Public Health

Watch Health Commish Tom Farley Make the Case For Traffic Calming

By Noah Kazis

3:46 PM EST on December 13, 2010

For New Yorkers concerned about making our streets safer, Transportation Alternatives’ Stop Speeding Summit was the place to be on November 19. If you couldn’t make it to the all-day event, now there are some highlights available which you can browse on your own laptop. You can download every PowerPoint from summit at T.A.’s website (click on the presenters’ names to download). And Health Commissioner Thomas Farley’s keynote address is online, thanks to NYU’s Rudin Center.

As we reported at the time, Dr. Farley gave a concise, 20-minute explanation for why traffic calming is essential for the city’s health. If you want the highlight reel, here’s our cheat sheet:

Check in at the 3:29 mark to hear Farley say that after quitting smoking, physical activity is the best thing you can do for your health.
At 9:38, he explains why health professionals are looking to the built environment to promote activity, and at 12:25 he lays down some evidence for the impressive health benefits of infrastructure like sidewalks or a transit system.
And at 14:35, Farley make the argument for re-engineering streets, recommending traffic calming treatments, including bike lanes.
Farley also makes the case that reducing the number of traffic crashes is a key public health issue. “Pretty much the entire reduction in child mortality in New York City is due to better transportation infrastructure,” he says at the 16:33 mark.
Finally, Farley explains why slowing down traffic will save lives. Check out minute 19:00.

Noah Kazis

Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox. Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.

Public Health | Tom Farley

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