Streetsblog New York City

Reader Lisa Sladkus sent in these photos of new pedestrian refuges on West End Avenue in the 60s. Above is the refuge that just went in at 66th Street, and after the jump you can see one on 61st Street. Both are awaiting plantings in their tree pits.

These refuges are the most visible improvements in DOT's Safe Streets for Seniors project on the Upper West Side [PDF], one of 25 areas where street safety measures are slated to help reduce the risk of traffic injuries for older New Yorkers. The UWS project will also lengthen walk signals, install leading pedestrian intervals to give pedestrians a head start before traffic can turn into the crosswalk, and add curb extensions at more than a dozen street corners on Amsterdam, Broadway, and Central Park West. Some of those neckdowns have started to pop up already, and more are coming in the next two years, once the Department of Design and Construction gets down to it.

Other neighborhoods receiving Safe Streets for Seniors improvements this summer are Chinatown, Jamaica Hills, Borough Park, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay (where safer streets go unappreciated by Brooklyn Community Board 15).

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While receiving an honor from AARP last night, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn reiterated their support for the Age-Friendly New York City plan to make the city work better for senior citizens. Because New York's elderly pedestrians are at the greatest risk from motor vehicles, the Age-Friendly New York program includes a number of pedestrian safety components. Though Bloomberg and Quinn reiterated their support for these programs last night, perhaps the most enthusiasm for redesigning streets to better serve older New Yorkers came from Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor for health and human services.

The Age-Friendly New York City agenda includes 59 initiatives meant to make it easier to age in the city, including building traffic calming public spaces and redesigning the city's most dangerous intersections. Bloomberg's remarks didn't specifically mention the pedestrian safety aspects of the plan, but he did reaffirm his commitment to follow through on the entire Age-Friendly program. "When we take on a project," he said, "we actually do it." 

Quinn focused more closely on street redesigns. "Through complete streets, we're making New York a place that's safe in every way for seniors," she told the audience. In April, Quinn stood with AARP in front of the Ninth Avenue protected bike lane to participate in a safety audit. Discussing that experience last night, Quinn said that the redesigns of Eighth and Ninth had helped fix "two very problematic corners" at 23rd Street.

Perhaps most striking, it seems that livable streets advocates have a potential ally in Deputy Mayor Gibbs, who oversees the Age-Friendly New York City program. Discussing NYCDOT's Safe Routes for Seniors program, Gibbs had particular praise for neckdowns at dangerous intersections. "It creates an intentional bottleneck that not only makes the distance shorter, but slows down the traffic as it approaches the intersection," she said, "so you have a double benefit."

To keep seniors safe, one area that would especially benefit from Gibbs' influence is Manhattan's East Side.

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More than 10,000 pedestrians are injured every year on New York City streets. The people who are most at risk are senior citizens, new research from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign shows. Pedestrians over 60 years old, and especially over 75, are far more likely to be killed by cars than younger walkers. 

Older pedestrians across America are at higher risk of being killed in a car crash, but the problem is particularly acute in downstate New York. Nationally, pedestrian fatality rates are 1.5 times as high for Americans 60 and older than for those under 60. In downstate New York, older pedestrians are killed 3.7 times as often. The pedestrian fatality rate for those over 75 is even higher, almost five times that of those under 60. 

Between 2006 and 2008, 290 pedestrians aged 60 or over were killed by drivers in downstate New York.

Culling information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tri-State found that of the 12 downstate counties, Manhattan had the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities among senior citizens. Because seniors walk more in New York City, the need to build streets where they can get around safely is all the more striking.

"In most of the country, once you age out of driving you're kind of stranded," said Tri-State's Michelle Ernst. "New York is great because you can walk, but that means that more older people are exposed to the dangers of being hit and killed by an automobile." Brooklyn had the second highest rate of pedestrian fatalities among older residents, followed by Nassau County, Staten Island, and Orange County. County-by-county fact-sheets are available on Tri-State's website.

