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How NYPD’s Opaque Crash Investigations Spoil Its Street Safety Message
Last month, the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct devoted two full pages to traffic safety in its inaugural monthly newsletter. In an echo of Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who claimed at the initial Vision Zero press conference that 73 percent of crashes injuring pedestrians are the victim's fault, it featured an eyebrow-raising statistic that blames four of the five Upper East Side pedestrian fatalities in 2013 on the dead victims. But that's a misleading way to characterize the cause of most pedestrian deaths, and given NYPD's track record of rushing to blame victims in its crash investigations, it may not even be an accurate depiction of these five Upper East Side deaths.
February 6, 2014
Meet One of the Minds Behind TrafficStat, NYPD’s Street Safety Initiative
A report laying out Mayor Bill de Blasio's traffic safety strategy, including a section on policing, is due in less than two weeks. In the meantime, precinct commanders have taken wildly different approaches to the issue, some more successfully than others. As a department-wide traffic safety policy comes into focus, TrafficStat, NYPD's traffic analysis initiative, is likely to take center stage. Streetsblog spoke with retired Deputy Chief James McShane, who played a central role in the introduction of TrafficStat in the late 1990s.
February 4, 2014
Manhattan Community Boards Want to Fix 57 Dangerous Places for Peds
Yesterday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer compiled a list of 57 pedestrian danger hotspots identified by community board district managers and sent it to city agency heads serving on Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero task force. Many of the locations in Brewer's list have a long track record as dangerous locations, including many where people have died crossing the street.
January 31, 2014
DOT Plans Changes for UWS Intersections After Pedestrian Deaths [Updated]
Video: Barron Lerner, uncle of Cooper Stock, speaks at last night's CB 7 forum.
January 31, 2014
78th Precinct Targets Drivers Who Fail to Yield to Pedestrians
Last week, Police Commissioner Bratton said the 78th Precinct and its commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri, made him "proud of PD" by clearing snow from the Bergen Street bike lane. Here's something even better: The 78th has amped up enforcement against drivers committing one of the city's deadliest traffic violations -- failing to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.
January 27, 2014
Levin to DOT: Deadly McGuinness Blvd Needs Traffic Calming, Speed Cams
A week after Nicole Detweiler was killed while walking on McGuinness Boulevard -- at least the third person to be struck and killed on the street in the last five years -- Council Member Steve Levin sent a letter to incoming Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg asking her to prioritize traffic calming and and speed cameras on the busy multi-lane road cutting through Greenpoint [PDF]:
January 7, 2014
Will Bill Bratton Make an Anti-Speeding PSA Like This?
A new anti-speeding PSA from DC police chief Cathy Lanier could be a good model for once and future NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton. Speeding is the leading cause of fatal crashes in New York City, and DC provides a model -- starting with a video like this one.
December 20, 2013
Bill Bratton Will Be the Police Chief Tasked With Implementing Vision Zero
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has selected Bill Bratton to serve as New York City's next police commissioner. Bratton occupied the same post from 1994 to 1996 under the Giuliani administration and is credited with pioneering data-driven policing techniques. After Bratton left, one of the innovations his deputies introduced was TrafficStat, a system that tracked crash data, held precinct commanders accountable for street safety performance, and brought different agencies together to address problems.
December 5, 2013
TA Outlines a Traffic Enforcement Strategy as NYPD Feels the Heat
Following up on its report highlighting NYPD's lack of meaningful traffic enforcement and a street safety forum featuring former police commissioner Bill Bratton, Transportation Alternatives released a report yesterday [PDF] outlining case studies of effective traffic enforcement. The report gives Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and his next police commissioner a broad strategy to help achieve de Blasio's stated goal of eliminating traffic fatalities within 10 years.
November 27, 2013
Fight Street Crime With Speed Bumps and Crosswalks
In Gabe Klein’s exit interview with Chicago Mag, the outgoing transportation commissioner predicted that in the next few years, cities will be paying more attention to the correlation between lawbreaking by drivers and other kinds of crime.
November 25, 2013