On Delancey Street, DOT will extend sidewalks at every intersection with a star, with the largest expansion at the north side of Delancey and Clinton. On the south side of Delancey, a service road will be converted to pedestrian space. Image: NYC DOT

The crosswalks will be getting shorter on Delancey Street — one of the city’s deadliest corridors — thanks to a new safety plan from the Department of Transportation [PDF]. At 14 of 19 crossings between Clinton Street and the Bowery, neckdowns will extend the sidewalk into the street, making the distance across the extremely wide street a bit more manageable. While DOT found ways to add pedestrian space where it could, however, the department rejected options, some of which were very popular, that would interfere with the heavy traffic headed to and from the Williamsburg Bridge.

The changes to Delancey focus on the dangerous blocks approaching the Williamsburg Bridge. Cyclist Jeffrey Axelrod and pedestrians Patricia Cuevas and Dashane Santana were killed by drivers along these blocks in the last year alone. Over a five year period, 129 people were injured in traffic crashes at both Delancey and Essex and Delancey and Clinton.

The most extensive changes will come at Delancey and Clinton, the intersection right by the bridge entrance. Right now, the distance across Delancey is an incredible 165 feet, including a 30 foot median. “It begins to look more like a highway than a normal street,” said DOT bicycle and pedestrian director Josh Benson. “It gives a perception to motorists that they’ve entered a new environment, that it’s not a neighborhood street anymore.”

On the north side of Delancey, the sidewalk will be extended into the street a full 49 feet using paint and planters. The first lane coming off the bridge is a right-turn only lane, and there’s no reason for the space directly in front of it to remain open to traffic. “What we can do is capture that space, formalize it, and make it safe for people to walk to that place in the crosswalk,” said Benson.

Across the street, the service road for Delancey will be filled in and turned into pedestrian space: 14,160 square feet between Norfolk and Clinton.

On the other end of the corridor, at Bowery, another large neckdown will be installed at the southern end of the intersection. As Kenmare becomes Delancey at that intersection, each half of the street abruptly widens from two lanes to four. That means there’s a lot of extra road space, some of which is being reclaimed for pedestrians. The road will now widen to four lanes more gradually.

Under a new traffic pattern, drivers will be allowed to turn onto the Williamsburg Bridge from Clinton Street. Click to enlarge.

DOT also plans to allow drivers to turn onto the bridge from Clinton Street, which will be turned into a one-way northbound street between Grand and Delancey. The goal, said Benson, is to reduce the number of blocks drivers travel through the neighborhood when they go from the FDR Drive to the Williamsburg Bridge. Additionally, the presence of turning cars at Clinton Street might make eastbound Delancey drivers honor that red light more than they do currently. Bike access on Clinton would be maintained with a two-way bike lane.

Three new left turn restrictions would reduce turning conflicts where Delancey intersects with Chrystie, Allen, and Essex. Half of all pedestrians hit on Delancey Street are struck while they have the walk signal, according to Benson.

The improvements will be in place by June, when construction work ends on the bridge and a permanent traffic pattern is back in place.

Generally, the improvements earned commendations from local residents.

“This is more than I actually expected and I’m very pleased about it,” said CB 3 transportation committee chair David Crane. The improvements also won support from the Delancey Street Safety Working Group, made up of State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Council Member Margaret Chin, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, and Council Member Rosie Mendez.

Many, however, wanted to see additional safety improvements that DOT was unwilling to make. “We continue to feel that the lights to cross Delancey need to be lengthened,” said April Lewis, a member of the community organization Manhattan Together.

Benson, however, said that while DOT is studying retiming the signals, no major changes are in the works, lest Williamsburg Bridge traffic be negatively affected. “There might be a second here, a second there,” he said. “Making a radical shift in that could have some pretty significant impacts on traffic flow.”

“You are talking about, basically, appeasements,” responded one man standing at the back of the room. “The philosophy would be cars over people.”

