Streetsblog New York City

The May 2003 final report of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project recommended pedestrian safety measures designed specifically to prevent the kind of collision that killed a four-year-old boy in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon.

 
A graphic from the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project final plan showing pedestrian safety recommendations for Third Avenue and Baltic Street

The five-year, $1.2 million, Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project recommended "neckdowns" and a "raised crosswalk" at Third Avenue and Baltic Street, the intersection where four-year-old James Jacaricce and his 18-year-old Aunt Ta-Nayin St. John were run over by a bright yellow General Motors Hummer driven by Ken Williams, a 48-year-old Brownsville resident (Click here to download that section of the Traffic Calming plan).

The boy and his caretaker were on their way home from the Police Athletic League nursery school at the Warren Street Houses when they were hit by Williams' SUV. They were walking in the crosswalk with the pedestrian signal giving them right-of-way when Williams, traveling northbound on Third Avenue, made a right turn and hit them, killing the boy and injuring his aunt. Police told the Daily News "The guy didn't realize he hit them because the vehicle rides very high." There is a car wash on the southeast corner of Third and Baltic. It is set back from the street and was closed for the day when the crash occurred. Apparently, the only thing impeding Williams' sightline was his own vehicle.

Looking up Baltic Street from Third Avenue

While it is impossible to know definitively if Tuesday's crash could have been prevented, the pedestrian safety measures recommended nearly four years ago in the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project are designed specifically to prevent the type of "right-turn conflict" that resulted in the four-year-old's death. The community-driven plan, created by the international consulting firm Arup, urged New York City's Department of Transportation to install neckdowns and a raised crosswalk at Baltic Street where vehicles from busy, fast-moving, truck-heavy Third Avenue turn onto the quieter, more residential street. A raised crosswalk makes pedestrians more visible to drivers as they walk across the street. Neckdowns make it more difficult for drivers to execute fast, careless turns into the crosswalk while pedestrians are crossing.

The recommendations were never implemented by the Department of Transportation despite widespread community support for the plan. DOT has not yet responded to questions about why the safety measures were never implemented.

Tuesday's crash is reminiscent of the deaths Juan Estrada and Victor Flores, fifth-graders at P.S. 124 in Park Slope, who were crushed to death by a right-turning, gravel-filled landscaping truck as they crossed Third Avenue at 9th Street, on February 9, 2004, nearly three years ago to the day of James Jacaricce's death.

The death of four-year-old James Jacaricce Rice at the intersection of Third Avenue and Baltic Street in Brooklyn yesterday didn't make a huge splash in the news. But it should have.

What were James and his 18-year-old aunt, Ta-Nayin St. John, doing when they were mowed down by a three-ton yellow Hummer making a turn? They were just trying to cross the street. In the crosswalk. With the light.

According to the Daily News, the driver, Ken Williams, said that the height of his vehicle prevented him from seeing the two walking in front of him. Because he stopped at the scene, and because he hadn't been drinking, it seems his only penalty will be a ticket for failure to yield. That, and having to live with the consequences of his actions.

Of course, the driver who hit and killed three-year-old Eddy Heredia last week on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn wasn't charged with any crime either, even though he did leave the scene. He told the cops he hadn't seen the boy, and they believed him. Newsday's account of a witness who said the driver had stopped after he hit the boy, gotten out of the truck and then gotten back in to drive off apparently was not followed up.

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Scribner Avenue, New Brighton, Staten Island, formerly two- and now one-way, looking up the hill toward Bismarck Avenue from Westervelt Avenue

Streetsblog reader Dan Icolari became curious about changes that were being made on his neighborhood streets in Staten Island. In researching the issue he found that progressive policy statements coming out of Department of Transportation headquarters on Worth Street don't appear to be filtering down to the agency's borough offices. His own assumptions about what is "progressive" were challenged as well. Here is Dan's story: 

Like other Streetsblog readers, I've been encouraged by DOT's recent, more enlightened pronouncements. But not long ago, when I noticed that DOT had converted a number of two-way streets to one-way in my Staten Island neighborhood, all I could see, as an alternative transportation advocate, was that a traffic-calming arrangement had been replaced by one that practically guaranteed higher speeds and less safe streets.

