she called a “trickle down effect.”

In the Senate, the complete streets bill is sponsored by both Charles Fuschillo and Martin Dilan, the chair and ranking member of the Transportation Committee, respectively, along with twelve other senators. In the Assembly, however, the companion legislation hasn’t been introduced yet. That said, Lemmon reported that preliminary conversations about the bill with both the governor’s staff and state DOT officials have been encouraging.

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Over the last four years, New York City has seen a transportation renaissance on its streets, striking a better balance by providing more space for walking, biking, and transit.

As with any departure from the status quo, it can take a while for everyone to grow accustomed to the changes. So Streetfilms decided to look at three of NYC’s most recent re-designs — Columbus Avenue, First and Second Avenues, and Prospect Park West — and show how pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers benefit from safer, calmer streets. We talked to transportation engineers with decades of experience, elected leaders, community board members, people on the street, and business owners to get their take on the new configurations.

The truth is, no matter how hard some media outlets try to spin it otherwise, these new street safety projects have broad community support. And while the story of these changes often gets simplified in the press, the fact is that the benefits of the redesigns go far beyond cycling. A street with a protected bike lane also has less speeding, shorter pedestrian crossings, less lane-shifting and more predictable movements for drivers, and the opportunity to add more trees and plantings. Injuries to pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and car passengers drop wherever the new designs go in. And on the East Side, these improvements have been paired with dedicated bus-only lanes with camera enforcement, making service more convenient and attractive for thousands of bus riders.

At 11 minutes, this is one of our longest Streetfilms. We cover a lot of ground here, and we hope it’s illuminating no matter what side of the issue you fall on.

A bill to provide Americans with more transportation choices than just driving is one step closer to becoming law. Reps. Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Steve LaTourette (R-OH) just introduced the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2011 [PDF]. The bill doesn’t have a number yet.

A complete street accommodates all road users, not just motorists. Photo: Urban Milwaukee

The bill mandates the consideration of the “safety and convenience” of all users in “all phases of project planning and development. State DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations would have to take “pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit users, children, older individuals, individuals with disabilities, motorists, and freight vehicles” into account when developing transportation projects.

Rep. Matsui said in a statement:

Especially at a time when gas prices are putting enormous pressure on the pocketbooks of American consumers, more and more people are looking for alternatives to driving. However, far too often, our roads are designed with one thing in mind – trying to move vehicle traffic as quickly as possible. The risks of such design are apparent in the number of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths and injuries we see every year, and often discourage more people from considering other transportation methods. By completing our streets, we can open up our roadways to pedestrians and cyclists – helping to ease congestion and providing an alternative to gas powered vehicles. In doing so, we take strides to fight air pollution and global warming and improve our public health and safety.

LaTourette’s support for complete streets came as a result of advocates flooding his office with complaints after he ridiculed bicycling as a mode of transportation and a jobs engine in a committee hearing last year. Perhaps if he’d never made those disparaging remarks he would never have discovered the groundswell of support for active transportation and wouldn’t be the complete streets champion he is today.

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Complete streets policy adoption nationwide. Image: National Complete Streets Coalition

With adoptions in more than 200 localities and 23 states, complete streets policies have nearly doubled in number every year over the last three, according to a new report by the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Of course, all policies aren’t created equal, and the coalition separates the strongest — those that can serve as models for upcoming states and municipalities — from the less ambitious. Its top ten, representing cities, counties and states of varying sizes and geographic regions, appears after the jump.

These jurisdictions were recognized based on their adherence to a set of best practices. Outstanding policies were credited for aiming to create integrated networks for a variety of modes. They also received credit for demonstrating a clear intent to cover all roads. In addition, standouts included a set of “next steps” for implementing their vision, among other criteria.

“Recent polls show that voters’ top priority for infrastructure investments are safer streets for our communities and children,” writes Barbara McCann, coalition executive director. Policies recognized by the group were adopted by:

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For years, state DOTs have exploited a loophole of federal government policy that allowed them to build massive, publicly funded projects without accommodating non-motorized users as long as they could show that “due consideration” had been given to bicyclists and pedestrians.

But last year, US DOT gave that requirement some teeth, issuing a directive specifying that “due consideration” should include “the presumption that bicyclists and pedestrians will be accommodated” in project designs paid for with federal government dollars.

AASHTO's John Horsley has complained that a new US DOT directive would make it too hard for state DOTs to ignore the needs of cyclists and pedestrians. Photo: Flickr, Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Well, surprise! State DOTs aren’t happy about it. In a supplement [PDF] to a letter [PDF] to US DOT yesterday, John Horsley, executive director of the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, urged federal officials to reconsider the requirement. “This regulation presents an undue burden on states to justify exceptional circumstances when not including provisions for bicyclists and pedestrians in a project,” he said.

Someone should tell Horsley — that was sort of the point. US DOT is trying to make it hard for state DOTs — using money from both taxpayers who drive and those who don’t — to completely ignore the needs of non-drivers.

In its directive, USDOT states that walking and bicycling should be considered equal to other modes.

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Complete streets legislation remains a top priority for street safety advocates in Albany, and PBS ran a nice feature last week on the issue. It starts at the 4:45 minute mark in this clip.

The program, New York NOW, has also made complete streets the subject of their weekly poll, and the two choices lay out the current terms of the debate pretty bluntly. Either complete streets are “necessary,” or they are “unfunded mandates.”

On one side are advocates like AARP, who point to the fact that a motor vehicle driver kills a pedestrian on Long Island’s streets once a week and once every ten days in the five largest upstate counties. On the other, the New York State Association of Counties continues to make complaints about the legislation that mostly serve to show they haven’t read it.

The poll is still open as of this afternoon if you’d like to cast your vote.

DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights, displaying the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

NYC DOT’s Jackson Heights Transportation Study already has some of the snazziest online resources of any department project, but to get the full scoop on the changes due for the neighborhood, head over to one of the two public meetings being held tomorrow.

DOT says that the plan, developed at the request of neighborhood groups, will include improvements targeted at easing congestion, improving pedestrian and bike access, speeding bus service, making the streets safer, adding badly needed community space and tackling the thorny issues of parking and deliveries. The scope of that list suggests an exciting project.

Tomorrow’s meetings will offer a chance to sit down with DOT officials and other community members, work through the plans and offer feedback. The two sessions will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at P.S. 69, 77-02 37th Avenue (between 77th and 78th Street).