Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan to cut pedestrian deaths has veered dramatically off course, advocates and families of crash victims charged Thursday at City Hall.
Safe streets supporters rallied after an unlicensed van driver last week fatally struck an 8-month-old baby in his stroller in Queens. And contrary to the goal to cut traffic deaths eventually to zero, deaths so far this year are up 5%, to 195.
De Blasio spokesman Austin Finan defended the city’s efforts.
"No death on our city's streets is acceptable. The DOT is working diligently to complete at least 90 Safety Improvement Projects in 2016 — the most completed in a single calendar year — including expanded pedestrian space, protected bike lanes, corridor improvements and intersection treatments,” he said.
23 comments:
This whole thing was just a way to give out more tickets from the start. If someone is going to speed, then they will speed regardless of what the speed limit is. The van driver was probably an illegal anyway who won't face deportation.
They don't understand that the more you try to slow traffic and limit parking the more fustrated drivers will get because it will take longer and longer to get to where you need to go. Drivers will take more risks to try to get to where they need on time. That's why deaths will go up and not down the more they try to make driving more difficult in the city.
If we put common sense ideas in place like helping traffic flow better and supplying parking, drivers will be less fustrated, drive safer as it will not take forever to get somewhere, and less likely to engage in risky driving which will make our roads safer.
That is why is was named with the word ZERO in it. Another failed policy of dumblasio.
This is a zero! This created so much rage on our streets it is pathetic. Seen to many upset people cut lights as people are walking in the crosswalk just to get to a freaking red light? It happened down by Flushing Avenue by Dunkin Donuts. A 4x4 did not want to wait as the light turned red and as people were crossing cut out. Who is to blame?
Now you have bike lanes added to Grand Avenue and it created one lane of traffic by Maspeth Federal. So when you turn left or right it will back up traffic like crazy. This is a disaster waiting to happen. But this city only fixes its mistakes when people die. It has to take someone to die before they fix it.
You create one way streets and believe me you get idiots still racing down the one way street after 28 years. It happens by Oneills.
So this vision zero is creating more angry drivers with no safety for the pedestrians or the other drivers. Not including the bicyclists that have no regard to red lights or pedestrians.
It got more dangerous out there for everyone.
Who to blame? The mayor? His idea and his people. Maybe they should leave their taxpayering drivers and walk the streets of this city. See what everyone goes through just to cross the street!
"Vision Zero" is another example of a poorly planned, abysmally executed program by an inept city administration, and in NYC that's saying something.
Unintended consequences were never taken into consideration.
Placing the blame for pedestrian fatalities squarely on motorists without educating pedestrians as to When, where and HOW to cross a street will never work.
Darting out from between parked cars, crossing against the light AND out of the cross walk is NOT the motorists fault DUMMIES!
Let me tell you what these bike lanes have encouraged.
Skateboard commuting, some of them have e-motors and they actually take up a lot of space.
Reckless bicycling, a lot of these idiots tend to cut people off and fellow bikers who are not riding fast enough, never yield and run steady reds, and a lot of them are users of sChITIbikes. ( I do endorse the "Idaho stop" where you stop full on the red as a car does). Speaking of e-motors, the majority of these scofflaws are these app delivery bikers, which have now encompassed the whole city and the niche areas of Brooklyn and LIC and have absolute impunity because of the economic status of these startups. And the majority of these riders are illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and China and have little comprehension of or don't speak English at all. But they do laugh a lot when you confront them about their illicit behavior.
Imbecilic arrogant jaywalking. These lanes have become extended sidewalks where cars used to park. Some will react with obscenities or even violence if you confront their sense of entitlement
"No death on our city's streets is acceptable..."
No shit, like that has to be verbalized and praised for acknowledging. That's all these official hacks do. They think saying a common knowledge fact counts for proactive measures.
The lowering of the speed limit and the imposition of these bike lanes and pedestrian plazas has created a more hostile environment for all commuters. The majority of people are more impatient and selfish than before. Drivers are running stop signs and freeze in the middle of avenues causing obstructions and hazards to the flow of traffic. There's also this proclivity to swerve around vehicles in front of them as they wait to make a turn.
Another factor not covered enough is the obstructions and hazards caused by hyper development with the giant barricades on the street left out all night after the work day is done. These obstructions cause a lot gridlock and make driving on the streets a competition to get to the open lane first.
I wrote this a year and half ago when the Dope of Park Slope first announced it:
Vision Zero, more like Vision Tunnel
Cheer up. Only 9 more years of Pothead Duhblasio to go.
Just waiting for someone to die before they realize their mistake. Poor planning on the city and endangering the lives of so many.
Grand Avenue and 69 Street is a disaster in waiting.
Someone vision was a vision zero and at the cost of so many. Yet I bet the person who thought this up got a nice bonus for this bonehead idea.
