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We Should Ban Cars On Halloween
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Oct 31, 2019
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Oct 31, 2019
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The main thing about Halloween, which a lot of you goblins and ghouls seem to forget, is that it's for children (and dogs). No matter how sophisticated your impeachment get-up might be, grown-ups are merely bystanders to this holiday. You know you can just walk into a CVS and buy candy with your credit card whenever, right?
The obvious role of adults, then, is to ensure that kids have a nice time, by filling their buckets with chocolate (full-sized bars, if possible) and complimenting their spooky attire and generally trying not to ruin this one good thing they have going for them. This is also why we should ban cars on Halloween.
We should prohibit driving today—or at least some driving—for the obvious reason that it makes trick-or-treating more enjoyable, but also because adults have frankly forfeited their privilege to get behind the wheel in the vicinity of small costumed humans.
According to one recent study, children between the ages of 4 to 8 years old are ten times more likely to be killed by drivers on Halloween than other days of this year. Between 2004 and 2018, 54 pedestrians under the age of 18 were killed by drivers on Halloween—more than three times the total for a typical day.
The idea is especially pertinent in New York City, where less half of the population owns a car, and where Halloween activities can be a bit more challenging.
There have also been several high-profile Halloween crashes in recent years: Back in 2015, a 52-year-old in the Bronx drove his Dodge Charger into a group of trick-or-treaters, leaving three people dead four others injured; two years later, a terrorist drove onto the the Hudson Greenway, killing eight people.
In the years since, local advocates have called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to ban cars in certain popular trick-or-treating destinations across the five boroughs—with little success.
"Halloween is predictable, the city could easily prepare for it," said Doug Gordon, a street safety advocates and host of The War on Cars podcast. "With a little forward thinking, it'd be pretty easy to designate, let's say, one or two really busy streets in every police precinct and have them be off-limits to cars so kids could have a safe place to walk around, even for a few hours."
And that's the moderate pitch. What if we banned all non-essential driving from Manhattan after 3 p.m.? Picture a group of tiny busways, fearlessly wandering the streets of Times Square while stuffing their faces with Almond Joys, just as the pagan gods intended.
A spokesperson for City Hall did not respond to Gothamist's inquiries, but we'll update if we hear back. In the meantime, here are tonight's street closures for the Village Halloween Parade.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told Gothamist, "This idea is worthy of consideration and taking to our partners in the NYPD to discuss feasibility and traffic management. The City is always looking to implement Vision Zero by improving street safety and protecting children, and we expect drivers to use the utmost caution during trick or treating today and tonight."
Tagged
halloween
vision zero
ban cars
opinion
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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