Wednesday’s Headlines: Unjustified Victory Lap Edition

Cyclist deaths are surging — but Mayor Adams and Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez struck a positive tone on Tuesday about their flailing efforts to reduce traffic deaths.

Writing in Tuesday’s Daily News, Rodriguez pointed to a 20-percent drop in pedestrian deaths so far this year compared to last year as evidence that the city’s “commitment to Vision Zero” has not wavered.

Forget that Vision Zero, as envisioned nearly 10 years ago by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, aimed to cut all traffic deaths to zero by 2024 (which, uh, is next year). Forget that cyclist deaths through the first seven months of 2023 were higher than the first seven months of any previous year on record.

Mayor Adams — who has allowed multiple safety projects to veer off course this summer — jumped in on the round of premature self-congratulations. But as former DOT official Jon Orcutt noted, the end-of-year stats are what truly matter.

In other news:

• NYPD’s proclivity for violent car chases under Mayor Adams landed a 30-year-old cyclist in the hospital after an attempted weapons sting in Manhattan on Tuesday. (ABC 7 NY)
• … just hours after The Post reported police brass has urged cops to “familiarize” themselves with the department’s vehicle pursuit policy, which states that a chase “must be terminated whenever the risks to [NYPD] and the public outweigh the danger to the community if the suspect is not immediately apprehended.”
• The Daily News editorial board cited Streetsblog’s reporting in its admonition of both “whiner” David Simon and the legislators in Albany who control the city’s speed camera program.
• Eight people were hospitalized on Monday after an MTA bus driver side-swiped a parked truck. (NY Post)
• Will the MTA get out of the way of this Bronx greenway project? (The City)
• A Long Island cop drove his car into a suspect. Post: “Quick thinking.”
• Toll cheats are top of mind for new head of MTA Bridges and Tunnels. (S.I. Advance)
• MTA leaders to hold a “virtual town hall” on the proposed IBX. (MTA via X, amNY)
• Finally — a new era in NYC trash collection has arrived: