From CBS New York:The New York Times reported that researchers studied more than 1,400 pedestrians and cyclists treated at Bellevue Hospital Center after collisions between December 2008 and June 2011.
Forty percent of cyclists injured by cars in the study were hit by taxis. Among injured pedestrians, 25 percent were hit by taxis.
City officials said the report shows the need for bike lanes and pedestrian plazas.
One website recently compiled the 10 worst intersections in Manhattan. How do you put a pedestrian plaza in the middle of 125th Street or 8th Avenue?
If cabs make up a large chunk of the vehicles involved in accidents, then shouldn't reckless cabs be what's addressed?
22 comments:
Yes, the reckless cab driver problem should be addressed,but if you remember the taxi strike years and years ago, the streets were deserted when there where no taxis. I think the taxi population is well above 40%(maybe 75% or more). The unfortunate truth is that no one follows the rules. Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement...
I do not blame drivers. Everyday, I can see pedestrians ignoring traffic signals and not using crosswalks. And riders - they behave as they were "sacred cows". Most of them believe they are better people than drivers.
So 75 percent of injured pedestrians were hit by private vehicles, yet your conclusion is that taxis are creating havoc?
Yes there are many clueless and incapable cab drivers out there, but there are also many other drivers who simply disregard the safety of others.
Yes errant pedestrians are part of the problem, but they are not solely to blame.
" Six percent of pedestrians were injured while on a sidewalk. Of those injured on the street, 44 percent used a crosswalk, with the signal, compared with 23 percent who crossed midblock and 9 percent who crossed against the signal."
Of course, there's no breakdown for those hit by trucks vs. cars, or time of day. Poor visibility is often a reason for accidents. Trucks are known for blind spots, and at night it's often near impossible to see someone in dark clothes crossing.
"Private vehicles?" Please define private vehicle. The rest of the breakdown is not given. Could be city bus, police car, private car, truck, sanitation vehicle, etc.
Bus accident yesterday where pedestrian was at fault: Pedestrian killed in Elmhurst.
Please define private vehicle.
Fine, OTHER vehicles. There's still a much bigger problem than taxis.
And while pedestrians can sometimes be at fault, the number of drivers speeding, talking on the phone, texting, driving recklessness, etc still contributes to the overall problem. If you drive or walk in this city, you see these blatant disregards for safety on a daily basis. If you don't, then you are not paying attention.
I'm sorry, but if 25% of pedestrian-vehicle accidents are caused by one particular type of vehicle, then we really need to be looking at the drivers of those vehicles. You can post all the links to individual incidents you want to, the fact is that in Manhattan, cabs are mowing people down at an alarming rate when the pedestrian is not at fault.
Not to mention that 40% of accidents between cars and cyclists involved cab drivers.
"How do you put a pedestrian plaza in the middle of 125th Street or 8th Avenue?"
Maybe you're not paying attention, but pedestrian plazas slow down traffic. This makes things slower and therefore more inconvenient for drivers, but makes conditions safer for pedestrians.
I'm not sure if you are concerned about pedestrian safety, or about drivers ability to zip about at 30+ mph.
Ok, I'm going to explain this one more time.
The accidents are happening at intersections where pedestrian plazas are neither practical, nor possible. The point is that the administration is pushing relatively cheap bike lanes and pedestrian plazas as the answer when traffic enforcement (especially w/regard to cabs) - which requires expenditure of more money - is clearly the answer. Unfortunately, some car accidents will continue to happen but the incidence can be reduced.
But I like the automatic ridiculous assumption that I don't care about pedestrian safety and must want cars to speed. Only a complete asshole would jump to that conclusion.
Traffic enforcement is not the answer. Stricter licensing requirements and road tests are needed. The problem with these cabbies is they cannot properly and safely control a vehicle, even when driving within the parameters of the law.
I don't agree with that. They can obey the law, but they choose not to. They are competing with each other for fares and treat the streets like they're playing a video game.
You missed my point. They can obey the law and still be unsafe operators due to poor perception and control skills.
Just like you can break the law and do it safely if you have proper perception and control.
Driving within the law does not make one a safe driver, and breaking the law does not necessarily make one a dangerous driver.
Here are some other facts from the report:
In some cases, it seemed, the awareness level of the pedestrian or cyclist may have been compromised. Among patients 18 and older, 15 percent of pedestrians and 11 percent of cyclists were found to have consumed alcohol before the collision — a figure that stood out to transportation officials whose focus is often reckless driving.
About 8 percent of both pedestrians and cyclists said they were injured while using an electronic device, including a cellphone or music player. For victims ages 7 to 17, the numbers climbed to more than 10 percent of pedestrians and nearly 30 percent of cyclists.
One harrowing take-away from the report is that no area, it seems, can be entirely safe. Six percent of pedestrians were injured while on a sidewalk. Of those injured on the street, 44 percent used a crosswalk, with the signal, compared with 23 percent who crossed midblock and 9 percent who crossed against the signal. The remaining injuries resulted from a variety of less frequent circumstances, like pedestrians standing in the road while waiting to cross, traffic officers being struck while policing a street, and travelers being hit while getting into or out of a vehicle.
Bottom line is a lot of people are being struck because of poor behavior choices. You can't fix stupid.
"Ok, I'm going to explain this one more time.
The accidents are happening at intersections where pedestrian plazas are neither practical, nor possible."
I'm sorry can you show me where in this study it shows which intersections these accidents happened at?
"Of those injured on the street, 44 percent used a crosswalk, with the signal,"
"Bottom line is a lot of people are being struck because of poor behavior choices. You can't fix stupid."
tell that to the 44 percent.
The study doesn't say, but I put a link to the 10 worst intersections in NYC. Other advocacy groups have their own links to studies of dangerous traffic intersections. It's safe to say that lots of accidents are happening on major thoroughfares where pedestrian plazas aren't practical and won't be happening. Yet that's the solution being offered by the administration - not your suggestion of better training/weeding out of cabbies and not mine of more enforcement. The point here was to point out the non-solution stupidity of the administration.
"not your suggestion of better training/weeding out of cabbies"
Stricter licensing and road testing is needed for more than just cabbies. Don't forget about the other 75%.
That's fine. But once again, the administration is not suggesting that.
Since when have they not?
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