Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
Video: Close Encounters Above Central Park?
Belgian Teen Arrested After Liaison With 14-Year-Old Girl
Third Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan are the deadliest streets for pedestrians in NYC, according to an analysis released today by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a policy watchdog group. The study found that between 2005 and 2007, ten pedestrians were killed by cars on Third Avenue and another ten died on Broadway. There were 128 pedestrians killed in all of Manhattan between 2005 and 2007, 147 killed on Brooklyn streets during the same time period, 53 in the Bronx and 26 on Staten Island.
The notoriously dangerous Queens Boulevard, where 72 pedestrians lost their lives in accidents between 1993 to 2001, has actually become safer, the study found, possibly thanks to improvements implemented in 2004. There were zero pedestrian fatalities reported on Queens Boulevard last year, down from three in 2006 and two in 2005. A total of 95 pedestrians were killed in Queens during the three years surveyed.
The analysis comes after a particularly dangerous weekend for pedestrians in New York. Two pedestrians and a man in a wheelchair, all over 60-years-old, were hit by motor vehicles in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens on Friday. Two died and one is in critical condition. And on Saturday an SUV bearing a Haitian senator crashed into the glass patio of an Indian restaurant on the Upper West Side. Streetsblog has urged transportation officials to follow Sweden's lead with that country's "Zero Vision" strategy, in which streets are engineered to make traffic fatalities impossible, most often through designing lower speeds into the roadbed. [Via City Room.]
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
interesting that all but one are over 40.
I never see anybody enforcing the traffic laws. But every day I observe vehicles of every type operating recklessly. Its a free-for-all.
While I applaud any effort to make our streets safer for pedestrians, this is not a terribly useful presentation of the data.
A) It is misleading to say that Broadway and Third Avenue are the most dangerous roads, since they are significantly longer than most others. It would be better to analyze by block or intersection, and to include non-fatalities as well.
B) The map is not terribly detailed either, so it's hard to come to any conclusions beyond that older people are more likely to be killed.
It drives me nuts to see the way some people drive/bike/walk in our City. You have a small minority of people putting everyone in danger.
They should increase fines for speeding in New York City, and they should increase enforcement.
I have to say that I nearly got killed a couple of times in the last 20 years because I didn't have my wits about me when crossing 3rd Ave below 23rd St. where it is still 2 ways. Most Aves are one way.
I'm disappointed in the Boulevard of Death. Next year, we're going to be NUMBER ONE!
--proud Queens resident
Qraymond,
Thanks for your comments. I co-authored the report and agree that it would be useful to include injuries. Unfortunately, the federal data from which this analysis is drawn only includes fatalities. I'm not sure what additional details you'd like to see about each incident, but if you're curious, you can find more information at http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/QueryTool/QuerySection/SelectYear.aspx
You make a good point about analyzing the data by block or intersection. But really what we need is some sort of measure of exposure, in other words, how many people are walking along any given stretch of sidewalk.
It's tragic, but not surprising that so many pedestrians are killed on 3rd Ave and Broadway. What's shocking is how many pedestrians are killed on Hempstead Tpke and Sunrise Hwy, given how relatively few people walk along those routes.
The city should absolutely employ traffic-calming speed humps and lane reductions in Manhattan where having a car is just pointless. In the other boroughs, there needs to be more attention to signaling, traffic enforcement and lowering speed limits.
Yes Nanny that is exactly what this city needs. Speed bumps and smaller lanes so cars can sit in traffic for hours.
^ Exactly. Try walking or bicycling, fatboy.
turning 45 in manhattan means road danger.
NannyState- "traffic-calming speed humps and lane reductions in Manhattan"
Have you never taken a bus, cab or carpool they travel the same roads as passenger vehicles?
Not to mention the commercial vehicles (speed humps will crumble/ they need larger roads) which deliver food and other goods and the first responder vehicles which don't have the luxury of driving SLOW to an emergency.
Major commercial thoroughfares shouldn't have speed humps but sidestreets and alleys should. The first responders hate speed humps but the hope is that if you slow traffic for everybody, they will have fewer tragic scenes to respond to. Lane reductions where you twist the remaining traffic through what used to be a straight roadway can be very effective at lowering speeds while accomodating the buses,cabs,and carpools. None of this is a perfect solution, but for Manhattan only, I think it could be quite useful.
I almost get hit almost every day. Cars regularly run the red light on 125th Street crossing Broadway. Not mildly running the red light or failing to clear the intersection when the light turns yellow, drivers speed up and enter the intersection LONG after the light turned red. Pedestrians always have the right of way, especially when they have the walk sign and the cars are blatantly speeding and running red lights. Is there any way to report these people?