I called DOT to find out if my own two-way through street was on the list for conversion. And who makes these decisions, anyway? And how, and why?

The first thing I found out is, there is no list. "We get change requests mostly from community groups," said the Staten Island DOT rep I spoke to, "usually through the community board, though some changes are made by the borough commissioner." I was assured no change was planned for my block.

I then brought up the serious lack of crosswalks in the neighborhood--specifically in the several-block area surrounding my corner, where speeding has become a significant problem. It's an area where pedestrian traffic is not heavy but is constant throughout the day, and becomes heavier during rush hours and after school. I asked if the three-block stretch I referred to could be studied by DOT, possibly to introduce traffic-calming measures that might improve safety.

"No," the DOT rep replied, "that's just not what we do here. If there's a speeding problem you can ask NYPD to step up enforcement, but our job is to keep traffic moving efficiently, not to do studies on pedestrian safety." It wasn't the answer I was hoping for, or even the one I expected, but at least it was clear.
 
But what did my neighbors think, I wondered--the people who live on the two blocks recently converted from one-ways to two-ways? I was pretty sure they'd be furious at the loss of their charming two-way streets.

I was wrong.

Not only were my neighbors not furious; they were actually delighted.

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The Staten Island Advance reports on Monday's press conference outlining the qualities that leading City Council members would like to see in the next DOT Commissioner. The Bloomberg Administration responded to the Council with the following statement:

The Mayor will appoint a commissioner who will carry out policies to meet the sustainability challenges he outlined in his '2030' speech and will continue [outgoing DOT] Commissioner Weinshall's work reducing pedestrian fatalities and increasing safety for all New Yorkers through the implementation of innovative programs like Thru Streets.

The Advance also notes: 

Bloomberg, who with Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden pushed through the unprecedented bans on smoking and trans fats, should take that same intrepid approach with the next transportation commissioner, said Gene Russianoff, attorney with the Straphangers Campaign.

Meanwhile, a source inside DOT Commissioner Weinshall's office says that Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia, who is often credited by Weinshall as the architect of DOT's Thru Streets program, is "being considered" for the commissioner's job.

Fox News reports:

There are laws on the books to stop jaywalking, but if one New York state senator gets his way, it will soon be illegal to bop along to your iPod while crossing the street.

Sen. Carl Kruger will propose a bill that would ban using an iPod - and any other electronic device that is a distraction - while crossing traffic, WCBS-TV reported Wednesday.

"We're talking about people walking sort of tuned in and in the process of being tuned in, tuned out," Kruger, a Democrat, told WCBS-TV. "Tuned out to the world around them. They're walking into speeding cars. They're walking into buses. They're walking into one another and it's creating a number of fatalities that have been documented right here in the city."

photo: Fridaycafe/Flickr

Chairman of the City Council Transportation Committee, John C. Liu, praised outgoing DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall and called for an innovative thinker as her successor.

You've already weighed in on what you'd like to see in the next DOT commissioner. Now members of the City Council and Transportation Alternatives have weighed in too, with a press conference yesterday highlighting qualities they would like to see in the city's next Transportation Commissioner. Here is Council Member Yassky's press release.

Council Member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) and transportation advocates today urged the Bloomberg Administration to appoint a new Department of Transportation commissioner with the credentials and experience to tackle the traffic congestion and pollution problems that are plaguing New Yorkers.

"This City has been fortunate to have such a hard-working DOT commissioner in Iris Weinshall for the past five years," Council Member Yassky said. "But now that she is moving on, we must look toward the next five years and beyond and choose a commissioner who will tackle our quickly increasing environmental and transportation challenges. Our next transportation commissioner will be making decisions that will effect the health, business and general quality of life of all New Yorkers, make sure she or he makes the right ones."

Council Members and advocates called on the Mayor to meet his 2030 PLANYC sustainability goals by appointing a DOT commissioner with a mandate to reduce automobile traffic while improving surface transit, walking and bicycling options.