Similarly, many community members complained that the traffic enforcement agents stationed at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge wave through traffic without the slightest regard for pedestrians or walk lights. When the agents are stationed there, said Crane, “there effectively is zero pedestrian crossing time.”

Also off the table was any reduction in space for traffic on or off the bridge. DOT won’t change the core width of Delancey Street while all that bridge traffic is pouring over it. For now, one can only wonder what the agency might have been willing to do had congestion pricing passed Sheldon Silver’s Assembly in 2008, or if the Fare Hike Four hadn’t killed bridge tolls in the State Senate in 2009.

The Delancey Street Safety Working Group will continue to meet, however, so more safety improvements could be added at a later date. “It is rare to get a government agency to move so aggressively and so quickly, and also to do it hand in hand with the community,” said Squadron, who added that more needs to be done. After the meeting, he mentioned bicycle safety and the quality of the median as two potential areas for improvement. “This is not the end of this,” he said.

Extra-wide Delancey Street is one of the most dangerous roads in New York, but will have shorter crossings under a new DOT plan. Image: Google Street View.

The Department of Transportation’s plan to improve safety on Delancey Street will make it easier to cross the deadly artery, a press release from State Senator Dan Squadron’s office confirms.

The plan will widen sidewalks, shorten crossing distances and extend the length of pedestrian signals, among the shortest in the city. The improvements are expected to be implemented in a manner of months. At Clinton Street, the distance to cross Delancey will fall from 125 feet to 75 feet, according to a report in DNAinfo. DOT will also change turning patterns onto Delancey.

The plan will be officially presented at a public meeting tonight and we’ll have a full report on the proposal tomorrow.

Delancey has long been one of the city’s deadliest streets for both pedestrians and the many cyclists using the Williamsburg Bridge. Last May, 51-year-old pedestrian Patricia Cuevas was killed by the driver of a private garbage truck at Delancey and Essex. Then, in August, cyclist Jeffrey Axelrod was killed by a cement truck driver as Axelrod turned onto Delancey from Chrystie Street.

The push to improve safety along Delancey gained urgency after 12-year-old Dashane Santana was killed crossing the street at Clinton Street last month. DOT’s changes have support from a safety working group made up of all the area’s elected representatives from City Council to the United States Congress. The working group will continue to meet and push for additional safety improvements, Squadron’s office said.

In the wake of the death of Dashane Santana, the 12-year-old girl killed by a minivan driver while she was crossing Delancey Street earlier this month, Lower East Side leaders are demanding safety improvements for the many pedestrians who cross this approach to the Williamsburg Bridge. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Dan Squadron and City Council Member Margaret Chin have each called on DOT to take action to prevent one more life from being taken by Delancey Street traffic.

A report from DNAinfo this morning lays out just how hostile the design of Delancey is to pedestrians. To cross Delancey at Clinton Street, where Santana was killed, pedestrians must traverse ten lanes of moving traffic in just 22 seconds.

That’s far less crossing time than pedestrians have at some of the city’s most notoriously dangerous intersections, which DNAinfo went out and measured. Reports DNAinfo’s Julie Shapiro:

For example, pedestrians crossing the eight-lane Queens Boulevard at Union Turnpike have a full 30 seconds to make it to the other side.

People traversing the six-lane Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 145th Street have 40 seconds, nearly double the crossing time on Delancey Street.

Other busy intersections with longer crossing times than Delancey Street include West Street at Albany Street, where pedestrians have 31 seconds to cross eight lanes; Houston Street at Essex Street, where pedestrians have 30 seconds to cross eight lanes; 12th Avenue at 23rd Street, where pedestrians have 34 seconds to cross six lanes; Ocean Parkway at Church Avenue in Brooklyn, where pedestrians have 45 seconds to cross 10 lanes; and Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn, where pedestrians have 60 seconds to cross four lanes.

DNAinfo’s report also includes the above video, which includes an interview with one of Santana’s schoolmates.

The area’s elected officials are primarily calling for pedestrian crossing times to be extended, a move that would surely make it easier to cross. Shrinking Delancey down from ten lanes should also be on the table; no matter how long the light is, that’s a wide street to ever cross safely.

