Recently, the NYPD has partnered with various Transportation Department and other city agencies to come up with a strategy to limit the number of traffic and pedestrian injuries and deaths that occur in New York City each year. Despite traffic fatalities taking a slight dip in 2022 at 255, from 273 in the previous year, traffic fatalities are, unfortunately, still a major concern here in New York City. In fact, in 2022 alone, 118 pedestrians died in traffic-related incidents. Though this number is also down from the previous year (126 pedestrian fatalities in 2021) it is still unacceptable. Read on to learn more about some of the recently-proposed solutions to this recurring problem.
Potential Solutions
The NYPD, the Transportation Department, and other city agencies regularly meet to discuss the ongoing issue of traffic and pedestrian fatalities.
One proposed solution to reduce the number of pedestrian fatalities is to construct curbs or traffic islands in painted median areas. In the last year, two pedestrians who were panhandling in the painted median area on different roads in Brooklyn were struck and killed by motorists. In one of the cases, this was due to the motorist trying to unlawfully overtake the driver in front of him, and he struck the pedestrian in the median as a result. Had a curb or another physical barrier been there, it likely would have deterred the motorist from making such a maneuver altogether.
In another case, a pedestrian who was panhandling in the painted median was killed in a crash involving a police van. Again, this death may have been prevented, had a physical barrier of some kind been present. Of course, the act of panhandling itself is an issue as well, which is why city agencies must take a comprehensive approach to find viable solutions. This much has been acknowledged by Kim Royster, chief of the NYPD’s Transportation Bureau, who said, “People thinking they can stand in those lines — that’s a culture. [Drivers] thinking they can overtake a car in front of them — that’s a culture,” indicating there is, in a way, some degree of blame to go around.
Another step the Department of Transportation is taking, as per a new city law, is to send investigators to every fatal or serious crash to spot ways in which the street can be made safer through either redesign and/or the installation of traffic signals or signs to hopefully prevent the same or similar accidents in the future.
Further, city officials are also more dutifully seizing and scrapping illegal ATVs, motorcycles, and scooters, which are significant contributors to traffic injuries and fatalities in the spring and summer months.
Though traffic accidents and injuries will likely always happen, city officials are doing important work to come up with potential solutions to minimize these numbers to the greatest extent possible.
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