NYPD Still Doesn’t Investigate All Fatal Traffic Crashes
In 2013, Ray Kelly made the only significant traffic safety policy change in his exceptionally long tenure as police commissioner. Kelly promised to increase the staffing of NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad -- where, at the time, only 19 detectives were assigned to investigate crashes in a city with about 300 traffic deaths and 3,000 serious injuries every year. To ensure that more crashes received serious attention from NYPD, Kelly also said the department would retire a rule that limited CIS investigations to cases in which the victim was deemed "likely to die."
December 16, 2014
Stringer’s Citi Bike Report Is Woefully Behind the Times
Comptroller Scott Stringer's office took so long to produce an audit of Citi Bike maintenance that major issues flagged in the report no longer appear to be affecting the system.
December 15, 2014
Keep Streetsblog Going Strong – Donate and Enter to Win a New PUBLIC Bike
If you look at the state of American streets, the scale of our transportation dysfunction is epic. Nothing conveys the failure of the car-based system better than this: More than 30,000 people lose their lives in traffic annually -- which means the U.S. could prevent about 20,000 premature deaths each year if we catch up to the nations that are leading the way on street safety.
December 11, 2014
The Most Important Bus Routes in NYC Tend to Perform the Worst for Riders
The slowest bus in New York City is the M79, and the least reliable is the local M15, according to the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives, which today awarded these two routes the "uncoveted" Pokey and Schleppie awards, respectively.
December 11, 2014
Eyes on the Street: The Williamsburg Bridge Bike Path Freezes Over
Courtesy of Will Sherman, here's what the Williamsburg Bridge bike path -- one of the most important bike transportation connections in the city -- looked like this morning after the season's first snowfall. Icy and unbikeable. Sherman says he saw at least a few people take a spill.
December 11, 2014
How Does the Threat of Police Violence Affect How You Use the Street?
When the news came out yesterday that a Staten Island grand jury had failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold, like many people I found the outcome difficult to comprehend. With clear video evidence showing that Pantaleo broke NYPD protocol and a coroner's report certifying that Garner's death was a homicide, this grand jury should have reached the conclusion that had eluded grand jurors in the Michael Brown case in St. Louis County: There should be a trial to determine if Pantaleo had committed a crime. But apparently that's not how our justice system works.
December 4, 2014