Transportation and safety advocates in NYC are searching for ways to limit reckless congestion on roads, as this year may be proving to be one of the most dangerous for the streets of Queens, considering the comparatively high rates of traffic related deaths and injuries in the borough.
This public concern became especially prevalent after five people were killed in car and traffic accidents just over the past weekend.
According to the NYPD’s records, the fatal incidents that occurred this weekend include an SUV killing a 5-year-old boy who crossed mid-street while leaving the Poppenhusen Playground, a NYPD vehicle killing a 22-year-old man crossing the Van Wyck Expressway, a hit-and-run driver killing two men riding a moped, and an overturned driver killing one person on the Grand Central Parkway.
Transportation Alternatives, a street safety organization, tracks injuries and fatalities from cars by examining press reports, which it says is faster and usually more accurate than relying on official data from the city.
“Five people being killed in a single weekend should be completely unacceptable for everyone in city government,” Elizabeth Adams, deputy executive director for Transportation Alternatives, told the Gothamist. “We have the tools to change it, and to throw our hands up is callous and cruel.”
This recent surge in traffic related deaths and injuries is contradictory to the objectives of Vision Zero, a 10-year-old city program that was designed to eliminate traffic collisions by creating better road layouts for pedestrians and cyclists, along with cracking down on aggressive and reckless drivers.
Instead of achieving success with the Vision Zero program, traffic fatalities are 43% higher than average in Queens this year and may even tie as the deadliest year in the borough, according to data collected and observed by Transportation Alternatives. Meanwhile, citywide traffic deaths are 17% higher than average this year.
The street safety advocate group argues that the city is failing to make roads less dangerous under its legal obligation to per a 2019 law called the NYC Streets Plan, which requires the construction of more pedestrian space and bike/bus lanes.
Though some obstacles to building safer streets come from local community boards or officials who disagree with the mission of the transportation reform, and argue that trying to make NYC a less car-centered city is unrealistic.
Yet these spikes in fatalities show a direct correlation to the presence of large vehicles in particular, such as SUVs, on the streets of Queens with little pedestrian or cyclist space, according to Transportation Alternatives.