DOT will present its plan for improving Delancey Street next Wednesday.

A redesign of this Atlantic Avenue on-ramp to the BQE should make walking to Brooklyn Bridge Park easier and safer. Image: Google Maps

Just one of the many problems with running an interstate highway through the heart of an urban area is what to do with the on-ramps and off-ramps. Motorists accustomed to freeway speeds, or eager to reach them, can drive more aggressively than normal and without as much regard for pedestrians and cyclists. At one on-ramp to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, where increasing numbers of people are crossing to reach the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, DOT hopes to make things safer with a new intersection design and an end to right turns on red [PDF].

DOT proposes putting a new traffic island in the middle of the Atlantic Avenue/BQE on-ramp. The island cuts the crossing distance for pedestrians, previously 80 feet, into two pieces, creating a safer path for those headed to the park.

The redesign shortens crossing distances for pedestrians and prevents illegal turns across their right-of-way. Image: NYC DOT

Extending back from the island will be a line of bollards and striping to more clearly divide the right turn lane from the through lane: no more right turns from the left lane. The drivers waiting in the right turn lane will also have to wait for a proper green light to turn onto the highway. The intersection had been one of the few in the city where right turns on red were allowed, though only during the morning rush.

Last year, DOT reduced the right-turn-on-red hours at the on-ramp, but neighborhood leaders including City Council Member Brad Lander and State Senator Dan Squadron continued to push for additional safety upgrades.

Additionally, east-bound drivers turning left onto the highway ramp tended to illegally run a red light due to a confusingly placed traffic signal, according to DOT. In the re-design, a second traffic island with a new signal should make it clear to left-turning drivers that they have to wait for a green light.

The transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2 approved the plans for the on-ramp earlier this week by a vote of 11 to 0.

During the same meeting, DOT also presented some changes [PDF] to its plans for safer Brooklyn Bridge Park access at Old Fulton Street. There, additional safety improvements like new sidewalk extensions at the intersection of Vine and Doughty Street and an extended median on Old Fulton were paired with the elimination of one sidewalk bulb-out due to community input.

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.”

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

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

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

Then there’s this detail, reported by NPR:

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

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

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

Neighborhood residents who've fought for a safer intersection at Parkside and Ocean cheered DOT's plan when the agency unveiled it in December.

We have a late breaking addition to the Streetsblog calendar. Tonight the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 14 will be discussing DOT’s plan to add more pedestrian space and realign the intersection of Parkside Avenue and Ocean Avenue at the southeast entrance to Prospect Park [PDF]. The redesign will be made possible by relocating a park loop entrance for cars from this intersection to Lincoln Road. An average of 20 people are injured in traffic at this location every year, and the project is expected to cut that number in half.

Neighborhood residents campaigned long and hard for safety improvements here, but Community Board 14 has a spotty record on livable streets. If you live in the area and want to see this project move forward, tonight’s meeting gets underway at 7:00 at 810 East 16th Street, by Avenue H.

If only NYPD targeted the most dangerous intersections with similar vigor. Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson and Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton went out to Canal and Lafayette, which saw 13 crashes in the month of August alone, to see how traffic is being policed. Here’s what they found.

An intersection redesign at Ocean and Parkside Avenues will close a Prospect Park entrance to automobiles. DOT predicts the change will prevent ten people from being injured every year. Image: NYC DOT

After years of neighborhood activism, the Department of Transportation plans to install much-needed safety improvements at the dangerous intersection of Ocean Avenue and Parkside Avenue, at the southeast corner of Prospect Park. By closing a park entrance to automobiles, DOT will simplify the intersection and shrink the space dedicated to traffic, preventing an estimated ten injuries per year [PDF].

On average, 20 people are injured every year at the corner of Ocean and Parkside, placing it in the top two percent of the most dangerous intersections in Brooklyn, according to the Department of Transportation. The juncture of two wide avenues is complicated by the further intersection of a park drive entrance. The five-point intersection is right next to a subway station; thousands of people cross the street to get to the train every say.

