Quality of Life

Traffic’s Human Toll

Transportation Alternatives' new study, Traffic's Human Toll, is getting picked up all over the place (CBS, NBC, Post). The report is an update on the famous Appleyard Study and it found that New Yorkers who live on high traffic streets have a measurably lower quality of life. Not exactly a huge surprise, and yet this is the first time that anyone has ever quantified it. The study is yet another argument in on behalf of an aggressive traffic reduction program for New York City.

By Aaron Naparstek

1:22 PM EDT on October 6, 2006

Transportation Alternatives’ new study, Traffic’s Human Toll, is getting picked up all over the place (CBS, NBC, Post). The report is an update on the famous Appleyard Study and it found that New Yorkers who live on high traffic streets have a measurably lower quality of life. Not exactly a huge surprise, and yet this is the first time that anyone has ever quantified it. The study is yet another argument in on behalf of an aggressive traffic reduction program for New York City.

Quality of life stories often get played for laughs in the New York City local press (remember when the development of the new Noise Code was boiled down to a story about Mister Softee) so it is not surprising that the “No Friends? Blame the Traffic” angle is a hit. I think my favorite headline so far comes from the Staten Island Advance: “Din of Traffic Amplifies Life’s Miseries.” This one seems to have legs. A media outlet in South Africa has already picked up the story .

Download the complete report here (PDF).

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's 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. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.