Friday’s Headlines: Good News Edition

Sometimes we pause for some good news: The Department of Transportation reported on Thursday that traffic deaths are way down through the first three quarters of 2025.

"There have been 159 traffic fatalities through 2025, which is down 18 percent from the 194 traffic deaths recorded at this point in 2024," the DOT press release stated.

Now, of course, total fatalities are so low even in bad years that they're not statistically significant in a city of more than eight million people. That's why Streetsblog (and DOT) tend to look at injury-causing crashes, of which there are tens of thousands every year.

But there's good news there, too: According to NYPD stats, total reported collisions are down 8.3 percent, to 61,609, through Sept. 28 of this year. And total injuries from crashes is down 9.3 percent over the same period, to 36,143. (amNY also covered the DOT press release.)

The agency didn't go into detail on why it thinks fatalities, crashes and injuries are down virtually across the board (though Queens South actually had a slight increase in crashes this year). Yes, it touted the Schermerhorn Street protected two-way bike lane (installed in 2022), the White Plains Road protected bike lane and road diet (also installed in 2022), and the agency's decade-long work on Queens Boulevard, but it remains unclear why those and so many other years-old projects are kicking in this year.

The agency certainly didn't give any credit to congestion pricing, which Mayor Adams opposed, but has reduced overall car volumes by double-digit percentages in the densest part of the city (and as Streetsblog reported earlier this year, crashes are way down in Manhattan as a result; the latest NYPD stats confirm that the trend continues).

The bottom line is that more than a decade of Vision Zero work under two mayors — the scores of miles of protected bike lanes, the hundreds of miles of painted bike lanes, the miles (albeit way too few) of dedicated bus lanes, the bulb-outs, the daylighting, the reduced speed limit and all the other treatments — is working.

Well, sort of. Even with the reduction in crashes, there are still 227 reported crashes every single day. And even with the reduction in injuries, there are still 133 people injured in crashes every single day.

In other words, it's no time for DOT to rest on some cheap laurels bought at a 99-cent store. The next mayor must triple-down on safety.

In other news:

• The NYPD obviously has a different view than we do about why Canal Street is so awful. To the cops, it's not bad because there are no trees, because cars choke out all life or because it's well-documented as one of the most unpleasant and least-safe roads in town. No, to the cops, it's awful because of illegal vendors. Really? Those vendors are an international tourist draw. Now, should the exploitive nature of selling counterfeit goods in dirty back alleys be fixed? Sure, but our idea would be to bring it out in the open, which isn't what Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry is suggesting in this macho video condemning counterfeit goods (which, by the way, illegally samples a copyright-protected Queen song). We can't wait for Jan. 1, when, we hope, the era of NYPD hype videos will end. (X.com)
• Broadway theater mogul Jimmy Nederlander showed his contempt for theatergoers who don't want to congest Midtown with more cars in an interview with Variety. "You’re not a fan of the bike lanes in Times Square. What’s the issue?" he was asked. His answer: "They’re disruptive and intrusive. To put one in front of the Neil Simon Theatre is ridiculous. You get 1,500 people a day going to a show, and you’re not looking for bikes or these electric scooters that are going 40 miles per hour. I’m all for people biking, but this is dangerous." Yeah, yeah, Jimmy, now do cars — which actually discourage customers from going to Times Square to take in a show.
• Corrupt to the end: Mayor Adams's 11th-hour switch away from supporting the carriage horse industry came in a bizarre crypto-currency, electric car and campaign finance stew. (NYDN)
• Look out, below! (NY Post)
• Hell Gate had the headline of the week with its coverage of Council Member Vickie Palladino's election challenger: "Popular Queens GOP Bigot Faces a Challenge from a Democratic FDNY Firefighter."
• President Trump's funding freeze on the Gateway Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway will hamstring the regional economy, according to the amNY editorial board. Meanwhile, The City did a classic reac.
• The list of progressive Democrats considering stepping up to challenge unpopular centrist Rep. Dan Goldman in his Manhattan and Brooklyn district is growing. City Council Member Alexa Avilés is mulling a race. (City and State)
• Car-free streets equal business-friendly streets, as Madrid found. (Forbes)
• Remember James Mossetty, the man who was dragged miles and miles by an SUV driver? His family has set up a GoFundMe page.
• Finally, remember Kevin Duggan's story from earlier this week about Hoboken's experiment with automated enforcement of the bike lane on commercial Washington Street? Well, it's working: