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