Cheer up. Only 9 more years of Pothead Duhblasio to go.
Nah, the 3 term limit emendation was reversed before he took office. He'll be out in 5 at the latest.
"You can't fix stupid".
Increased traffic fatalities are inevitable with overcrowding. How about a Vision Zero for the overpopulation of NYC.
No Election Day 2017....he is out of here baby!
Good bye to bad news! Zero visions and warehousing people.
The same will go to Crowley and all the others.
Boy do we need a change here!
No one ever thought Markey will be gone...well she is. One by one out of here.
Now we must choose a president and I am hoping Trump gets in. People are scared because the free ride living here illegally may just end and you have to go back home. If you really want to live here and contribute then do it legally like everyone else. Hiding in the shadows fearing the big d....deportation will get you just do it legally.
Clinton gets in...Obama 2.0. You can forget about it...and with all her secrets and lies it should be on ABC season 3. Truth comes out and it can shake the the top right out from you.
And, let's not forget the ONE derelict madman to whom total blame and punishment should be ascribed: the ORIGINAL psychopath himself, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who turned Manhattan into a Disney-fied theme park, and then deferred to one of the most INTENSELY incompetent traffic czars whom he employed, Jeanette Sadik-Khan (she now works for him privately——her reward for monstrous citywide fail).
Tragically, if it weren't for the maddening bureaucracy that Bloomberg FOISTED on New York City, then we wouldn't be so entrenched in this 'out of control' mess in the first place! Yet another example of how plutocracy destroys standards of living for everyone else, and why publicly electeds should never be allowed to run, when the special interests whom they are protecting is themselves (and the public be duped, bilked, scammed and damned)!
His vision zero... huh...it may be a vision but it is definitely a big fat zero!
More congested traffic. Did vision zero cut down on pedestrian deaths? More people speeding along and now you got the no rules pertain to me cyclists. Just because you got a bike lane that does not mean a green light for you to race through a crowd is pedestrians walking in the crosswalk and eating a red light. Obviously you have a red light for a reason? There are cars coming the other way.
Accidents and unfortunate deaths will occur until some brilliant minded person in Albany will say what the F***is going on here. Maybe Schumer or Gillibrand. The mayor's vision zero is just not working.
Where are the drivers protesting? Vision Zero gives us tickets for going at a normal speed on a major roadway just because there's a school a few blocks away. Traffic lights have been changed to make getting home from work an ever more painful experience. Red light cameras are being installed everywhere, combined with shorter yellow lights to give more tickets and squeeze even more money out of people who can barely afford to live in the City in the first place.
What more do these advocates want? The article gives no suggestions or specific demands, other then "safer sidewalks".
> How about a Vision Zero for the overpopulation of NYC.
I can see that now. Instead of just giving out free condoms, DeBlasio will enact a One Child policy and mandatory sterilization, a fitting companion to his daft "one size fits all" Vision Zero speed limit.
These bureaucrats steal ideas and programs that work in other cities. This is NYC and all these out of town New Yorkers just don't get it.
There is a common sense solution to protect pedestrians: All lights are red to all traffic at the same time and people can cross safely. No turns allowed on red ever. This is what should be implemented at all high risk crossings. It works in many states already. If all traffic is stopped at the same time, people will be safe crossing. I don't understand why we can't do this in New York.
I almost get run over every time I try to cross Bell to go to the Clearview Senior Center. Those cars turning right off the clearview don't wait for anyone in the crosswalk. All way traffic stopped on red would make every crossing safe.
Flop?
http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/01/05/a-closer-look-at-2014s-traffic-death-statistics/
"...Maybe Schumer or Gillibrand..."
Oh YES - Senator Charles Ellis Schumer will go back to his Sunday evening press conferences bloviating about some sort of problem and will speak of solutions.
In his OVER FORTY YEARS on the public doll he has done nothing but spew hot air.
And the fools will again reelect him...
The protected bike lane are joke. Those people who ride bikes don't abide the rules by any means. I'm not only talking about delivery people who are at least follow some rules, but the casual riders who are whizzing onto incoming traffic, not yielding ongoing motorist turning left/right at intersection despite car has right of way, not stopping at stop sign and on... The jaywalking also a big problem, absent-minded people with blasting music headphones and absorbed texting while crossing road is my everyday prayer for them not to get hit and turn someones life into nightmare because of their own stupidity. I don't want to defend sloppy or reckless drivers either. If you want to reduce city deaths on the road start educating public from pre-k before wasting money on preventive structure.
Of course it was.
Just another excuse to overbuild.
NYC's population will stay where it is.
Gain a few. Lose a few. Judging the high cost of living in the big rotten apple, many have opted out.
I have a go pro camera on my dash. I record everything in front of my vehicle. I keep I angled to the right side,better than a good lawyer.
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