"There is so much a transportation commissioner could do to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers by reducing traffic and encouraging transit use," said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. "We need a dynamic leader - like Commissioner Thomas Frieden has been in the area of health - to improve air quality and neighborhood life by taming city traffic."

"Commissioner Weinshall has steered the Department for many years and her shoes will be hard to fill," said Council Member John C. Liu, Chairperson of the Transportation Committee. "New Yorkers need a Transportation Commissioner who can get up to speed quickly and also change the internal inertia that sometimes dampens innovation, especially if we are to truly create a system for the free flow of people and goods in the City."

"It is crucial the Administration selects a new Department of Transportation commissioner who will make pollution, traffic congestion and parking issues a priority," said Council Member Bill de Blasio. "The next commissioner will play a vital role in making sure the City reaches its future goals of increasing and improving our transportation alternatives."

StreetFilms
Ninth Avenue Renaissance Town Hall Meeting
Running time: 3:35

Monday night was the first meeting of the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project. About 130 neighborhood stakeholders filled the gym at the Holy Cross School in Midtown to begin a process to transform Ninth Avenue from a dysfunctional, traffic-choked, polluted highway into, what organizer Christine Berthet says should be "a neighborhood Main Street" for Hell's Kitchen and Clinton.

The evening's high point was Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's ten minute speech. Perhaps sensing a political vacuum in City Hall on these issues, Stringer is rapidly emerging as the city's leading elected official on traffic, transportation and Livable Streets. "Traffic congestion," Stringer said, is "the number one quality of life issue" for the borough of Manhattan and the city as a whole. And while other world cities are tackling their congestion problems, "everywhere you look in Manhattan there is a traffic jam, gridlock, pollution."

"The truth," Stringer said, "is that we have not had a new idea about transportation since we built the subways."

Though he didn't mention him by name, Stringer (right) seemed to be pointing directly to Mayor Bloomberg's recent sustainability speech when he said "It is incredible when you think of all the damage we're doing to this city and the fact that we don't have bold, forward-thinking transportation planning when we know that we have one million more people coming here by 2030."

Stringer also noted the non-existence of a citywide transportation strategy or even a serious public discussion about these issues in the current political environment. "Why can't we as a city have an intelligent conversation about traffic? Why can't we have a five Borough transportation agenda and talk about things that are controversial?" Stringer asked.

"I think we should talk about whether congestion pricing can work in New York City. There, I said it. Let's not have a political fight over this. Let's have a real dialogue. Let's talk about real sustainability. Let's have a discussion about bus rapd transit. Let's talk about bike lanes. Let's also talk about the fact that there is no reason why the poorest neighborhoods should get the most pollution."

If we don't talk about these things, Stringer warned, "The one thing I can guarantee is that, come 2030, we will be a second rate city and people will say, 'They didn't plan properly.'"

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Unlike the Mayors of Chicago, London, Paris and a growing number of other world cities, it is exceedingly rare to hear New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg say anything at all in public about bicycling. So, we thought that this was an interesting big of reporting in The Villager last week:

After the opening ceremony for Hudson River Park's Chelsea North section on Dec. 11, we asked Mayor Bloomberg what's being done to improve the safety of the park's bike path, on which two cyclists have been killed this year alone: Dr. Carl Nacht, 56, who was hit in June by a police tow truck crossing the path at 36th St., and, more recently, Eric Ng, 21, who was struck on Dec. 1 at W. Houston St. by a driver who had been drinking at Chelsea Piers and was speeding down the path in his BMW.

Bloomberg expressed his sympathy, but said bikers also have to watch out for themselves in interactions with cars. "Even if they're in the right, they are the lightweights," Bloomberg said of cyclists. "Every year, too many people are hit by cars - and bikes have to pay attention." Bikers shouldn't assume car doors won't open into their path, for example, he said.

Bloomberg said he's personally concerned about safety on the street too, noting, "I'm a pedestrian." Both the mayor and Connie Fishman, the Hudson River Park Trust's president, said that a multi-agency investigation is being done to see how path safety can be increased.