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If you ever need a laugh but don't feel like shelling out for the two-drink minimum, you could do worse than head over to a Brooklyn CB 15 meeting. At an info session last night about plans for Brooklyn's inaugural rapid bus line, the first question out of the audience was, "How many parking spots are we going to lose in Community Board 15?" The evening spiraled into absurdity from there.

A few pieces of background before I go any further. CB 15 occupies the southeastern corner of Brooklyn -- Lew Fidler territory. Their idea of congestion relief is double-decking the Belt Parkway. At last night's info session, representatives from New York City Transit and NYCDOT explained the basics of Select Bus Service on the Nostrand Avenue corridor. As it happens, the project leaves the streets of CB 15 pretty much alone, with the service enhancements on this segment coming mainly from pre-paid fares, new low-floor buses, and signal priority for transit. Few, if any, parking spaces will be touched.

But that didn't stop the members of CB 15 from proving that real authority should be kept far, far away from the appointees who serve indefinite tenures on community boards. After the Q&A on Select Bus Service, they sank their teeth into a DOT presentation about a Safe Streets for Seniors project which promises to deliver safety enhancements like longer crossing times, sidewalk extensions, and pedestrian refuges to several intersections with histories of injury-causing crashes. Below are a few typical concerns raised by board members after each presentation.

You might think some, if not all, of these objections to safer streets and better transit were offered in a spirit of jest. I honestly can't tell whether that's the case. Read on and judge for yourself -- sincere NIMBYism, or one community board's idea of a cruel joke?

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Electeds and other officials gathered with representatives from AARP today to pledge support for street improvements and to call on Albany to pass complete streets legislation.

Kicking off a day of street surveys across the state, the group met at the corner of Ninth Avenue and 23rd Street, an intersection that had been particularly hazardous for the older residents of the nearby Penn South co-op.

One Penn South resident recounted her memories of living above the intersection before a redesign of the corridor brought refuge islands along Ninth to protect both pedestrians and cyclists. "Every time I heard a siren on Ninth Avenue," she said, "I ran out to see if it was one of our seniors."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn praised "the success we've had at 23rd and Ninth," and promised that the city would "replicate" it. "I'm looking forward to more safely strolling across intersections across the city," Quinn said. Quinn also noted the development of Age-Friendly NYC, a set of 59 initiatives to help New York City become more hospitable to a growing senior population. Traffic calming and street redesigns were an important piece of that document.

AARP's top pedestrian safety priority is complete streets legislation working its way through the state legislature. That bill, which has the support of the chairs of the transportation and aging committees in both the Assembly and Senate, would ensure that all streets statewide are designed with the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities, and transit riders in mind.

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As we've recently seen in Astoria, DOT doesn't always bring innovative traffic calming tools to streets that need them. What happens when they do? At a community board meeting in Rego Park last week, the agency rolled out a broad selection of ideas including neckdowns, road diets, and pedestrian refuges. The Queens CB 6 transportation committee seemed ready to listen -- except when discussion briefly turned to the possibility of eliminating parking spaces.

DOT presented two plans to improve safety in Forest Hills and Rego Park, including a preliminary Safe Streets for Seniors proposal which encompasses a significant stretch of the traffic nightmare that is Queens Boulevard. Although the committee didn't vote on either one, members by and large reacted favorably.

Rego Park is home to one of 25 "Senior Pedestrian Focus Areas" that DOT has targeted for safety improvements due to a high density of crashes involving older pedestrians. Throughout the focus area, said DOT's Hillary Poole, signals will be recalibrated to give pedestrians more time to cross the street, and deteriorating pedestrian infrastructure will be replaced or refurbished. The project might also include some combination of high-visibility crosswalks, neckdowns, pedestrian refuge islands, road narrowing, or leading pedestrian intervals, pending results of a DOT study. The agency hasn't yet decided whether Queens Boulevard itself would receive a much-needed expansion of pedestrian space, but a wide variety of safety improvements are on the table for the whole area.

These ideas went over well with the committee, which seemed eager for some immediate action. One member asked whether the focus area could be expanded to a few intersections he felt were missing. Committee chair John Dereszewski told the DOT presenters that "if there's anything that doesn't have any cost, like signs or paint, you shouldn't wait for the final report."

