
While billed as a way to reduce pedestrian and bicycle deaths, many viewers perceive the effort as really being motivated by a desire to wrestle control over NYC speed limits and roadways from Albany.
Does that mean I am against it? No.
It just means that that this campaign is a little more clever than it first appears.
Comments
The advocates learned this technique the hard way: A few years ago, they failed in their attempt to toll the East River bridges.
This time, their goals are the same, but they are being more clever about their tactics and messaging.
They rip up and down Crown Heights avenues in their giant machinery, greatly endangering its residents and polluting the area in numerous ways, from their noise to their dirty exhaust to the incredible amount of glass, metal, oil, and other garbage they scatter everywhere.
Bravo for De Blasio and anyone else who wants to reduce the immense amount of damage cars do to our neighborhoods.
(I realize you know all this; just using the opportunity to make a point about the importance of language in this discussion. This too is an area where things are improving as media outlets and government officials are starting to be much more thoughtful about the wording of this stuff. "Accident" being used in the cases of wreckless car drivers smashing into people and property is another error being reconsidered.)
Anyway, thanks for the post and encouraging anecdotes about cops pursuing law-breaking drivers (which driving a car makes 100% of us at some point). More evidence that Bill Bratton is serious about aggressively pursuing traffic violence; something Ray Kelly was completely disinterested in attacking.
Data:
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/widgets/h9gi-nx95
Article about said data:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2014/05/07/nypd-crash-and-fatality-data-now-easier-to-use-and-updated-daily/#more-325007
There are lots of ways to use and misuse this data.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140512/ozone-park/cyclist-killed-hit-and-run-with-mercedes-van-police-say
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikestats.shtml
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/nyregion/city-council-passes-bills-that-aid-mayors-quest-to-end-traffic-deaths.html?referrer=
Passage is less than certain.
Or, play with statistics, to present same.
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.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/anthropologists-classify-43-new-species-of-weirdo,36332/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default
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.
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.
http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/301-14/mayor-de-blasio-signs-package-life-saving-traffic-safety-bills/#/0
All of these changes simply embolden stupidity as folks compete to become a Darwin Award finalist.
Even if they don't increase their risk taking behavior, the law of averages eventually catches up with a lot people.
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.
Prepared by Bernard O’Brien
New York City Independent Budget Office
"Preliminary data for fiscal year 2014 indicate the city received about $41 million in revenue from camera-generated red-light, bus-lane, and now speeding summonses, as well as $14 million in ticket revenue from traffic violations written up by police officers. The proportion of revenue generated by cameras rose from 38 percent in 1999 to 75 percent in 2014.
The budget for this fiscal year, 2015, assumes that revenues from these sources will total about $62 million.
The jump (from about $2 million to $8 million) in anticipated revenue from camera-generated speeding summonses is attributable to Albany’s recent approval of an increase of 120 in the number of speed cameras to be installed in school zones across the city. Twenty speed cameras have been in use in the city since January 2014 as part of a pilot program approved last year by the state.
The jump from $24 million in 2007 to $45 milion in 2008 in revenue from red light camera summones followed a state-authorized increase in the number of cameras installed throughout the city.
Revenue from red-light camera summonses also spiked in 2011 to $71 million as a result of a ruling that unpaid red light summonses (in addition to unpaid parking tickets) would count towards the $350 threshold for having your car towed for unpaid tickets. Many motorists were required to pay delinquent red light camera fines that year in order to reclaim their vehicles from the tow pound."
Click for snazzy graph:
http://ibo.nyc.ny.us/cgi-park2/?p=793
Others know that it is difficult to measure those who are alive, but would otherwise not be.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/78th-precinct-top-transfers-head-nypd-highway-patrol-article-1.1869410?utm_content=bufferb1c97&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Like taxes on alcohol and tobacco, they are imposed under the guise of discouraging consumption. However, they seem to merely tax a population that doesn't seem to mind paying for a rude, unhealthy habit.
....because I enjoy alcohol, I regard it as a vitamin.
Note: Not all vitamins are necessary, but all must be consumed in moderation.
http://transalt.org/files/news/reports/2014/Report-Card-Six_Months_of_Vision_Zero_Traffic_Enforcement.pdf?v=2
Page 5.
The projected "health cost savings" are going to be very hard to achieve....
....I am impressed that the police have complied with their new orders.
It isn't a secret
http://www.nyc.gov/html/visionzero/pages/home/actions.html
Wealth = huge amounts of commerce and movement of people
Vision Zero will leave the popular lexicon in a few years, and it should be interesting to see if it is deemed a success despite these factors.
Will people declare that, although it may not have reduced traffic or injuries and deaths, there would have been more of them without Vision Zero?
http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/index.htm
Yup, some of those riders are going to have bed bugs on them.