On another bike-related topic, asked about the ongoing "war" against Critical Mass, the mayor's tone changed. "Critical Mass is not where people just accidentally show up and 10,000 people happen to ride down a street. That idea is ridiculous," he said. "Critical Mass has unfortunately tried to co-opt the city and the law applies to everyone. And if they don't like the law, they can try to change it. We are going to enforce the law - and any group that thinks they are above the law is sadly mistaken."

A sacrifice we were willing to make: Until 1922, much of Park Avenue was, in fact, a park. Looking north on Park Ave at about 50th Street. That's Saint Bartholomew's Church on the right.

Peter Hornbeck was killed on January 10th 2004 in a horrific hit and run crash on 96th and Park Avenue. The driver who killed him was speeding, had his license already revoked for prior speeding and the vehicle itself was stolen. The site of his death will be the memorial site for all pedestrians killed on city streets this Sunday at 1:30pm.

Last night I attended Community Board 8's Transportation Committee meeting to propose the installation of basic pedestrian protections on the Park Avenue medians. As reported in this morning's New York Sun, the idea was rejected for a variety of reasons. "Longtime neighborhood residents," the Sun reports, "said they hated to sacrifice the aesthetics of a landmark city street for a safety issue they felt was no big concern.

While I certainly don't expect Park Avenue's median to be restored to its verdant, pre-1922 width any time soon, the photo above illustrates the absurdity of pitting streetscape aesthetics against pedestrian safety. Clearly, Park Avenue was once a whole lot more beautiful and a whole lot more safe than it is today as a roaring six-lane parkway. As we've written before, there are lots of ways to make a street safer for pedestrians. Even bollards, the most basic and functional of pedestrian safety measures don't have to be ugly.

Peter Hornbeck's fiancee Rachael Myers volunteered to speak at the meeting. Rachael was walking with Peter the night that he was killed. With Rachael's permission, I thought I would share with you what she said last night since it had a deep impact on me and many other people in the room:

In an article published in the New York Times this past week on the issue of installing barriers at the Park Avenue medians, it was reported that some residents were surprised that this issue had emerged. After all, only one person was killed while crossing Park Avenue in 2003 and another in 2004.

As the girlfriend of the person killed in 2004 and a witness to the crash, I can tell you that one person is too many. What exactly are we willing to sacrifice for the "touch of Paris" look of the medians on Park Avenue? Are we willing to sacrifice two human beings?

Those of us that were close to Peter will feel that loss forever. But the loss to our community is something that we will never know and never be able to calculate. Pete spent his free time volunteering to care for homeless dogs at a local animal shelter on East 92^nd street. He was an outspoken environmentalist who was returning to graduate school at Hunter so that he could teach Earth Science to high school students. We will never know how he would have touched these lives if given the opportunity. It is important to try to keep this in mind when looking at statistics and numbers and trying make a cost/benefit analysis.

Some may think that we can solve this problem through increased traffic enforcement, and that is certainly part of the solution, but police cannot be everywhere at all times. In this case, the driver's record indicates that he had little respect for police and traffic laws. He not only was driving a car that was uninsured and reported stolen, his driver's license had been revoked due to prior speeding infractions. All previous efforts by the police to get this driver off the road were ineffective. When such drivers refuse to stay off the road, our only hope is that traffic-calming measures and pedestrian-friendly street design will be in place to protect our fellow citizens.

I can assure you that even if the proposed median barriers protect only one person in the future, it will be worth it. Not only for the friends and family, but for the countless lives who are affected by just one individual; it will be worth it for the entire community.

While we failed to win Community Board support for new pedestrian protections on the Park Avenue medians last night, Rachael's statement made a difference, we got the discussion started, and this issue isn't going away. Hopefully we can make some changes happen before the next horrific headline.

Photo: New York Historical Society via Jeff Prant

Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor promised, "Day One: Everything Changes." Well, it's Day Two and it's time to govern. Much of New York City's transportation policy rests in the hands of Albany legislators and agency officials. Here are ten things that the new governor can do to make New York City's streets more livable and transportation policy more sensible. Feel free to add more to the list in the comments section.