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Hours after the Tri-State Transportation Campaign released a report yesterday identifying New York's deadliest roads, 13 AARP volunteers surveyed part of Third Avenue in an effort to make walking in New York safer.

The surveyors braved the January cold to spend their afternoon standing on the corner of Third and 49th Street, clipboards and stopwatches in hand, documenting the conditions at the intersection. Tri-State's report revealed that nine pedestrians were killed on Third Avenue between 2006 and 2008, making it one of the deadliest streets for pedestrians in downstate New York. A 58-year-old man was killed at the survey site on February 21, 2008.

Third Avenue is seven lanes wide at this location, so it's perhaps no surprise that so many tragedies occur there. Small fixes, though, could make a big difference. Volunteer Marlene Ramsey identified the crosswalks, badly in need of repainting and more visible zebra stripes, as the biggest problem with the intersection. Standing next to her, Alice Wade requested countdown timers for walk signs. Without them, she said, "I have to rush across the street and be scared I'll fall."

Some of the surveyors had personal experience with the hazards of Third Avenue. Volunteer Bobby Lee, who lives between Second and Third Avenues, explained his motivation for fighting for safer streets. "There was an older adult in my neighborhood who got run over by a bus," he said. "The bus driver was traumatized and the older adult was dead." Susan Ryckman, who lives on Third Avenue, reported, "I had two close calls walking here today. It really is dangerous."

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Greenpoint maven Miss Heather, who blogs at New York Shitty, has noticed an increase in the number of seniors wheeling their electric scooters through neighborhood bike lanes. The reason, she suspects, is that "some of our sidewalks do not necessarily make the best terrain for such vehicles (or pedestrians, for that matter)." 

After I shot this video a passerby asked me why I was laughing. I assured her I was not laughing at this woman for having mobility problems and using a scooter. I explained to her that I have seen no less than five people employ the bike lanes on Manhattan Avenue in just such a manner this week alone.

Inasmuch as some might think to the contrary, this neighborhood is not just for the young and wealthy. It’s for everyone. Way to go my fellow Greenpointers. THIS is what I call “taking back the streets”!

Streetsblog contributor Captain Disko has observed likewise down in the Slope, where double-parked delivery trucks lead to whole new hazards.

DOT's Safe Streets for Seniors has targeted problem spots around the city for upgrades, but obstacles to senior mobility are clearly more widespread. When faced with the choice of impassable sidewalks or taking their chances among much faster moving vehicles, what are scooter-dependent seniors to do?

On Friday, two pedestrians and a man in a wheelchair, all aged 60 or above, were hit by motor vehicles in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Two died. One was in critical condition as of Friday night.

Two drivers fled the scene. One remains at large. The other was found by police and said he didn't know he'd hit anyone. No charges have been filed.

From the Daily News:

James Dong, 60, a customer operations representative at Con Ed, was on the Bowery in Manhattan about 1:30 p.m. As he was about to enter a company vehicle, a tractor-trailer came roaring down the street, slammed into him and kept going.

"There were body parts all over the street," said Jill Haas, 48, a small-business owner from Chicago.

Dong was pronounced dead at the scene, where fellow Con Ed workers cried and looked on in amazement.

The driver, who was unaware he hit Dong, was stopped on a highway in Brooklyn but was not charged.

It seems doubtful that Mr. Dong's age had anything to do with his death. He, like so many pedestrian victims before him, was simply at the wrong place (i.e. on a street, on a sidewalk, in a restaurant) at the wrong time (i.e. when another driver neglects to pay attention to where the hell s/he is going, or how fast s/he is traveling, regardless of the fact that his/her vehicle is negotiating an environment where most fellow street users are not wrapped in steel).

Which is the bigger menace to society: a driver who flees the scene after tearing apart a live human being with his vehicle, or one who tears apart a live human being with his vehicle without noticing? That's a trick question, of course. In New York City the answer is none of the above -- or, possibly, cyclists.

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