Public Health

Streetsblog contributor Charles Komanoff had an excellent letter in the New York Times on Sunday in response to the article about Sara Robbins, the Brooklyn Heights woman tragically, horrifyingly killed by a private sanitation truck last month:

Thirty years ago the health arguments against car-dependence were 90 percent about air pollution and 10 percent about physical inactivity. Now, with tailpipe pollution down and obesity and diabetes up, those percentages are reversed. The latest evidence is a valuable new report, Steps to Get New Yorkers Moving (PDF file), from the Public Health Association of New York City.

Via a Streetsblog tipster: In Valley Village, Calif., near L.A., people leave their trash in the bike lane for the convenience of the sanitation crews.

Yesterday, scores of cyclists took to the streets in a memorial ride for the 14 bikers and 134 pedestrians known to have been killed by motor vehicles on the streets of New York City in 2006 (photo, right). I didn't get to go on the ride but I heard from some who did that it was a moving and affirming event. All of the city's major dailies covered it -- headlines below.

The Vauban Department of Transportation gets to work. Schritt Tempo: Walking Speed.

Photo: Metrolens

In just the last ten days here in New York City a 7-year-old boy was killed in the crosswalk by a trucker trying to beat a red light in Brooklyn, a young woman on the Upper East Side and a Brooklyn Heights law professor were crushed to death by private sanitation trucks, and a 12-year-old boy was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in Queens. The list goes on. Yet, none of these horrible killings of innocents on the streets of New York City merited even a mention from Mayor Bloomberg or any other high level city official. Apparently, in America's safest big city, this is just business as usual.

Eric Ng, a 22-year-old teacher and activist, was killed on December 1 by a drunk driver as he rode his bicycle on the Hudson River Greenway. Yesterday, Time's Up! and Visual Resistance organized a series of events to pay tribute to Eric's memory. Clarence Eckerson was there with his video camera. (You can find higher resolution Quicktime video here).