On a weekend when cars killed four pedestrians in the city and as Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall prepares to leave office — many commentators are looking at the citys streets and don’t like what they see.
Last year, 163 pedestrians died, a 4 percent increase over 2005, and just this past weekend, four pedestrians were killed by vehicles, Gothamist noted. The Department of Transportation claims it recognizes the problem. “More needs to be done, and DOT is committed to taking further steps to make the streets as safe as possible,” it said in a statement.
But the deaths fuel criticisms that the department is more concerned about speeding auto traffic than protecting lives. Pedestrians have died so that cars could move more efficiently through our neighborhoods,” Rachael Myers, whose fianc, Peter Hornbeck, was killed in a 2004 hit-and-run by told a City Hall rally yesterday. Across from where she spoke, Streetsblog noted, the city’s effort to combat pedestrian fatalities is on display: a DOT-sponsored ad campaign reminding pedestrians to not get run over.
Many want the Bloomberg administration to do more. At the rally, Karla Quintero of Transportation Alternatives urged that the city fix its most dangerous streets and intersection, put a higher priority on pedestrian safety, and make killing pedestrians a crime and prosecute the drivers who do it.
In an editorial largely praising Weinshalls tenure at the transportation department, the New York Times said, Overall, pedestrian deaths fell on Ms. Weinshalls watch. But recent fatalities among them, an accompanied four-year-old hit by a sports utility vehicle on a Brooklyn crosswalk are reminders that more safety measures are needed, especially near schools. (The editorial also urged that any new transportation secretary do something about congestion an area in which critics charge Weinshall has done little.)
In the Daily News,
Errol Louis, who said Weinshall, has run the department capably, nonetheless urged that her replacement be an innovative and nationally recognized leader in making streets safe for people.
In today’s New York, drivers snuff out a life, get a ticket, Louis writes. In addition to significantly increasing fines for killing someone while breaking traffic rules, the city should create an expedited way for citizens to flag dangerous intersections and traffic patterns before people get killed – not just after. And there must be hell to pay when the city promises to fix dangerous conditions and then fails to do so.
In 2004, two boys were killed by a truck on Brooklyn Third Avenue on their way home from school. The city government promised to remedy the situation but, activists say, did little. On Valentine’s Day, a three-year-old named James Jacaricce, trying to cross the street, with his aunt, was struck and killed by an SUV. He died on Third Avenue in Brooklyn.
By Gail Robinson on March 5, 2007, 11:56 am
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