Neighborhood residents have been pushing for a safety fix for years; Streetsblog first covered their campaign in 2008. Now, the redesign is set to be put in place by July, 2012, according to local activist Carrie McLaren, who attended a meeting about the project with DOT Tuesday night.

The key to the safety improvements is closing the park drive entrance to automobiles. That shift allows DOT to create some new pedestrian space and realign the heavily-traveled crosswalks. By putting the crosswalks closer to the points where drivers execute their turns, the redesign should make motorists more aware of people walking across the street. That should help reduce the incidence of dangerous failure-to-yield violations: More than half of the pedestrian crashes at the intersection took place when the pedestrian had the walk signal.

All told, the redesign will shrink the space between the crosswalks from around 6,900 square feet to 3,400 square feet. DOT is predicting big safety gains: By their estimate, the number of crashes and injuries should drop by half, preventing ten people from being injured every year.

“I’m thrilled with the plan because it closes off the park entrance to cars, shrinks the intersection, and makes it much easier for everyone involved to travel safely,” said McLaren.

The city doesn’t expect closing the park entrance to increase congestion. Currently, the entrance is only open to traffic for two hours on weekday mornings, and only 360 vehicles use the entrance on a given day. That’s just one percent of all the traffic passing through the intersection in a day; DOT doesn’t project significant traffic disruptions as a result.

To put it a different way, in the same two hours that 360 cars enter the park at that corner, 1,300 pedestrians walk across the intersection of Ocean and Parkside.

In addition to making safety improvements, DOT is also reworking curbside regulations on Parkside Avenue to make room for a larger bus stop and delivery space for a supermarket.

After a dozen years of waiting, what's a couple more, give or take? Photo: Brad Aaron

It was supposed to happen circa 2005. Then in 2009. Now the city says the restoration of a crumbling block-long staircase that serves as a pedestrian-only street in Inwood will be finished by summer 2013.

The 215th Step-Street connects Broadway to residential blocks at Inwood’s northern end. For years its cracked stairs and broken lamps have posed a hazard — neighborhood residents have been asking the city to rebuild it since at least 1999. In 2007 a woman tripped on a hole in the stairs, cutting her legs and face, prompting renewed calls for action.

In 2008, DOT officials and then-Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat announced that a reconstruction project would be completed the following year. Instead, in the summer of 2009 the city backed off its pledge.

Now the Department of Design and Construction says plans are moving forward.

“The project is in Final Design and that phase is scheduled to be completed by July 2012,” a DDC spokesperson told Streetsblog. “The project is scheduled to begin construction in FY 13.”

While the news is promising, Inwoodites could be forgiven for not holding their breath.

Under a proposal from NYC DOT, a crosswalk will be extended across a Lincoln Tunnel entrance at Ninth and 36th. The angled NYPD parking on 36th will be converted into green space. Image: NYC DOT.

The Department of Transportation presented the findings [PDF] of its five-year study of transportation in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood at a packed public meeting last night. The massive transportation analysis included many critical projects that have already been announced, such as the 34th Street Select Bus Service route and extensions of the protected bike lanes along Eighth and Ninth Avenue, as well as a full slate of new improvements for the neighborhood, from signal retimings meant to improve pedestrian safety to new plaza space and a continuous sidewalk by the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The neighborhood study emerged from a pedestrian safety campaign conducted under the banner of the Ninth Avenue Renaissance, which started in 2006. DOT received federal funding for a study, solicited hundreds of public comments, walked through the neighborhood five times, built a powerful traffic model for the complicated Midtown area and analyzed 86 separate intersections.

Certain improvements were implemented as DOT studied the neighborhood. Leading pedestrian intervals, which give pedestrians time to establish their presence in a crosswalk before traffic gets the green light, were installed at six dangerous intersections, while pedestrian signal times were extended to provide for slower walkers.

