Wednesday’s Headlines: We Were Right (Times Two) Edition
If you know Streetsblog, you know we spend a lot of time patting ourselves on the back for being right. So let’s do that again.
In the first we-told-you-so moment, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (no slouches there), in partnership with the Yale School of Public Health (equally impressive, if you ask us) documented anew that crashes have declined dramatically in Manhattan’s congestion relief zone, thanks to the central business district toll that began on Jan. 5, 2025.
The findings, published in the esteemed American Journal of Epidemiology, showed that crashes in the zone averaged 549 crashes per month, but dropped to an average of 496 crashes per month in the six months after implementation — a decline of almost 10 percent. Meanwhile, crashes in a representative control group dropped by only 2 percent.
We’ve been reporting on the safety benefits of congestion pricing for months, so it’s nice to see the longhairs of the Ivy League confirm our findings. We’ll let them buy next time we’re at the Player’s Club.
Part deux of our victory tour came in the form of a report from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in the respected journal Sustainable Mobility and Transport. Scholars Marcel Moran, Malik Salman and Takahiro Yabe found that bike use soars after the installation of protected bike lanes — which is what we’ve been saying for years: the city needs to create safe roadways and the ridership will follow.
The report also found that bike riding increases substantially among seniors after the installation of a protected bike lane because “there is evidence that older adults may be less likely to bike unless and until improved bicycle lanes are provided.”
And that’s why we and others who care about our seniors have been advocating so strongly for protected bike lanes, most recently on W. 72nd Street in Manhattan, having seen the benefits of bike lanes for seniors in other communities.
Hey, Tandon, you’re buying at the House of Wax.
In other, less-self-congratulatory, news:
- It’s officially “Wear Blue and Orange Day,” as proclaimed by Knick-loving Mayor Mamdani. Meanwhile, the watch party outside the Garden is on … with lots of rules and recriminations. (NYDN, NY Post, Gothamist)
- In a related story, the NYPD’s overtime trough runneth over. (Hell Gate)
- Muscle truck buyers care more about their twisted definition of machismo than high gas prices, pollution or endangering their kids. (NY Times)
- Jersey City is still eating our lunch at quick fix safety features. (NJ.com)
- Newsday did an interesting video about a just-settled settlement for the family of a Long Island woman who was struck by an LIRR train.
- The World Cup is really just a commuting story. (The City Reporter)
- The city co-named part of Driggs Avenue after the beloved Greenpoint teacher Matthew Jensen. (Instagram)
- And, finally, what’s Eric Adams up to these days?
