City Council Members Propose Measures to Curb Pedestrian Deaths

By DAISY WU

City Council Transportation Committee members on Thursday proposed several measures to curb pedestrian and cyclist deaths caused by bus drivers and motorists at intersections, including moving parked cars from intersections and installing day lighting at pedestrian crossings.

“This legislation will stop collisions before they occur by improving poorly designed intersections to make them safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists,” said Councilman Roy Lancman in a press release distributed at a press conference on the steps of City Hall.

In New York City alone, 89 percent of cyclist deaths and 74 percent of pedestrian deaths occur at intersections, according to the Department of Transportation. Among these have been reports of deaths caused by MTA buses, leading to criminal prosecutions of bus drivers. This in turn has led to protests by the transit union whose members complain that such events are  accidents not criminal acts. They cite blind spots in the vision of drivers, pedestrians walking out behind parked cars and dangerous left turns cyclists, among other causes.

These so-called right-of-way laws were an outgrowth of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero project created to prevent traffic deaths in the city.

“Vision Zero is working but we must continue to reduce pedestrian deaths because of the work we are doing,” said Councilman Brad Lander.

According to a press release by Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez, one of the proposed laws was to llaunch a study on pedestrian and cyclist safety bordering bus routes by the DOT and to create “ traffic calming measures” at intersections deemed high-risk for accidents.

The measures could include left arrow signals, restrictions on left turns, curb extensions, lane narrowing, installing leading pedestrian signals or day lighting”, stated Rodriguez in a press release.

Another proposed measure was installing blind spot detectors on MTA buses.

The proposed day lighting implementation would concentrate around the five most dangerous intersections in each borough declared annually by the Vision Zero Report. According to Rodriguez, day lighting would remove about 200 parking spots in total at the end of the Vision Zero project throughout the city. Day lighting in turn would allow for motorists and bus drivers to see pedestrians when turning at an intersection.

Removal of 200 parking spots will surely bring complaints but as stated by Veronica Vanterpool, Executive Director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, “Measures such as day lighting are at the very basic, minimal.”