Results tagged “pedestrians”

Following the death of 22-year-old Seth Kahn, who was struck by a city bus on West 53rd and 9th last week, there's some talk about bus drivers texting while on the job. The driver in this particular incident was Jeremy Philhower, who had been suspended for texting and updating his Facebook with disparaging comments about his riders while behind the wheel. Last Wednesday, when he hit Kahn, was his first day back on the job — if NYC Transit concludes that he could have prevented the accident, they could file charges and fire him.

The NYPD may have time to ticket folks drinking a non-life-threatening lager on their stoop, but they are way too busy to ticket jaywalkers. At least, that's what Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday, suggesting New Yorkers practice common sense when crossing the street illegally.

New Yorkers, fed up with drivers zipping up and down Broadway at breakneck speeds, have demanded a gentler, calmer Upper West Side, and one politician is more than happy to oblige. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has proposed placing speed bumps, or new signage, at the Amsterdam-Broadway "bow tie" (the intersection where Amsterdam crosses over the north and southbound lanes of Broadway on 71st Street—the one where a taxi cab drove into a subway station) to slow traffic down, reports WCBS 2.

       

Yesterday was a gorgeous day to kick off the 2009's season of Summer Streets, the three-Saturday event that closes down a 6.9 mile stretch of roads—along Park Avenue and other connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park—to vehicular traffic. As part of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's exploration of the New York, the Dutch consulate's NY400 celebration has 150 orange bikes that bicyclists can rent for free—there's even a photo competition for people to enter and win one of the bikes (details here).

A tragedy is unfolding in Chinatown: One child is dead and others are injured after a minivan jumped a curb and struck them. The incident occurred around 38 East Broadway, near Catherine Street. WCBS 2 reports, "Police say the van apparently backed up onto the sidewalk, striking the children. At least two of the victims were pinned below the vehicle."

     

This past Saturday was the city's second of three Summer Streets weekends. One of the bigger issues from last week's first try seemed to be that pedestrians and bicyclists weren't as aware of each others' space as they could be. And so the Department of Transportation responded with fast and slow lanes.

Although no one was actually killed, Friday was a tough day for Manhattan pedestrians. Three separate cars careened onto sidewalks; and so many people were hit that it's unclear how many were run down.