2014 Was The Safest Year On Record For NYC’s Pedestrians; Fatalities Fall to Lowest Level Since 1910

Last year was the safest year for New York City’s pedestrians since record keeping began in 1910, with overall traffic fatalities down 15 percent from 2013 and pedestrian fatalities down 27 percent.

Highlights from 2014:

27 new Arterial Slow Zones implemented on more than 120 miles of wide roadways like Atlantic Avenue and the Grand Concourse
35 dangerous intersections overhauled—nearly triple the number from 2013
400 new speed humps installed, a 37 percent increase over the previous year
Redesigns of crash-prone corridors, including stretches of Richmond Avenue on Staten Island, Park Avenue in Manhattan, and Burke Avenue in the Bronx
45 Leading Pedestrian Intervals that give pedestrians a head start crossing streets, three-times more than in 2013
Over 5 miles of new protected bike lanes on streets like Lafayette Avenue and Hudson Street in Manhattan, and Brooklyn’s Kent Avenue
Five new neighborhood ‘slow zones’ lowering speeds on residential streets in Norwood, Clinton Hill, Alphabet City, Brownsville, and Jackson Heights

Priorities for 2015:

In 2014, DOT also hosted public workshops in development of borough-specific Pedestrian Safety Action Plans. These plans, which will be released next month, use crash data to provide a roadmap for future safety enhancements, and will lead to state of the art corridor and intersection improvements in at least 50 additional locations each year. The first projects underway in 2015 include:

A dramatic intersection redesign at Hillside Ave & Metropolitan Ave in Queens
A “road diet” on Amsterdam Avenue and protected bike lanes on Fort George Hill in Upper Manhattan
Atlantic Avenue near Washington and Underhill Avenues in Brooklyn
A complex intersection redesign at Jackson and Westchester Avenues in the Bronx
50 miles of new bike lanes along routes like Staten Island’s Clove Road, and at least 100 blocks of protected bike lanes as part of that goal

(YWN Desk – NYC)

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