March 4, 2014

Vision Zero: Safer Streets for NYC’s Children

Making our city’s streets safer for all New Yorkers is a key part of improving child well-being in New York City. In 2012, 25 children were injured or killed in a motor vehicle related accident. 16 of these children were pedestrians or cyclists.

In our Recommendations to Make New York City a Better Place for Every Child, we included a call for efforts to keep children and communities safe from traffic accidents, such as installing additional speed cameras and ensuring that speed limits are less than 25 mph near schools and parks.

In light of this, we applaud Mayor de Blasio’s commitment to reduce the incidents of traffic fatalities and injuries on New York City’s streets through the Vision Zero Action Plan. The Action Plan includes expanded enforcement against moving violations like speeding and failing to yield to pedestrians, new street designs to improve safety, as well as legislative reforms and a public outreach campaign.

Know the Facts

• Motor vehicle collisions are a concern even if you don’t drive or ride in a car frequently. 29.2% of the 54,818 people injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2013 were pedestrians or cyclists.[i]
• Motor vehicle collision fatalities are more prevalent among pedestrians than drivers or passengers. 62.6% of the 286 people killed in collisions were pedestrians or cyclists.[ii]
• We might think of most of these types of collisions occurring on busy Manhattan streets, but collisions that result in injuries to pedestrians and cyclists occur all over the city. While it’s true that the 19th precinct (serving areas between 14th and 28th streets east of Broadway) saw the most pedestrian injuries caused by motor vehicle collisions in 2013 with 430, several neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens also had high numbers of injuries to pedestrians: South Williamsburg (90th precinct) with 389 injuries, Flatbush/Midwood (70th precinct) with 387, Flushing (109th precinct) with 385, and East NY (75th precinct) with 383.
• No precinct was without a pedestrian injury caused by a collision in 2013, and only eight precincts had fewer than 100.[iii] Geographic analysis also shows that 70.4% of all collisions occurred within a quarter-mile of a public school; 78.2% of all pedestrian injuries and 77% of all pedestrian deaths occurred within a quarter mile of a public school.[iv]
• A 2011 AAA study of motor vehicle collisions involving pedestrians found that higher vehicle speeds are correlated with higher risk of serious injury or death in the event of a collision: if a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle traveling 23 mph, the likelihood of serious injury is 25% and the likelihood of death is 10%. Increase the speed to just 31 mph and the likelihood of serious injury doubles to 50% and the likelihood of death more than doubles to 25%.[v]

Share the Facts and Be Part of the Solution

You can help raise awareness about the need for increased efforts to make the city’s streets safer for our children by sharing this blog on Facebook and Twitter.

Tags
Traffic Safety, Vision Zero Action Plan

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