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De Blasio On NYC's Deadly Streets: "The Car Has Been A Little Too Sacred"
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Nov 6, 2015
Modified Nov 6, 2015
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Nov 6, 2015
Modified Nov 6, 2015
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Noting that it had been a "very tough week" after eight New Yorkers were killed in traffic crashes, Mayor de Blasio told reporters that his Vision Zero plan has "never been more necessary," while also touting the gains it has made so far.
"Let's remember that for many, many years in this country, the car has been a little too sacred," the mayor said, noting that the NYPD has issued 100,000 speeding tickets this year so far, a figure he called "nearly twice as much as before Vision Zero was put into effect."
The mayor also noted that tickets issued for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk have risen to 30,000 this year, three times the amount issued the year before Vision Zero went into effect, and pointed to the "75 streets and intersections that have been redesigned this year."
Asked about "inconsistent" enforcement of laws regarding cyclists and drivers without licenses, the mayor said that he was ensuring that there was "very vigorous enforcement across the board," but suggested that those issues were minor compared to speeding, unsafe drivers.
"I think a lot of it is, people who have a license and are not under the influence, but are driving too fast. I still think that's our number one problem, and not being mindful and not respecting pedestrians."
He added, "Lets be clear: the central problem is vehicles being used wrongly and endangering others."
The mayor's comments on pedestrian safety were more forceful than his DOT Commissioner's—Polly Trottenberg briefly appeared on WNYC this morning to talk about the three pedestrians killed by bus drivers this week.
The takeaway from that interview was: "You have to be alert when you walk the busy streets of New York. We all do. We all have a role to play: motorists, cyclists and pedestrians."
As for the two MTA bus drivers who killed pedestrians in Queens and Brooklyn this week, the mayor echoed the transit workers union by saying that bus blind spots may be reason for so many bus-related pedestrian fatalities.
"There seems to be substantial evidence that the bus design is a problem and there is an actual fix for it that's not prohibitively expensive," the mayor said, adding that he had asked the MTA "for action" on the issue.
"I don't think that's the whole story when it comes to the buses but it well may be part of it."
The mayor spent an hour and ten minutes taking questions from reporters, seemingly because the City Hall press corps had complained about the lack of off-topic questions they'd been allowed to ask recently.
A New York Times reporter asked de Blasio why he had held fewer off-topic availabilities since August (!) and the mayor replied with a combination of we're doing more radio interviews and town halls and stuff and look, this is just How Things Work Now.
Somewhere in this morass of predictable questions and crisply, if throatily delivered pabulum (the mayor was also sucking on a lozenge) a reporter asked whether it was proper for the real estate lobby to donate money to a group that politically supports the mayor when they might have business before the city (and they always have business before the city).
"I think it’s really important to look at the laws that govern us. And I would like to see a very very different world, but we’re not in the that world yet," the mayor said, before praising Hillary Clinton for her stance on Citizens United
.
He later returned to the question's premise: "I respect that the media is supposed to hold us all accountable and ask tough questions. But I would ask for context. There are lots and lots of powerful interest spending vast amounts of money without any examination, without any disclosure. Anything associated with me is going to be fully disclosed, anything even that’s not directed by me but supportive of me is going to be fully disclosed."
Tagged
City hall
pedestrian safety
transparency
TWU Local 100
vision zero
original
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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