Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Grass8989 t1_j5lx4cp wrote

“ According to the detailed analysis by Transportation Alternatives, 16 children under age 18 were killed in crashes last year”

That’s actually a lot lower of a number than I thought, for a city of 8 million people I’d say we’re doing a pretty good job.

Just like there’s never going to be no crime, there’s never going to be no accidents.

6

eclectic5228 t1_j5mjkp7 wrote

I attend transportation community board meetings and try to keep up with what DOT is doing. The issue is that many of these safety issues are ignored. DOT sets it's own goals and misses them Community boards ask for specific safety measures and DOT ignores them. In contrast, cities like Hoboken and Jersey City have implemented really cheap and easy fixes, such as stopping cars from parking next to crosswalks (which is actually the law in NY State but the city overrides, and is a proven way of improving visibility) and they have had NO traffic fatalities in years!

Every life is a world. We can't stop all deaths, but DOT isn't even close to stopping preventable deaths

15

supermechace t1_j5o8ik5 wrote

I could never make sense of the DOT in queens, they ignores complaints about a dangerous intersection for years before finally painting the ground and putting signs up relatively low cost safety measures. I don't get what their real priorities are other than hints it's to maximize traffic speed regardless of pedestrians.

4

werecat t1_j5owyyy wrote

Road deaths are not mandatory, the whole point of vision zero is zero deaths from crashes. This is actually an obtainable goal, we just have to be serious about changing the infrastructure to prevent crashes from occurring in the first place. Especially in the places they keep occurring in, as deadly crashes happen in the same places over and over. The data is clear, changing a street to be safer really does make it safer. No one should have to die or lose a loved one on a known dangerous road because "not enough other people have died yet".

Can we really prevent all road deaths from crashes? We certainly can't if we say "well maybe some deaths are ok"

2

throws_rocks_at_cars t1_j5qcu16 wrote

There are many cities that have had zero traffic deaths in a year. That’s why vision zero exists: because it’s achievable.

2