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De Blasio's Final Year Of Vision Zero Begins With Surging Pedestrian Deaths
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published May 4, 2021
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Courtesy of Zohran Mamdani
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published May 4, 2021
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As receding coronavirus infections allow much of New York life to resume, local officials are now grappling with a growing crisis on the city streets: soaring pedestrian deaths.
The number of NYC pedestrian fatalities is up 65% in the first four months of this year — from 26 at this point in 2020 to 43 as of this week, according to data released on Tuesday by Transportation Alternatives. That’s the highest death toll since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in 2014, the same year he introduced his signature Vision Zero effort with the goal of eliminating all traffic deaths by 2024.
Instead, the five boroughs have recorded 70 traffic deaths so far in 2021, a number that is set to rise for the third straight year. In Brooklyn alone, two dozen people have lost their lives in 2021, a record in the Vision Zero era. Staten Island, which was just named the most dangerous metro area for pedestrians in the United States, also saw a record number of deaths.
The tragedies have affected a cross section of New Yorkers, from a beloved Chinese restaurant manager on the Upper West Side to a 6-year-old Williamsburg boy waiting for a bus to a Bay Ridge resident who was killed outside a car dealership notorious for illegally using public space. In Queens, a 37-year-old deliveryman was fatally struck last week by a woman who witnesses said was traveling close to 50 miles per hour on a narrow residential street. The driver has not been charged.
READ MORE: NYC’s Streets Got Deadlier In 2020
City officials have attributed the growing death toll to a nationwide increase in reckless drivers, who they said took advantage of empty streets at the height of the pandemic, and have kept up the deadly habit.
Transportation experts who spoke to Gothamist say that explanation is partially correct. They also argue the de Blasio administration has failed to get ahead of the crisis, declining to take on the transformative improvements — like pedestrianizing wide swaths of the city’s core or implementing a network of connected bike lanes — that have helped other urban areas reduce traffic deaths.
“If we were really making progress the numbers would be driving down substantially,” Kate Slevin, a senior vice president for the Regional Plan Association who works on transportation issues, told Gothamist. “The way to address it is more traffic enforcement cameras, better street design, and prioritizing people over cars.”
In some respects, New York City’s streets have grown less hostile to pedestrians since the start of the pandemic. Miles of once-congested roadways have been transformed into walker-friendly open streets, and new curbside dining options have taken the place of hundreds of parking spaces.
Still, Danny Harris, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, accused the mayor of failing to scale up the city’s most successful streets improvements. Many of de Blasio's stated priorities, like the Queens Boulevard redesign, remain stuck in a bureaucratic process that advocates say discourages swift implementation.
“This mayor who’s overseen Vision Zero and some of these transformative street safety projects hasn’t been able to bring them to every borough and every neighborhood,” Harris told Gothamist. “We’re going from vigil to vigil instead of groundbreaking to groundbreaking.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said that officials had “noticed a rise in pedestrian fatalities and are aware that more work is required.”
“As New York City emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, we look forward to continuing street improvement work that was curtailed by last year’s limitations,” the statement continued. “We will continue expanding our proven street safety programs and work with speed cameras and automated enforcement, where authorized by law.”
The bulk of that improvement likely won’t happen during the de Blasio administration. A City Council plan to “revolutionize” city streets, at a cost of $1.7 billion over the next decade, is still awaiting funding, and its success will depend on whether the next mayor supports its ambitious goals.
Many advocates have also turned to Albany for further action. A slate of lawmakers have introduced a package of eight bills, known as the Crash Victim Rights and Safety Act, which include measures to expand speed cameras, permit the city to lower speed limits, and make it easier to prosecute reckless drivers.
State Senator Andrew Gounardes, a Bay Ridge representative who is sponsoring several of the bills, said he was hopeful that the measures could be passed in the next legislative session.
In the meantime, as more people return to the streets, Gounardes said he had a message for the city's drivers: “Slow the f down.”
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Pedestrian Deaths
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mayor de blasio
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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