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Road Rage

By Matt Chaban 2:20pm

Road Rage

DOT_Traffic_Stats_2012

As Traffic Fatalities Jump for First Time in Sadik-Khan Era, DOT Blames Bad Driving

The mayor’s management report is out this week, and it reveals a rough patch for the city’s Department of Transportation [PDF]. Traffic accidents have hit levels not seen since 2007—the same year Mayor Bloomberg appointed Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, a brash force who has reshaped large swaths of the city’s street grid over the past five years.

The rationale has been to make the streets more pleasant for everyone—not just drivers but pedestrians and bikers, too—and to improve safety as a result. That we are back at pre-transformation levels may simply be a result of an anomalous year, not to mention that, safety measures or not, many New Yorkers like these changes. All the same, it seems like a setback for the data-driven Bloomberg administration and his streets czar. Read More

By Chloe Ashby 9/06/12 6:02pm

Road Rage

Watch it, kid! (Getty)

City Council Puts the Brakes on Commercial Bikers, Delivery Men, Two-Wheeled Speed Demons

“New Yorkers want what they want, when they want it, but that doesn’t excuse the disregard of safety—this is not the Wild West.”

Bronx Councilman James Vacca was sitting behind the long desk inside the 14th floor hearing room at 250 Broadway as a hearing of the Transportation Committee, which he oversees, was just getting started. He had taken the reins, or rather the handlebars, as he so often does when the committee turns its focus on the state of cycling in the city, a subject that gives Mr. Vacca, along with a few million New Yorkers, a great deal of consternation.

Today, the committee was tackling commercial cyclists and deliverymen—figuratively, though they probably would not mind actually tackling a few scofflaw two wheelers if given the chance. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/23/12 11:17am

Road Rage

Ford motors along. (Vanessa Rieger)

Would the Next Mayor Really Reverse Mayor Bloomberg’s Re-engineering of the Streets?

Former mayoral hopeful and social media lothario Anthony Weiner once infamously declared to Mayor Bloomberg over dinner that his first year in City Hall would be spent “tearing out your fucking bike lanes.”

It is a prospect that terrifies urban planners and bike advocates, who worship the public space rejiggering championed by current DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Mr. Weiner is obviously out of the running, but some other mayoral candidates have expressed concern about these streetscape changes, as well, most recently Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who called the commish a “radical” recently. But would he really go through with it? Read More

By Matt Chaban 5:48pm

Road Rage

How about some rainbow colored lanes? (Getty)

Let’s Roll! Two Out of Three New Yorkers Like Bike Lanes

Well, that ought to end the debate about bike lanes, even if former defender Bill de Blasio has become a skeptic. That would put him in the minority, as that numbers continue to climb in favor of the new bike byways crisscrossing the city. Last time we checked, it was a supermajority who liked bike lanes. Now, two out of three New Yorkers like bike lanes, according to The Times, no less, which has not always been a fan. And the gray lady makes a pretty emphatic point about it, too. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/25/12 6:39pm

Road Rage

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Is the NYPD Letting Drivers Get Away With Murder? City Council Wants More Accident Investigations

Each year, there are upwards of 3,500 serious injuries resulting from traffic accidents. The NYPD has ten times as many officers, yet it only assigns 19 of them to look into such incidents and investigates less than 1 in 10 as a result. Even then, investigations take place only when those involved are dead or believed to be dying. Sometimes they die without an investigation because on the scene, officers believe the injured will make it.

Members of the City Council and families who have lost relatives on the road arrived on the steps of City Hall this morning to decry what they consider a lack of enforcement and announce the introduction of a set of bills and resolutions they hope will impel the police department and the Bloomberg administration to take action. Read More

By Sarah Grothjan 7/16/12 11:25am

Road Rage

Yeesh—where's your helmet, pal? (Getty)

Cold Food v. Traffic Laws: City Fights to Get Delivery Bikers to Follow the Rules

A group of men stood outside Lenny’s sandwich shop on Columbus Avenue Friday, tugging at their neon vests and ringing their bicycle bells that read “I heart my bike” for curious bystanders. Save for the intermittent prod from a higher up to keep their vests on, the delivery cyclists were well versed on the bicycle laws (and speedy delivery of New York grub) that they were summoned to demonstrate. Read More