Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

Every year, the Department of Health releases a report on the injuries that kill NYC children [PDF]. And every year, the grim statistics show traffic to be the single largest cause of injury-related death among kids.

Last Friday, Transportation Alternatives kicked off a new phase of its campaign for safer streets with the Stop Speeding Summit, bringing together doctors, elected officials, transportation advocates and engineers to outline the high costs of high vehicle speeds and plot a course toward slower traffic.

The city's Department of Health has made encouraging physical activity, which can help prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments, a top priority. As part of promoting healthy lifestyles, the Department's Brooklyn District Public Health Office spent last summer studying cyclist behavior in Bedford-Stuyvesant to learn who in that neighborhood travels by bike, and how, so as to better be able to promote cycling in the broader North and Central Brooklyn area. The recently released results [PDF] provide a rare neighborhood-scale look at who cycles, how they ride, and what they think of biking conditions. 

New York's public transportation keeps children alive. New York City traffic kills them. Those are the fundamental facts that explain injury fatality rates among the city's children, according to the Department of Health.

Health Commissioner Thomas Farley: ready to saddle up and ride to work. Image: NY Daily News. With half a year in New York and (most of) a nasty flu season under his belt, new Health Commissioner Tom Farley recently sat down with Transportation Alternatives to discuss the importance of walking and biking for NYC’s health. … Continued

Lappin imagines the office creating a citywide response to unsafe streets, combining design improvements with better enforcement, education and research. The Office of Road Safety would host monthly meetings with all the relevant government agencies: DOT, NYPD, the Health Department, and the vehicular crimes unit of all five district attorneys' offices. Family members of victims would be present at every session to meet with officials.

City officials, architects, planners, and public health advocates crammed into the Center for Architecture last night for the unveiling of New York City's Active Design Guidelines.

The NYC Department of Health announced the results of a citywide survey today [PDF] assessing the health benefits of regular walking and biking. Based on telephone interviews with more than 10,000 New Yorkers, the health department reveals that people who incorporate walking and biking into their daily routine are significantly more likely to report good physical and mental health than those who don't. The report concludes with recommendations to encourage walking and biking, including steps like building safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.

For two days running, the Daily News has reported that recently appointed Health Commissioner Tom Farley feels, let's say, hesitant to ride his bike in Manhattan. Coming on the heels of this week's DOH report on child fatalities -- which downplayed the risks of traffic -- it got us wondering how the agency might influence street safety under the new boss.