Bicycle Safety

On Tuesday the Bloomberg administration announced record low traffic deaths from 2000 to 2007, and claimed, if not in so many words, that city streets are safer than ever. But the numbers, included on a chart that accompanied this media release, also indicated that 23 cyclists died in 2007. That would make last year -- according to the data released Tuesday, at least -- the deadliest for riders in the eight year period shown.

 Traffic fatalities in 2007 were at their lowest level since the city began keeping records almost 100 years ago, according to data released today by the Bloomberg administration. However, while the number of pedestrian fatalities last year dropped sharply percentage-wise from 2006, down to roughly one death every two-and-a-half days, cyclist fatalities were up, and pedestrian and cyclist deaths combined accounted for 58.6 percent of the 271 total traffic deaths, the highest such percentage in the past eight years.

As Transportation Alternatives recently noted in an essay for Streetsblog, more than a year after the death of Eric Ng, the alphabet soup of government agencies responsible for the Hudson River Greenway, have done almost nothing to fix glaring safety  problems along New York City's most important bike route.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a bicycle courier.

The New York Times doesn't seem to have noticed, but DOT has been quietly rolling out dozens of bike boxes all over the city. As many cyclists don't seem to know exactly what bike boxes are or how to use them yet, StreetFilms thought the time was right for this instructional video.

On Sunday, January 6, over 200 people gathered to remember those killed by motor vehicles while biking and walking the streets of New York City in 2007. StreetFilms was there for the Street Memorial Project's 3rd Annual Memorial Ride & Pedestrian Walk. So were the parents of 27-year-old Sam Hindy, who was killed trying to navigate the Manhattan Bridge by bike in November. During the event, Sam's father, Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy, placed his son's death in the larger culture of an American car culture gone out of control:

 Nick Whitaker's latest effort for StreetFilms is about the Street Memorial Project, a joint effort from Visual Resistance, Transportation Alternatives, and Time's Up! which was established to honor pedestrians killed on NYC streets. The project is an outgrowth of the Ghost Bike movement. A plaque is usually placed at the site indicating the date of the fatality, manner of death, and age of the victim.

Grief, solidarity and resolve brought out two hundred New York cyclists yesterday for the third annual Ghost Bikes Memorial Ride, to commemorate cyclists killed by motor vehicle drivers last year.

This piece was written by Transportation Alternatives: