Streetsblog New York City

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.

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:

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Camera enforcement of the First and Second Avenue bus lanes began today. To mark the occasion, State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh held a press conference gathering together community leaders and taxi drivers to get the message out to drivers: Block the lane and face the fine. As Squadron and Kavanagh explained, however, drivers may enter the bus lanes to turn right or to quickly drop off or pick up passengers.

Hopefully, starting up camera enforcement will keep the bus lanes clear and allow the East Side’s Select Bus Service to run even more smoothly. Even before the cameras were turned on, the introduction of Select Bus Service had cut trip times by between 12 and 16 minutes compared to the old limited service. That’s an improvement of between 14 and 19 percent.

Said Kavanagh in a press release:

“Almost a year ago, we called on the City and the MTA to implement a true Bus Rapid Transit system along First and Second Avenues.  We’re not quite there yet, but new enforcement mechanisms like bus cameras and clarification of the rules for taxi drivers and other car users should help get us one step closer to the full transit potential of our streetscape.”

“Careless driving is unacceptable.” That’s the message that State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh delivered today as they announced that Hayley and Diego’s Law, which they sponsored and ushered through the legislature, is now in effect.

“You can suffer serious consequences,” Kavanagh warned drivers. “That has not been true up to today.”

“Careless driving is not just something to fix next time,” said Squadron.

Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez, for whom this law is named, were killed when a van driver carelessly left his vehicle idling in gear and unattended; the van sped backwards into the two preschoolers, who were walking on a Chinatown sidewalk with their classmates.

“When people are injured and people lose their lives,” said Kavanagh, “people want a sense of justice and that is not provided by a speeding ticket.” By filling the gap between tickets and felony charges like criminally negligent homicide, said Kavanagh, Hayley and Diego’s Law will allow prosecutors to give victims and their families that sense of justice.

The two legislators said they have more they would like to accomplish for pedestrian and cyclist safety. After deadpanning that “New York State law is now perfect. It’s the platonic ideal,” Squadron said that he was looking into whether legislation could help improve the enforcement of the laws already on the books. He cited Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s recent study showing that the city’s bike lanes are frequently illegally obstructed to illustrate the need for better enforcement.

On Friday evening, New York Governor David Paterson signed two bills intended to make streets safer by giving law enforcement greater leeway to bring charges against reckless drivers.

As Streetsblog readers are well aware, New York City pedestrians and cyclists are seriously injured or killed by vehicular mayhem on a daily basis, but in the vast majority of cases, the motorist remains free to get right back behind the wheel. Even on crowded city streets, it's exceedingly rare for drivers who maim or kill to face consequences more serious than a traffic ticket.

One reason prosecutors hesitate to bring charges is that the standards for proving criminal negligence or recklessness can be difficult to meet. Hayley and Diego's Law, sponsored by Dan Squadron in the State Senate and Brian Kavanagh in the Assembly, creates an intermediate charge -- a traffic violation called careless driving -- which prosecutors can use in cases where criminal convictions seem unlikely. Motorists found guilty of careless driving will have to complete a driver education course and face fines up to $750, jail time up to 15 days, and license suspensions up to six months -- or a year for repeat offenders.

"We expect that the NYPD and District Attorneys are always looking at all the different options to hold people accountable for actions that lead to injuries and deaths," said Transportation Alternatives' senior policy advisor Peter Goldwasser. "With this law, we expect that they will be able to do that to an even greater degree and create a deterrent effect."

Joseph McCormack, chief of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau at the Bronx District Attorney's office, said he would have applied the careless driving charge to Randolph Belle, the motorist who executed an illegal U-Turn on West Kingsbridge Road last week, causing a livery cab driver to veer into a bus shelter, killing one person and severely injuring several others.

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With the stroke of a pen, Governor David Paterson could make New York's streets safer for walking and biking. Hayley and Diego's Law, which creates a new charge for law enforcement to bring against drivers who carelessly injure pedestrians and cyclists, needs only his signature to become law. At a rally at City Hall today, elected officials and Transportation Alternatives joined the families of children killed by reckless drivers to urge the governor to sign the legislation.

State Senator Daniel Squadron, who sponsored the bill with Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, led off the rally. He was joined by the families of Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez, two preschoolers killed last year while walking through Chinatown with their classmates. A delivery van that had been left idling jumped the curb, killing the children, but the driver wasn't charged with any infraction.

By defining a new infraction that increases the likelihood that drivers will face consequences for injuring pedestrians and cyclists, said Squadron, Hayley and Diego's Law will "send the message that careless driving is dangerous and unacceptable." For a first offense, the bill would impose a penalty of $750, 15 days of jail time, or a driver training course; for a second offense, the penalty would be a misdemeanor charge.

Squadron also provided an update on the bill's status. Though it passed the legislature around three weeks ago, it hasn't been presented to the governor yet. When that happens, the governor will have ten days in which to sign or veto the bill. "We're hopeful that the governor will sign it," said Squadron, adding, however, that "I don't think they've fully looked at it yet."

A Paterson spokesperson later confirmed that the governor will review the legislation once the bill reaches his desk.