Some of the biggest changes within the study area, which runs from 29th Street to 55th Street between Eighth Avenue and the Hudson River, are projects that have already been announced. Select Bus Service along 34th Street will speed bus trips, add new loading space and shorten pedestrian crossing distances with new bus bulbs. The extension of Eighth and Ninth Avenues, by far the two most dangerous corridors for cyclists and pedestrians, according to DOT, is expected to significantly improve safety for all users.

Other improvements, though, will be brand new. Pedestrians will again be able to walk down the west side of Ninth Avenue past the Lincoln Tunnel under DOT’s recommendation. Currently, the sidewalk is interrupted at 36th Street by an unsignalized tunnel entrance. “We would provide a crosswalk and a stop light for the traffic,” said Andrew Lenton, the project manager for the transportation study.

Another sidewalk will be restored around the corner on 36th Street. “Right now, it’s occupied by NYPD vehicles parking on the sidewalk such that you can’t even walk,” said Lenton. Under DOT’s proposal, the sidewalk and parking lane would be turned into green space.

At Ninth Avenue, the two sides of 41st Street don’t quite line up, forcing drivers to maneuver to the right and slowing traffic. By installing what they called a “mini-plaza,” DOT can smooth traffic flow while shortening crossing distances for pedestrians and creating new public space.

There was some conflict, however, over the possibility of creating additional pedestrian space on Dyer Avenue between 34th Street and 35th Street. DOT proposed closing the northbound lane of that block to traffic during the afternoon rush. When the northbound lanes were closed due to construction in 2009, the Port Authority noticed improved flow into the tunnel during peak hours. Many community members called for making the lane closure permanent and DOT said it supported the idea. “We agree. What’s the point of banning it for PM only if the advantage is you get that extra space that you can take away from roadbed and give to pedestrians?” asked DOT engineer Greg Haas. But, said Haas, the Port Authority didn’t want to see a permanent closure in case it decided it wanted the lane reopened. “They want it to be there, just in case,” he said.

The plan also includes some small but important improvements for buses heading to the Lincoln Tunnel. During the afternoon peak period, the existing southbound contraflow bus lane on Dyer Avenue will be extended by one block, from 41st Street to 42nd Street. Currently, 60 buses an hour zigzag from 42nd Street onto Ninth, then 41st, and then Dyer. Extending the bus lane would allow buses to make a single turn instead of three. Similarly, making the right turn from Ninth Avenue to 41st Street bus-only all day long, instead of only during the afternoon rush, will prioritize bus access to the tunnel.

In general, the city’s proposals were met with enthusiasm. “We are pretty excited,” said Christine Berthet, the co-founder of the Clinton Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety. However, Berthet and many pedestrian safety advocates were disappointed to see DOT opt to use leading pedestrian intervals at five dangerous intersections rather than split phases. LPIs give pedestrians a head start into the crosswalk while split phases mark off separate periods for pedestrians and turning vehicles to move. “In theory, it sounds good,” Haas said of split phases, “but they’re not as good as they’re cracked up to be. There’s a lot of non-compliance.” He argued that on the East Side, where split phases are in use, pedestrians see the light for crossing traffic turn red and step out into the crosswalk just as a green arrow sends turning cars in their direction.

DOT agreed to install a split phase at 43rd and Ninth, however, and monitor its effects. If it’s successful, it could be expanded to other intersections, said Haas. Berthet said she would continue to push for split phases. “We’ve been clamoring for split phases,” she said. “They’re the only way to protect the turning movement.”

Many were also concerned about DOT’s lack of a timeline for implementation. While Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione said that easy changes like signal retiming would be put into place shortly, there is no construction schedule for changes like the 36th Street green space or new Ninth Avenue sidewalk.

Additional safety improvements could be added on top of the study’s recommendations in the near future, however. Under DOT’s Safe Streets for Seniors program, the area between Broadway and Ninth Avenue is slated for additional safety upgrades, which Forgione said will be put together over the next couple of months. Where the transportation study included pedestrian refuge islands along the new bike lane, for example, the senior safety program might install a neckdown on the other side of the street to narrow crossing distances.

