Vision Zero

An analysis by the Post confirms that cab drivers who injure and kill pedestrians in NYC rarely face sanctions from the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

There are a couple of events focusing on safer streets in Queens this weekend.

City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, state electeds, and advocates gathered in Queens this morning to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to make Northern Boulevard a Vision Zero priority by making hazardous intersections safer for pedestrians.

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.

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.

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.

Yesterday, nearly 200 people gathered on the sidewalk at a busy intersection on the Brooklyn-Queens border to remember 23-year-old Ella Bandes and hundreds of other people who have lost their lives to NYC traffic since the start of last year. Victims' families, advocates, medical professionals and elected officials called for slower speed limits and more serious consequences for dangerous drivers.

A vigil will be held in Brooklyn Sunday in honor of Ella Bandes and other victims of vehicular violence.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's claim last week that 66 percent of pedestrian injuries "are directly related to the actions of pedestrians" was unsourced and at odds with existing research, but already it seems to be shaping NYPD's enforcement efforts.