Public Health
Streetsblog Basics
Studies Refute DOT’s Claim That One-Way Avenues Are Safer
Prospect Park West at 8th Street, September 16, 2006, 9:45 am. "Higher vehicle speeds are strongly associated with a greater likelihood
of crashes involving pedestrians as well as more serious pedestrian
injuries." American Journal of Public Health
March 22, 2007
DOT Makes the Case for Bike Routes Parallel to W. Houston St.
Last Tuesday night Ryan Russo and Josh Benson from the Department of Transportation presented a plan to Manhattan's Community Board 2 to create a safer east-west bike route across Lower Manhattan. With three cyclists having been killed on Houston Street over the last two years and major reconstruction of the street currently underway, members of CB2 led by Ian Dutton have been advocating for a physically-separated bike lane to be built on Houston Street.
March 16, 2007
StreetFilms: One Way is the Wrong Way
StreetFilms: One Way is the Wrong Way Running time: 5 minutes 10 seconds In Park Slope, Brooklyn, the Department of Transportation has put forward a plan to convert a pair of two-way neighborhood avenues to one-way operation. DOT says that the plan is designed strictly “to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street,” but … Continued
March 14, 2007
Feds Withhold Fatal-Accident Info from Public
An article in the LA Times (reg required) details how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has systematically withheld information on fatal accidents from the public, even going so far as to deny Freedom of Information Act requests from researchers.
March 8, 2007
DOT’s Park Slope Plan Requires Community Board Support
Crain's reporter Erik Engquist gets some more information about the Department of Transportation's plans to convert two Park Slope Avenues into one-way streets. DOT's press office is now saying:
March 7, 2007
The Iris Weinshall Legacy: Queens Boulevard
"What became clear to me in this discussion was that the engineers were thinking from the motorists' viewpoint." -- Iris Weinshall, New York Newsday, April 29, 2001
March 2, 2007
3 Peds Hit on 9th Ave. 2 Dead. Mayor Mike: Where Are You?
Like Third Avenue in Brooklyn, Manhattan's Ninth Avenue is emerging as one of New York City's new "Boulevards of Death." This afternoon, the Clinton / Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition, the community group that has been organizing the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project, broadcast the following news and call to action:
February 26, 2007
Streetfilms: Intersection Intervention
As people living in the neighborhoods around Downtown Brooklyn are learning the hard way, New York City government's installation of pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures is remarkably slow and expensive. Even as children are dying while crossing the street in potentially preventable crashes, and even with projects approved and funded, New York City's bureaucracy appears to be organizationally unable to move faster than a snail's pace when it comes to installing fine-grained, spot-by-spot pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures.
February 23, 2007
Why Wasn’t Traffic-Calming Built on Third Avenue?
DOT has gotten back to me with some answers.
February 21, 2007