Streetsblog New York City

Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron sends along this report from last night's traffic commission hearing at York College in Jamaica, Queens.

No huge surprise, Assemblymen Andrew Hevesi and Rory Lancman both came out against congestion pricing, citing not enough evidence it would work and demanding transit improvements without explaining where the money would come from or why as state legislators they haven't allocated more money to the MTA themselves. Then they left.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall didn't even make it, she sent her Chief of Staff to repeat the same speech from the last public hearing, also calling for lots of great transit improvements without explaining where the money would come or why Queens hasn't gotten it before now.

That was one step better than Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan who was listed as first to speak, but didn't make it to the hearing. It's too bad our elected officials, with the exception of City Councilman Leroy Comrie, couldn't have stayed or even bothered to come because they would have seen something that they claim doesn't exist in Queens… supporters of congestion pricing who live in the borough, several for their whole life.

 
Even the sprightliest city pedestrian sometimes has to hustle across the street to beat a short walk signal. In a new report, Transportation Alternatives examines what it's like for New York's elderly to face flashing lights, wide crossings and unyielding motorists. 

From Karla Quintero, Deputy Director of Planning for TA:

There are currently over one million senior citizens living in New York City. While they represent only about 13 percent of the population, they account for 33 percent of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Discriminatory by Design (pdf), a report released today by Transportation Alternatives, finds that street design, and in particular the width of a street, is a major contributing factor in negatively influencing pedestrian and driver behavior.

The study focused on the Upper East Side, an area with a high concentration of elderly residents as well as wide cross-town streets that are crossed by thousands of pedestrians and vehicles each day. Within this neighborhood, Transportation Alternatives and Rachel Krug, a doctoral student at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, observed vehicles and pedestrians at 18 locations, 6 wide crossings and 12 narrow crossings (30 feet).

The team found that senior citizens begin to show signs of distress and engage in dangerous crossing behavior -- such as speeding up their walking pace, walking unsteadily, standing in the street before beginning to cross and crossing before the signal has changed -- at wider crossings to compensate for the fact that they walk at slower speeds. Coupled with the fact that 95 percent of vehicles observed during the study period did not yield to pedestrians, the study concludes that wider streets present unacceptable risks to elderly pedestrians. These risks have an overwhelming impact on the well-being and quality of life of senior citizens.

To reduce these risks, Transportation Alternatives recommends that the city re-time pedestrian signals to accommodate senior average walking speeds of 3 feet per second (currently the signals are timed for speeds of 4 feet per second) and implement measures such as leading pedestrian intervals and curb extensions that would protect senior citizens from turning vehicles. The study also calls for a public awareness campaign to educate drivers and the public as to what it is like to be a senior pedestrian.

This seems like an ideal cause for the Daily News, concerned as they are with the ages of cyclists hit and killed by drivers. 

Photo: Transportation Alternatives

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel with comrades Karla Quintero of Transportation Alternatives and Streetsblog editor Aaron Naparstek to Bogotá, Colombia to document some of the amazing advances going on in the livable streets movement there. We spent an entire Sunday, from 5am 'til nearly 5pm, riding bicycles around during Ciclovía, a weekly event in which over 70 miles of city streets are closed to traffic and opened to walking, biking, running, skating, recreating, picnicking, and talking with family, neighbors and strangers. Ciclovía was simply one of the most moving experiences I have had in my entire life (no pun intended).

I shot with no plan, not knowing much of what was coming up next while we rode our bikes, just trying to capture the event in the moment. We were aided tremendously by the indefatigable Gil Peñalosa, Executive Director of Walk and Bike for Life (yes, he is brother of Enrique, the former Bogotá mayor). Gil and his friendly support crew booked us an ambitious schedule and provided unparalleled access to people and places, allowing this mini film to be so much more than I had planned.

And dare I leave out our StreeJ Karla Q, who was just so great on the mic and shows she has some hot dance moves too. I think we came up with something very special and fun that will hopefully support and propel this movement forward in U.S. cities.

Read more of Clarence's thoughts on Ciclovía here.