While recent improvements have made streets safer, from '95 to '09 more pedestrians were struck in Midtown than in any other district. Image: TA

On Monday Transportation Alternatives released a report tallying pedestrian-involved crashes in each of the city’s community board districts, based on numbers from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, between 1995 and 2009. Not surprisingly, the data reveal that the most collisions occurred in Midtown Manhattan, where high-density auto and foot traffic led to 8,604 crashes in District 5 alone.

The TA study, along with the relaunch of CrashStat and the (however convoluted) release of crash data from NYPD, have raised the profile of the city’s traffic violence epidemic. This is undoubtedly a positive development, and one that will hopefully continue to generate headlines as stats become more accessible. But as noted by Streetsblog readers, raw data accumulated over such an extended period of time can be misleading, and could potentially be used to undercut future efforts to improve safety.

So we ask you: How would you put to use the influx of city- and state-generated crash data? What would your criteria be for employing data to guide tangible street safety measures?

Share your ideas, from the pragmatic to the fantastical, in the comments.

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.

Wednesday was International Walk to School Day. Among the 3,784 U.S. schools participating this year was P.S. 197 in East Harlem, where kids were joined on their regular commute by Grover of “Sesame Street” fame, along with other guests. Robin Urban Smith of Streetfilms was there.

Check out the vid for improvements near P.S. 197 that make crossing the street safer, and read about this year’s “We’re Walking Here” program from DOT, which offers schools a $1,000 prize for designing their own pedestrian safety campaign materials.

While the number of cyclists heading into Manhattan's central business district has soared since 2007, the number of pedestrians injured in collisions with bicycles in New York City has fallen almost ten percent. Both measures are indexed to 100 for the year 2007.

When Hunter College professors Peter Tuckel and William Milczarski released a report finding that 1,000 pedestrians were injured in collisions with bicycles each year in New York state, Streetsblog noted that the injury trend was downward. Even though bicycling is booming in New York City, fewer New Yorkers seemed to be getting injured each year. The media hysteria over “bike bedlam” looked even more like pure fantasy.

Tuckel and Milczarski’s original report, however, did not provide year-by-year data broken down geographically. We could only see what was happening statewide over time, not the changes in NYC. We could reasonably assume that the NYC injuries were also declining, but we didn’t know for sure.

Now, Tuckel and Milczarski have graciously provided Streetsblog with New York City-specific data broken out by year. Indeed, the number of pedestrians injured in crashes with cyclists fell in New York City by around nine percent between 2007 and 2010. The injury rate fell more quickly outside New York City than inside it.

The graph above compares the change in cycling into the Manhattan central business district — a proxy for overall cycling, if an imperfect one — with the change in pedestrian injuries sustained in collisions with cyclists. The amount of cycling has soared while the injuries have declined.

This should put to rest the notion that efforts to boost cycling in the city somehow jeopardize pedestrian safety. It’s just not anywhere in the data. We won’t hold our breath waiting for the Post or the Daily News to get the memo, though.

I drive a van as part of my duties as a utility worker, and I’m appalled at the lack of courtesy and regard for human life displayed by many drivers.

Given that NYPD has issued 16 times as many tickets for failing to wear a seatbelt as for failing to yield to pedestrians so far this year [PDF], and that retaining a New York state driver’s license is now treated like a basic human right, not a serious responsibility, he makes some good points.

Here’s Ken’s letter, which has been edited and formatted for clarity. The proposals he outlines probably go farther than what many Streetsblog readers would suggest, but there’s no doubt that the principles are sound and would save lives if applied. Keep in mind that driver error causes more than 78 percent of the thousands of crashes that kill or seriously injure New York City pedestrians each year, and that failure to yield contributes to 27 percent of those crashes, according to NYC DOT’s landmark pedestrian safety study.

Dear Mr. Fried,

All the proposals outlined in your article, which appeared in the Daily News on September 26th 2011, are great ideas that need advancing.

