Next Week: Vallone and Vacca Lead Council Hearing on Traffic Safety

Next Wednesday, February 15, is the date for Council Member Peter Vallone’s hearing on traffic safety.

Peter Vallone (l) and James Vacca

Responding to some 2,500 letters collected by Transportation Alternatives following the hit-and-run death of Brooklyn cyclist Mathieu Lefevre, Vallone announced that his public safety committee would address NYPD traffic enforcement. The hearing will be co-chaired by transportation committee chair James Vacca.

“It’s encouraging that the two chairs are treating this as a public safety concern, and are taking a long look and showing leadership,” says Juan Martinez, general counsel for TA.

In addition to crash prevention, Vallone and Vacca are expected to delve into how NYPD conducts crash investigations, an issue that is making headlines thanks to the Lefevre family’s pursuit of information from the department about the crash that killed their son. Says Martinez, “They have serious questions about the line — that in New York if you want to kill, do it with a car — whether that’s actually true.”

Anyone who wants to testify at next week’s hearing may send an e-mail to Martinez by the evening of Monday the 13th, with the subject line “Feb. 15.”

  • fj

    One good starting point might be to copy Westside Bike Path signage which advises cyclists at every crossing of the excellent law to yield to pedestrians which should be copied over to city streets not only for cyclists but automobiles as well; and especially, at non-controlled crossings lacking 4-way stop signs and traffic lights; in addition to the concept of common-sense safes speed near non-armored mobility.

    . . . And, on the over-reliance on traffic lights since even when they are not ignored drivers still have a tendency to speed up to make them which can be even worse as I personally witnessed an elderly woman sent airborne and likely killed on crowded Park Avenue from this, resulting in witnesses in hysterics and the driver with head in hands moaning: “I had the light,” after he’d honked frantically which likely disoriented the poor woman within a crowd of crossing pedestrians before the collision.

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