Against the backdrop of news that three more pedestrians were killed on Saturday, a hundred people rallied for pedestrian safety on the steps of City Hall on Sunday. Karla Quintero of Transportation Alternatives, above, started with a moment of silence for those killed by the automobile on the streets of New York and called for 2,000 fewer pedestrian injuries and deaths by 2009 (pdf). Speaking in English and Spanish, she listed five objectives for the improvement of pedestrian safety:

• Prioritize fixing the most dangerous streets and intersections
• Adopt a street maintenance policy that prioritizes pedestrian safety measures
• Eliminate turning conflicts
• Extra protection for the most vulnerable New Yorkers
• Criminalize and prosecute traffic fatalities

Following the policy objectives, three people whose loved ones were recently killed by SUVs on the streets of New York spoke about their grief. (StreetFilms has video of their remarks.) Rachael Myers, above left, whose fiance, Peter Hornbeck, was killed in a 2004 hit-and-run by a speeding SUV driven by a man with a suspended license, spoke of her involvement in Visual Resistance, which is using the image of the hand to mark the location of pedestrian fatalities. "Every time you see one of these memorials," she said, "just remember that one human being died there so that cars could move more efficiently through our neighborhoods."

Audrey Anderson, above right, whose son Andre was struck from behind by an SUV and killed in September 2005, spoke passionately about the disparity between someone who kills with a gun and someone who kills with a car. "A motor vehicle is a weapon when used carelessly and recklessly to cause bodily harm to a person," she said. "Why, then, we ask, is this punishment not the same as when one uses a gun to kill another."

She demanded that a rigorous investigation, including the automatic use of a breathalizer test, be conducted after every pedestrian fatality. She also said that drivers who kill should be tracked as carefully as sex offenders, so that they are easier to track down if they kill a second time. (The driver who killed Andre, Jose Vincens, 23, was not charged with any crime nor even issued any motor vehicle infraction, according to the above-linked article in the Rockaway Wave.)

James St. John, above, wondered why there was so much "push back" against the idea of safety for pedestrians. His grandson, James Rice, 4, was killed last month as he crossed the street (in the crosswalk, with the light) when he was hit by a Hummer making a turn. Again the driver wasn't charged, even though he left the scene. "We cannot stand by and see our children, our loved ones and others - even tourists that come here - lose their lives," he said. "The city is not doing what they need to do."

The rally was well attended by the news media. Here are some reports:

• Too many pedestrians dying on city's meanest streets (Daily News)
• Rally Highlights Pedestrian Deaths (AMNY)
• NYC Street 'Carnage' (Metro)
• Pedestrian Deaths Fuel Rally (Fox 5)
• Pedestrian Safety Questioned After 4 Deaths (1010 WINS)
• Errol Louis: Blood on the Streets (Daily News) 

Across the street from City Hall, the city's effort to combat pedestrian fatalities is on display: a DOT-sponsored ad campaign reminding pedestrians to not get run over.

For the last two years or so Transportation Alternatives' Karla Quintero has been working on a New York City-based update of the famous "Appleyard Study" examining the social costs of traffic. Karla presented the study's preliminary findings last year at a forum I helped organize in Brooklyn and it was really interesting. This event is sure to be a good one. From Transalt:

Please join Transportation Alternatives, the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign and the Wagner Transportation Association this Thursday morning at 9:00 am in the historic NYU Puck Building for the release of "Traffic's Human Toll," a study that examines, for the first time, how vehicular traffic impacts New Yorkers' quality of life.

With elections coming up in November, the issues of traffic and transportation are on everyone's mind. Why? Because as recent polls have shown, traffic and congestion are major problems plaguing New Yorkers and their neighborhoods.

Between June 2005 and 2006, Transportation Alternatives, with the help of 19 researchers, interviewed over 600 residents in Astoria, Queens; High Bridge, The Bronx; Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn and Chinatown, Manhattan about how traffic affects their day-to-day activities. While some city officials still believe that heavy traffic is the symbol of a healthy economy, the residents of these neighborhoods think otherwise. Our results show that traffic affects their quality of life in profoundly negative ways.

Come learn more about the results of our study and take part in a conversation about how we can mitigate the impacts of traffic's human toll. Join us this Thursday at 9:00 am.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP via e-mail to research@transalt.org.

NYU Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street
2nd Floor
9:00-10:30 AM
Light breakfast provided