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 The Editors 7/18/12 8:00am

opinion

Life in the Slow Lane

New Yorkers, as you cannot failed to have noticed, live their lives at a pace that would leave the good citizens of many other world-class cities in the dust. We talk fast, we eat fast, and, on those rare occasions when traffic allows, we drive fast.

The driving bit is about to change, and that’s not a bad thing. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/18/12 3:39pm

Road Rage

Are the bikers really the problem? (AFP/Getty)

Helmet Huggers: Pedestrians Really Have Nothing to Fear from Bikes (But Everyone Still Has to Worry About Cars)

When people tend to complain about bikes, it is in terms of law-breaking dare devils. Whether or not this is accurate, at the very least, the pedestrians who so often feel threatened by these two-wheeled madcaps need not look over their shoulders fearing for their lives.

Well, that might still be a good idea, especially with an 18-wheeler barreling down behind the bike, but the odds that a cyclist might actually kill, or even maim you are incredibly slim, according to new city data. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/29/11 6:28pm

Road Rage

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Street Smarts! New York Traffic Fatalities at 100 Year Low—But Who Deserves the Credit?

Why did the mayor cross Grand Army Plaza? Because it wasn’t dangerous any more.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gathered today with police and transportation officials at the Brooklyn landmark to announce that, at 237 traffic fatalities, the city had seen the fewest people die in the streets since an official count began in 1910. Traffic deaths are down 40 percent since the mayor office, when there were 393 deaths, and they have fallen 13 percent since last year’s 271 deaths. The year before that, there were 258 deaths.

“We’ve made progress in every area of traffic safety due to our willingness to take new, creative approaches to longstanding challenges with safety redesigns and through aggressive traffic enforcement,” Mayor Bloomberg said. Read More

By Thornton McEnery 10/26/11 9:02pm

Road Rage

Erica Lefevre is looking for answers, but is getting only more questions

The Death of Mathieu Lefevre and the Contradiction of Bloomberg Bike Policy

When Erica Lefevre took the microphone outside One Police Plaza at a press conference shortly after noon today, the clearly stricken woman spoke first about what a talented artist her son had been, and how he had left his native Canada to make an impact on the art world of New York City.

“His work is in museums in Toronto and his native home of Montreal,” she said, her voice trembling with a mix of pride and sadness, knowing he would never paint again.

While riding his bicycle home from his studio last Wednesday night, 30-year-old Mathieu Lefevre was struck by a truck and killed on the corner of Meserole Street and Morgan Avenue in Bushwick. The driver, who apparently claims not to have seen or known what was happening and will not be charged in Lefevre’s death.

Other than that sketchy information, Lefevre’s parents and his ex-wife Juliana Berger, have no knowledge of what occurred, and after a week of questions to the NYPD they have had no further answers, or solace.

“What compounds this tragedy is a failure to get information from the police about what happened to our son,” said Ms. Lefevre. Read More