Unfortunately, all the sidewalk extensions, pedestrian islands and complete streets are not enough to erase the savagery that takes place on our streets. The fate that met Ms. Renard is not unique, it is sad that she was killed, but on a daily basis I see many near misses, many citizens narrowly escaping injury and possibly being killed just like Ms. Renard.

I drive a van as part of my duties as a utility worker, and I can tell you that I’m appalled at the lack of courtesy and regard for human life displayed by many drivers.

In their rush to nowhere, drivers are not yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalks — even when it’s a mother with a stroller. You can’t stop this callous behavior unless you change the driver’s way of thinking. If they can’t get the message, then we have to hit them in the pocket and hit them hard.

Some pedestrians stand in the crosswalk while waiting to cross the street, with their strollers in front of them and some of them are quite careless, but ultimately it is the driver who has the responsibility of being extra cautious. An irresponsible driver has a potential three-ton killing machine on his or her hands.

Drivers and pedestrians alike must realize that courtesy trumps right of way and we drivers have to respect the lives of everyone using the roads. Here are my proposals.

(1) $1,000 dollar fine — that will be enforced — for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

(2) A two-minute freeze on vehicles turning while pedestrians are crossing in busy intersections, and a one-minute freeze in less-busy intersections. (Editor’s note: This signal timing technique is called a leading pedestrian interval, or LPI, and NYC DOT has been implementing it at an increasing number of intersections — though the length of the LPIs suggested by Ken would be extraordinary.)

(3) A massive public education campaign alerting all citizens of the dangers that exist on the roads, especially crosswalks.

Your organization’s approach as well as other ideas ,such as I have outlined, can work to provide safer streets. We need to work on all levels to make it happen, and it can happen.

Yours Respectfully,

Ken Douglas

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.”

Transportation-related deaths, represented on their own as the thick green line in this chart, remain the single largest killer of New York City children. Image: NYC Department of Health

Every year, the Department of Health releases a report on the injuries that kill NYC children [PDF]. And every year, the grim statistics show traffic to be the single largest cause of injury-related death among kids.

Between 2001 and 2009, 1,681 children under 13 years old died in New York City, 324 of them from unintentional injuries. Of those, 41 percent — 134 children — were killed in traffic crashes. Most of them were on foot when they were hit by a car or truck driver.

“Unintentional motor vehicle traffic accidents contributed the most to child injury deaths in NYC overall, with more than three quarters of deaths occurring among pedestrians,” the authors write.

The first report in this series focused specifically on traffic crashes, detailing specifically how motor vehicles kill New York City children. Last year’s report examined the massive racial inequalities in traffic fatalities; though 26.6 percent of New York City residents are black, black children make up 46 percent of all kids killed by cars.

This year, the Department of Health expanded the scope of its research to include serious injuries as well as fatalities. Between 2001 and 2008, 4,944 children were hospitalized with injuries from traffic crashes. Again, most were walking when hit. Traffic crashes are not the leading cause of hospitalizations among kids — about twice as many are caused by falls.

As preventable as these injuries are, and as much as these numbers need to come down, the rate of traffic injuries and fatalities suffered by NYC kids is lower than other American cities. Because New Yorkers extensively ride transit and walk rather than drive, child traffic deaths are three times lower per capita than the national average. New York’s far safer transportation system saves enough lives that it is the primary reason why the overall mortality rate for local kids is 30 percent below the national average.

In addition to urging parents to buckle in their children properly and teach them to cross the street safely, the Department of Health repeated its call for Albany to authorize camera enforcement of the speed limit on dangerous streets. Legislation to that effect went nowhere in the state legislature this spring.

Plans for a new set of fences at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge will slow down cyclists exiting the bridge and push them towards taking Clinton Street rather than Delancey. Image: NYC DOT via Gothamist

Three concrete walls will soon surround the Manhattan entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, as reported in Gothamist and the Villager. The construction, already underway and due to be completed at the beginning of next year, is part of a Department of Transportation effort to force cyclists coming down the ramp from the bridge to slow down and choose to ride on quieter side roads rather than dangerous Delancey Street, which will remain unchanged.

