Traffic’s Human Toll

12:49 PM EDT on October 3, 2006

For the last two years or so Transportation Alternatives' Karla Quintero has been working on a New York City-based update of the famous "Appleyard Study" examining the social costs of traffic. Karla presented the study's preliminary findings last year at a forum I helped organize in Brooklyn and it was really interesting. This event is sure to be a good one. From Transalt:

Please join Transportation Alternatives, the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign and the Wagner Transportation Association this Thursday morning at 9:00 am in the historic NYU Puck Building for the release of "Traffic's Human Toll," a study that examines, for the first time, how vehicular traffic impacts New Yorkers' quality of life.
With elections coming up in November, the issues of traffic and transportation are on everyone's mind. Why? Because as recent polls have shown, traffic and congestion are major problems plaguing New Yorkers and their neighborhoods.
Between June 2005 and 2006, Transportation Alternatives, with the help of 19 researchers, interviewed over 600 residents in Astoria, Queens; High Bridge, The Bronx; Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn and Chinatown, Manhattan about how traffic affects their day-to-day activities. While some city officials still believe that heavy traffic is the symbol of a healthy economy, the residents of these neighborhoods think otherwise. Our results show that traffic affects their quality of life in profoundly negative ways.
Come learn more about the results of our study and take part in a conversation about how we can mitigate the impacts of traffic's human toll. Join us this Thursday at 9:00 am.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP via e-mail to research@transalt.org.
NYU Puck Building295 Lafayette Street2nd Floor9:00-10:30 AMLight breakfast provided

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.

Traffic’s Human Toll

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