1. Improve safety on the Hudson River Greenway.
Congratulations, Governor Spitzer. You now run the busiest bike path in the United States. Some 5,000 cyclist use Manhattan's west side greenway each day and over 10,000 people visit Hudson River Park during peak times. In 2006, drivers killed two cyclists on what is supposed to be a car-free bike path. State DOT and the Hudson River Park Trust are currently examining greenway safety and redesign options. We need you to make sure that they come up with some real solutions. Likewise, rather than simply counting vehicles and measuring success as "vehicle throughput," you should push your DOT hard to begin analyzing the highway, greenway, park and all of its various users more holistically. As Fred Kent at Project for Public Spaces says: "If you only plan for cars and traffic, you get more cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get more people and better places."

2. Give us our red light cameras.
Support legislation to grant the City of New York permission to deploy red light, speed and bus lane enforcement cameras at its discretion. Don't let Albany continue to prevent us from making our streets safer.

3. Create secure bike parking at major transit hubs
New York State now has its hand in the planning and development of a remarkable number of major, New York City transit hubs: Moynihan Station, World Trade Center Transportation Hub, Fulton Street Transit Center and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. All of these transit hubs should have significant bike parking facilities in and around them. According to the NYC Department of City Planning, the lack of secure bike parking is the primary obstacle to potential commuter cyclists. Take a look at European cities (like Amsterdam, right) or, heck, even Chicago, for examples of how to integrate bike parking into train and bus stations.

4. Accelerate Bus Rapid Transit.
The MTA should increase funding to complete, not just five, but ten BRT corridors by 2012. The governor should challenge New York City to increase its annual contribution to BRT as well. The State and City should launch a p.r. campaign framing BRT in the broader context of "citywide traffic relief" so that drivers and parking-hungry neighborhood groups understand why it is necessary to prioritize buses over cars. And, oh yeah: The state also needs to pass legislation to allow New York City to deploy bus lane enforcement cameras.

5. Make sure New Yorkers know how to drive.
It must be a strange feeling after all of the hard work of running for governor and the elation of winning to wake up the morning after inauguration and realize, "Oh, crap, I'm in charge of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles." You may as well take the opportunity to strengthen the meager pedestrian, bicycle and street safety components of New York's driver education curriculum. Don't re-invent the wheel. Just steal from the Germans. Their drivers licensing requirements are incredibly stringent. New York's should be too.

6. Make it easy to bring bikes aboard trains.
NJ Transit and PATH abolished bike-on-board permits several years ago. It's long past time for Metro-North and the LIRR to do the same.

7. Allow bikes on buses
Tell the MTA that its time to wake up from its Rip Van Winkle-like slumber and, like cities all over the world, make it possible to put bikes on buses. Prioritize bus routes crossing bike-inaccessible bridges such as the Verrazano Narrows and longer-distance Long Island Bus routes. Bikes should also be permitted in the luggage bays of express buses.

8. Accelerate development of the East River Greenway.
The state legislatures must pass legislation to approve the conversion of a sliver of the Robert Moses Playground to Greenway. Make it happen, Governor.

9. Make a real commitment to pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
Re-invent the Dept. of Motor Vehicles' Governor's Traffic Safety Committee as a forum for inter-agency traffic safety planning and policy. Improve the reporting and analysis of car crashes. Create an online crash database and map to inform planning. Allocate federal HSIP funds fairly: Bicyclist and pedestrian deaths and injuries account for more than 55% of the New York City total traffic deaths yet these modes receive less than 5% of New York City transportation safety funds and 8% of federal safety funds. That's a crime.

10. Make sure federal funds are used to achieve broader transportation goals.
The State Dept. of Transportation should set aside at least 15 percent of its federal CMAQ funds for bicycling and pedestrian projects. Most important, CMAQ grants should reflect the broader policy goals of reducing motor vehicle trips and promoting transit, cycling and walking. Tell the highwaymen to take a seat.