The redesign of the bridge approach, set in place with concrete barriers and metal fencing, is built to last. Does the project signal that DOT isn’t planning to take action to calm down the deadly traffic on Delancey?

Under the new design, three-foot concrete walls will surround the median at the foot of the Williamsburg bike and pedestrian path. Small gaps in the wall will provide access to crosswalks and bike lanes, but the narrow openings will compel cyclists coming off the bridge to slow down considerably, if not stop completely.

DOT wants cyclists heading east-west to take Stanton, Rivington, or Grand Street rather than Delancey, which is one of the most dangerous streets in the city and does not have a bike lane. Image: NYC DOT

In addition, a curved fence will guide cyclists headed into Manhattan north onto Clinton Street. From there, cyclists can connect to bike lanes on Rivington and Stanton Streets, one and two blocks north of Delancey. Less traffic, slower vehicle speeds, and painted bike lanes make those streets safer to ride on.

In contrast, Delancey is one of the most dangerous streets in the city. A pedestrian and a cyclist have been killed on Delancey already this year, according to Transportation Alternatives, and 134 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by cars on the street between 2008 and 2010.

Helping cyclists find the safest route off the bridge, even nudging them towards that route, is all well and good, but it’s likely that many cyclists will still end up on Delancey. “People want to take the most direct route to where they’re going,” said Caroline Samponaro, the director of bicycle advocacy for Transportation Alternatives. “Even though there are currently markings sending people to use Clinton Street, people continue to use Delancey Street.”

And even if every cyclist detoured onto Clinton, the wide expanse of Delancey would remain a mortal threat to pedestrians. A safety fix for Delancey itself remains necessary, with or without the latest construction at the bridge. The area’s entire political delegation — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Member Margaret Chin — have requested that Delancey be made safe for Lower East Siders.

Said a DOT spokesperson over e-mail:

“This railing is being installed to guide bikers to the lanes on Clinton Street – where they can connect to east-west routes – before they reach the crosswalk. A similar design has been in place on the Manhattan side of the Manhattan Bridge for several years and has proven very effective at separating bikes coming off the bridge from pedestrians on the local sidewalk. The concrete barriers are being installed to prevent unauthorized vehicle access to the pedestrian and bike path, and similar steps have been taken on the other side of the bridge and at other East River bridges. Countdown signals were recently installed along Delancey to help pedestrians cross the street safely, while a network of bike lanes has been installed on Suffolk and Clinton streets (north-south), Rivington and Stanton streets (east-west), and on Grand Street (east-west), providing convenient, direct and safer access to and from the bridge for bike riders.”

A redesign of the actual street, not just the approach to the bridge path, would have to grapple with the fact that Delancey Street is overrun with Williamsburg Bridge traffic. Four motor vehicle lanes in each direction lead to and from the untolled bridge, which also sees more bike traffic than any other bridge in the country. “It’s not a unique problem. Every bridge point is a vital, high-demand corridor,” said Samponaro, who pointed to Canal Street and Queens Boulevard as other wide, dangerous roads leading into bridges. Hoping that all pedestrians and cyclists will simply leave Delancey to motor vehicles, however, isn’t a solution. Said Samponaro, ”You can’t will people away from a street.”

Photos: Liz Patek

Thanks to reader Liz Patek for these shots of DOT crews getting to work this morning at Broadway and Amsterdam at W. 71st Street. Dubbed the “bowtie of death” by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, the foreboding expanse of asphalt has seen dozens of crashes over the last two years, and has been named by Transportation Alternatives as the most dangerous intersection on the Upper West Side.

The city promised a number of safety improvements just under a year ago, and in July Rosenthal and Stringer again called for their implementation. We’ll keep you posted now that construction has begun.

Update Sep. 2: NYC DOT sent along a more recent project rendering than the one we originally posted. See it after the jump.