The strongest words came from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "Enough is enough," he said. "We want our streets back for our children and frail elderly." Stringer also highlighted the particular need to curb speeding. Forty percent of New York City drivers exceed the speed limit, said Stringer, citing a 2009 Transportation Alternatives study and noting that crashes are nearly twice as deadly at 40 mph as at 30 mph. "When you get into a car, the life of the surrounding community is in your hands," he concluded.

Local Council Member Margaret Chin said the deaths of two small children served as a wake-up call. "What happened to Hayley and Diego showed how dangerous our streets are for our pedestrians," she said. Chin also promised that the City Council would continue to fight for pedestrian safety.

While traffic safety proponents and law enforcers are pushing for measures to clamp down on unlicensed driving, some state legislators want to keep accused drunk drivers on the road.

As reported by On Transport, Senate Bill 3627 and its companion Assembly bill would change existing law that regulates the period between a DWI charge and the processing of a provisional license application by the DMV. Provisional licenses are already available to alleged drunk drivers in cases of "extreme hardship" related to employment, medical appointments and education. The new bill would create a "hardship privilege" that would "allow operation of a noncommercial vehicle in the course of employment for the interim period before a conditional license application can be entertained." The Senate version cleared the transportation committee earlier this month by a party-line vote of 10 to 6, all Republicans against, all Democrats in favor.

"S3627 further softens the penalties for drunk drivers and sends the wrong message," says Kyle Wiswall of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "One reason efforts to reduce DWIs were so successful is the appropriately stiff penalties and potential risk for the driver, including consequences like losing your license by immediate suspension. Backtracking like this is playing with fire."

When asked by Streetsblog if S3627 is as bad as it looks, Bronx vehicular crimes chief Joseph McCormack responded bluntly: "Yes it is."

Surprisingly, S3627 was helped along with a vote from Brooklyn Senator Dan Squadron, co-sponsor and vocal proponent of "Hayley and Diego's Law," which would establish a new careless driving offense for cases where prosecutors can't or won't pursue more serious charges against drivers who injure or kill. That bill would also define pedestrians, cyclists, road workers and others as "vulnerable users" of public thoroughfares.

Without really trying we can think of two New Yorkers who would be alive today were it not for an unlicensed or allegedly drunk driver who was behind the wheel (albeit of a commercial vehicle) while on the job. We have a message in with Squadron's office regarding his support for the drunk driving loophole.

Legislation prompted by the deaths of two children in Chinatown would mandate a safety course and community service for drivers who seriously injure or kill a pedestrian or cyclist in New York State.

The bill was announced Thursday by Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh. They were joined at a City Hall presser by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose staff helped write the draft, and Transportation Alternatives. The "Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law" would establish the offense of careless driving, and would define pedestrians, cyclists, road workers and others as "vulnerable users" of public thoroughfares.

If passed, drivers who hit people with their vehicles would face "suspension or revocation of a driver's license when the violation resulted in the serious injury or death of a vulnerable user of a public way." As we read the bill, that penalty would be suspended pending the completion of a traffic safety course and up to 60 days of community service. Failure to complete the course and community service would result in action against driving privileges and a fine of up to $10,000.

"We want everybody to stand behind this cause," said Wendy Cheung, aunt of Hayley Ng. "We don’t want this to happen to anyone else. We need justice here." 

Oregon and Illinois have recently established similar "vulnerable user" laws.

While it must be said that -- considering the severity of the senseless devastation caused by reckless drivers -- the penalties prescribed by this bill would be a far cry from true traffic justice, its adoption would nevertheless be a huge step for New York State, and could lay the foundation for tougher laws in the future. After the jump, a sobering passage from the bill summary encapsulates the current "stark reality," where drivers who kill are almost always protected by lax prosecutors and weak state laws.

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On Friday, a trio of local electeds pushed for legislation that would allow New York City to create a residential permit parking system. The Daily News and NY1 picked up the story, and if those reports have you wondering about specifics, that's because much of the plan has yet to be hammered out.

An RPP program, which would establish districts within the city where car owners must display permits to park legally in most on-street spaces, needs Albany's assent to become law. Assembly Member Joan Millman and State Senator Daniel Squadron have introduced bills in their respective chambers, with the details of the permit system left up to the city. Council Member David Yassky is carrying the banner for RPP at City Hall.

This is not the first time lawmakers have turned their attention to residential permit parking. Most recently, RPP got a serious look during last year's congestion pricing debate, when DOT devised a plan to assuage fears that car commuters would cram on-street parking spaces just outside the cordon zone.

That version of RPP included only nominal permit fees -- just enough to cover the cost of running the program. This time around, the bill's sponsors are touting permit fees as a new revenue source for the MTA. Separated from congestion pricing, however, an RPP system won't pack quite the same punch. Reports the News:

A Transportation Department spokesman said permits alone aren't enough to solve parking problems, and should be accompanied by a congestion pricing plan.

"Without such a plan, we don't believe this bill will actually solve neighborhood parking problems," said Transportation Department spokesman Seth Solomonow.