Proximity of bridges, tunnels, and highway ramps can be deadly. I go out of my way to cross West 96th at Broadway (or farther east) because the corner at West End Avenue is so dangerous. The traffic signals are more favorable to pedestrians at West End, but when drivers are getting on or off the highway — a ped-free zone for them — they’re less likely to notice pedestrians. They’re also more impatient and resentful of the presence of people on foot, and it shows in their behavior. It makes me feel like a hunted animal. We desperately need traffic calming in these dangerous places.

I don’t want to excuse the truck driver, who was (according to witness accounts) driving aggressively, but:

Drivers are crazy on that stretch of Adams leading to and away from the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s downright stupid to start crossing a high-traffic street before you have your walk signal (which was probably the case if the truck’s signal was at or just after yellow) without looking for oncoming traffic. Any eight-year-old can tell you that you should LOOK before crossing. Use some common sense, people.

It doesn’t really apply to that particular area, but this is why I TAKE A LANE when I ride.

I take it upon myself to calm the savages. Since motorists may never learn that rushing to save a couple of seconds does little good and puts human lives at risk, when I’m on my bike, I use my physical presence to calm the @#$%ers down.

The other day some jackass parent let two tiny girls who looked about three years old shoot out from behind a parked car to run across Lexington Avenue. Yes, they had the light. But what if this fucker driver had been trying to make that light?

That experience pretty much validated for me the obnoxiously assertive way I ride. If the driver right behind me at that moment was an aggressive one like the one in the story, my presence might have saved these kids’ lives.

Is this a little self-righteous? Yeah, it is.

In a broader sense, the Mayor, DOT and Police commissioners should stand shoulder-to-shoulder using a “bully pulpit” approach to install a great sense of caution in New York City drivers, on an ongoing basis much more importantly than for pedestrians an cyclists, ultimately the victims of minor yet deadly mistakes; at the same time soliciting advice from citizens where dangerous situations exist and act on them immediately.

Going further, all New York City drivers, resident or not should be forced to take driver-safety courses for driving in the world’s densest urban population.

This might seem extreme but it would save lives. It would also increase quality of life and tourist income.

This intersection is still one of the most dangerous in Brooklyn. NYPD traffic officers wave motorists through red lights without looking to see if pedestrians or cyclists are crossing.

Asking traffic cops to be more aware of people on the street is fruitless. They shrug their shoulders and say it’s a person’s own responsibility to protect themselves. I had an cop tell me that two weeks after a man was killed on Adams and Tillary St right in front of him. This is an issue at many bridge and tunnel entrances around the city.

I live a block from that intersection. It’s so dangerous! You have to run to make it all the way across Adams or else you get stuck at the median. Traffic police routinely wave cars through the red light while pedestrians have the light. A woman in my building wrote to the DOT about the short signal time for pedestrians and the DOT wrote back that there was adequate time for pedestrians to walk to the median- of course, they neglected to mention that the median is scary and tiny and most people try to avoid getting caught on it.

Plus the drivers make an illegal left from the middle lane constantly and with such impunity that they have learned they will not be ticketed. This should be a lawsuit.

Most drivers are not sociopaths or psychopaths and likely feel deeply guilty when these accidents happen like the engineers of train locomotives after the horrific crashes that can occur with vehicles crossing tracks. The solutions lie in structuring the technology and environment so that it is extremely difficult if not virtually impossible for these accidents to happen.

This should not be as daunting as it may seem since the cause of the tragedies are most often mistakes and errors of judgment in controlling and dealing with transport machines with the solutions residing in additional automatic machine levels of control.

A trivial solution preventing crashes of trains going in opposite directions is to have the trains on completely separate noncrossing tracks. To prevent these trains from hitting people or automotive vehicles, trivial solutions would include fences and barriers preventing cars, trucks, cyclists, and pedestrians from crossing train tracks. It should be obvious that similar interventions can make urban environments extremely safe.

The real difficulty lies in getting people to concentrate on this problem and deal with it as the extremely critical life-and-death issue that it is by focusing on the ongoing horrific heartbreaking death and destruction caused by not dealing with it head-on and employing the relatively simple solutions that can eliminate it.

Motorist are supposed to be prepared to stop and come to a stop at a yellow light. Gunning the vehicle to make the light should be ticketed as reckless driving.
There was a local community whose police were pulling over and warning drivers for speeding up on the yellow to beat the red.
As long as death by automobile is considered unavoidable by the boss at city hall, there will be no changes.

Dolly was my grandmother. She was a 69 years old, which some may think as old but she was a young soul. I was not as close to her as i always had wished. New York drivers MUST be more cautious of pedestrians. Its not a matter of who had the right away, although pedestrians always do. It is a matter of life and death. She was taken from us in a matter of seconds. I will never forget her character may she rest in peace. I know she is in a better beautiful place. I love you Dolly. May you always be remembered.