Vision Zero picks up speed

pragmaticguy

Atlantic Ave. in the 75th pct. must give out more tickets than any other in the city. There's usually three or four cars just waiting to pull someone over when I'm traveling there about 9:30am. It's like a mobile stop and frisk.

mike dunlap

It's like a mobile stop and frisk.

The difference being that people in this case are actually known to be wielding deadly instruments while demonstrably breaking the law.  Stop and frisk is just guessing.

whynot_31

More of her is needed:

whynot_31

My favorite part is the guy riding his bike on the sidewalk while the car drivers get a lecture on the law and politeness:

mike dunlap

My favorite part is the guy riding his bike on the sidewalk while the car drivers get a lecture on the law and politeness

Yeah, car drivers and cyclists both constantly break the laws, and both groups have many jerks among them. The big difference though is that only one group kills or cripples thousands of New Yorkers every year. Not that that really matters, of course.

whynot_31

I think safety plays a secondary, but important, part of this campaign.

whynot_31

In case you were wondering whether a majority of the City Council is behind Vision Zero:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/nyregion/city-council-passes-bills-that-aid-mayors-quest-to-end-traffic-deaths.html?referrer=

whynot_31

whynot_31

Albany will soon decide whether to give NYC the ability to lower the speed limit to 25 mph

Passage is less than certain.

whynot_31

http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/bill-city-set-25-mph-speed-limit-article-1.1833876

pragmaticguy

DiBlasio has seemed to start an end run around Albany by making many streets "slow zones". He has done this on much of Atlantic and I noticed it on E.P. this morning too.

mike dunlap

Albany will soon decide whether to give NYC the ability to lower the speed limit to 25 mph

Passage is less than certain.

Now certain:

https://twitter.com/StreetsblogNYC/status/479844119057932288

whynot_31

Coming on the heals of LICH and the charter school defeats, this is a much needed win for DeBlasio.

pragmaticguy

He may need the win but I don't know if drivers are going to be thrilled with this because even though on many streets due to traffic the speed doesn't get much above 25 it makes it sound like things will get even slower. This whole initiative could be much ado about nothing and just leave a bad taste in many peoples' mouths.

whynot_31

He will need to show fewer deaths, accidents and/or more revenue to overcome such feelings.

Or, play with statistics, to present same.

pragmaticguy

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

nothinlikeabklyngirl

                                         

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

I'm nominating this for comment of the day.

mike dunlap

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

1) I don't think anyone supporting the cameras cares about the revenue increase.

2) Not that I'd care if I were, but I'm certainly not alone in hating cars. And the realization of how much death and destruction they cause is clearly growing, thus VisionZero being something more and more politicians are supporting. Cars kill or cripple millions of people every year. I hate war, cancer, and the like for the same reason. I know... crazy. Oh well.

ehgee

I don't hate cars. But I do hate there being excessive numbers of cars driving at excessive speeds in the city, and the car-driving minority's demands that the vast majority of roadway space be reserved for their usage .

Those are very different things. Cars are useful and fun— they're just not usually the right tool for urban transportation.

whynot_31

Public transportation was recently described well by The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/anthropologists-classify-43-new-species-of-weirdo,36332/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

newguy88

We really need speed cameras. Has anyone noticed the speed limit sign that displays the speed cars are actually going at Eastern a little past Washington? It's great to see all the cars ignoring the speed limit and going between 30-40. If only we had a body who had the legal authority to stop and issue monetary punishments to those exceeding the legal limit.

booklaw

I've been driving in this city since 1968. It didn't take very long to discover that the only way I could get pulled over by a cop in NYC was to honk my horn at one (which I actually, stupidly, did back in my student days because two cop cars were sitting in traffic jawing with one another, completely preventing anyone else from proceeding down 113th Street).

So, sadly, until serious, continuous enforcement (whether by radio cars, motorcycle cops or speed & red light cameras) becomes a fact of life in NY, speed limit signs and traffic lights are likely to have little impact on driver behavior.

whynot_31

I have not owned a car since moving to NYC in 2003, but I rent cars regularly to escape the city on weekends.

The only ticket I have ever received was coming off the Throggs Neck Bridge in Queens. There is something like a 45 mph limit on the Clearview Expressway, and the layout makes it very easy for the police to hide and to pull cars over.

It is much harder for the police to hide on local streets, and -until recently- traffic enforcement was not rewarded by the chain of command.

whynot_31

DeBlasio celebrates his much needed win:

http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/301-14/mayor-de-blasio-signs-package-life-saving-traffic-safety-bills/#/0

pragmaticguy

Maybe a win for him but let's see how the general population feels. Slower speeds might embolden people to jaywalk more as they feel they can make it across the street.

newguy88

The Patrol Borough vehicle was parked off of Nostrand and Eastern had a Vision Zero banner draped across the back. Anyone else reminded of the under new management banners fixed to the front of a failing restaurant?

homeowner

I saw a guy step off of the corner on the east side of EP at this intersection and stand in what is now the merging right lane, to pick up some change he had spotted in the street. He seemed oblivious to the fact that 1) it was rush hour on EP; 2) cars still use the lane to merge once they have crossed the intersection, and 3) that he could be hit from behind as he was bent over with his butt in the air.

All of these changes simply embolden stupidity as folks compete to become a Darwin Award finalist.

whynot_31

I think part of the problem stems from people (drivers, peds, bikes, etc) taking progressively more risks, because similar risks haven't resulted in injury before.

Even if they don't increase their risk taking behavior, the law of averages eventually catches up with a lot people.

homeowner

In my view, pedestrian and bicycle deaths could actually increase over the length of this campaign, yet the organizers could declare it a success.

....after all, the goal is to show concern for the deaths [this earns one votes] and get control over traffic rules from Albany [this gives one power]. 

The goal is also to decrease traffic violence. Car drivers collectively kill more people than gunmen in this city. 

Just thought I'd come here and share this. Interested to see if there is going to be any sort of public campaign to decrease these deaths...

A shocking study by the Health Department reveals that 200 kids age 15 through 17 died from gunfire — more than any other cause of injury between 2002 and 2011.

Sixty-three others died from stabbings.

Bullets proved far more deadly than cars. Eighty teens died as a result of car accidents, the second-leading cause of death.

Thirty-five died from suicide by hanging and 33 from accidental falls.

More than 53 percent of the teen deaths were classified as homicides. Two-thirds of those victims were black.

The study’s findings come amid a spike in shootings in the Big Apple this year — as well as new constraints on street stops by cops looking for weapons.

Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn was the most deadly area for teens, with 31 gun-related deaths.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/07/200-city-teens-killed-by-guns-during-10-year-period-study/

whynot_31

Homeowner-
As you are aware, a large scale campaign to decrease those deaths will be mounted when it is perceived as bringing the campaigners power.

So, um, don't hold your breath.

We may want to invent a metro card for local youth we care about: It would only allow them to travel to parties that happen west of Vanderbilt Ave, and would force the hosts to overlook any differences they may have and let them in.