Thursday’s Headlines: Back to School Edition

Readin’, writin’ and butcherin’.

Public schools across our great struggling city reopen today, which means that there will be roughly 50 more car crashes every day going forward than there were during the lazy hazy (and less car-dominated) days of summer.

What am I talking about? Let’s start with the basics: The first day of school is the first day of the worst part of the year for those of us who get around on foot or on a bike. It is the day when tens of thousands of car drivers return to the streets from whatever vacation home to which they had decamped. It is the day when roads congest, when calm evaporates, when drivers wound.

We’ve all long noticed the increase in traffic that follows the opening of New York City’s public schools, so I decided to look at whether the general chaos is accompanied by actual carnage on the streets. The answer: Yes.

Last year was particularly bad: In the 10 weekdays before the first day of public school on Sept. 5, there were 2,441 reported crashes citywide, injuring 1,520 people (some crashes have multiple victims). In the 10 weekdays after schools opened, there were 2,819 reported crashes, injuring 1,717 people.

That’s an increase in total reported crashes of more than 15 percent and an increase in total injuries of more than 13 percent, as the chart below shows:

As I said, last year was a bit of an outlier, but as the second chart below shows, the 10 weekdays after the start of school (red bars below) are always accompanied by more injuries than the 10 days before (orange bars below):

The public is noticing. Out of the blue earlier this week, I got an email from a guy identifying himself as Jimmy from Woodside: “We remain appalled by the lack of all street safety enforcement under … at the 114[th Precinct]. …. I have a huge problem with individuals threatening the safety of my family and little one while they [run a light to] make one more intersection or feel better for turning left on Northern Boulevard against all signage because they know they will not be caught or face any meaningful penalty. School is starting Thursday. … We MUST see a stronger active presence of NYPD enforcement around our schools.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation is slow to improve the situation. As our own David Meyer has reported, today also marks the start of another school year without automated camera enforcement of school bus stop-arms, which the state authorized the city to install six years ago in 2019.

DOT finally put out a request for proposals for potential stop-arm camera contracts last October, but hasn’t said a peep about the program since. A spokesperson told Streetsblog that “the procurement is ongoing” and “no decision has been made at the time.”

The city has refused to make public the results of a trial run of the cameras it rolled out on 30 buses in 2023. The whole thing is shocking, given that stop-arm cameras save lives, which is something the Adams administration is always claiming it wants to do.

In fairness to DOT, the agency did put out a press release this week touting “a record-high 72 open streets at schools across the city,” but that record is obviously diminished by the fact that there are 1,600 public schools in the city. Clearly, a lot more work needs to be done.

In fact, all you need to know about school street safety in New York City can be observed in this short video of how another world capital keeps kids safe from car drivers. Watch it and then sigh somberly in the knowledge that New York exceptionalism is egotistical bullshit that we can simply not afford:

In other news:

• The mayoral race continues to confound! Here’s the latest:
  • President Trump wants to clear the field for Andrew Cuomo by offering Mayor Adams a job. (NY Times)
  • Oh, it’s going to be at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is where the president seems to like to install conservative African-Americans who share his vision for cities. (Politico)
  • But, of course, the Adams campaign denied the whole thing. (The City)
  • Likely Mayor Zohran Mamdani really stuffed Cuomo’s MTA failures right back in his car-loving face. (Mamdani via X.com)
  • And Bernie Sanders is on his way for a huge rally. (Sanders via X.com)
• Amazon and DoorDash are on Comptroller Brad Lander’s “Employer Wall of Shame.” (Documented)
• The Post editorial board was more than a little bit unfair in this rant against the MTA. The paper knows fully well that the next major capital improvement package focuses on the non-sexy stuff that Rupert and company are whining about … and don’t want to fund. Make up your mind, fellas. (The news section provided the fig leaf for the editorial.)
• The livable streets group Open Plans makes the Times all the time for its good work boosting transit and biking, but it’s not often praised by the Times food section — but that’s what happens when you do a better job than the Adams administration in promoting outdoor dining as a year-round amenity.
• We loved this op-ed in amNY about all the cut-through drivers who are making life hell for residents of Jamaica.
• The Post followed our story about the NYPD’s violent takedown of a kid on a Citi Bike.
• Nicole Gelinas considers driverless cars — and rightly points out that we need fewer cars on our streets, no matter who is or is not behind the wheel. (NY Times)
• We’ve always said that kids shouldn’t be driving … cars or subway trains! (NY Post)
• Jeez, cars will just do the damndest things! (NYDN)
• I honestly don’t understand the MTA’s “If You Hear Something, Free Something” art project. (Gothamist)
• The race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler just got so awesome, thanks to this chef’s-kiss of a takedown of potential candidate Whitney Tilson:

• And, finally, we are happy to report on the wedding of our former reporter Julianne Cuba, though we were sad to hear that her nuptials did not live up to her storybook dream:

Editor’s note: After initial publication of this story, two readers suggested that “Jimmy from Woodside” was made up. He was not: