Mayor Eric Adams pledged Wednesday to make streets safer for Huge Apple pedestrians by way of redesigned intersections and ramped-up visitors enforcement, days after a teenage woman was fatally struck by a faculty bus in Brooklyn.
Adams unveiled measures harking back to ex-Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s “Imaginative and prescient Zero” initiative, together with security enhancements at 1,000 intersections, enhanced visitors alerts, 100 raised crosswalks and elevated area for pedestrians.
“We're asserting main motion to make our intersections protected,” he stated at Caton and Coney Island avenues close to the outdated Parade Grounds in Windsor Terrace — a neighborhood dwelling to 26 visitors accidents prior to now 5 years.
“There can be traffic-calming measures and recapturing area for pedestrians. We’re going to enhance visitors alerts, elevate crosswalks and extra.”
The blueprint consists of pinpointing areas the place visitors deaths and severe accidents have beforehand occurred so as to add new flip alerts and “head-start” sign timing that enables pedestrians to cross earlier than autos can flip; 100 new raised crosswalks on the curb per yr to permit for higher entry for New Yorkers with disabilities and to function pace bumps that sluggish drivers; 100 new bike corrals; and double the town’s current turn-calming therapies in 2022.
The announcement comes after a 15-year-old woman was fatally struck by a faculty bus Monday in a hit-and-run at Bedford Avenue and Avenue P in Sheepshead Bay. The motive force, recognized as Aleksandr Patlakh, 55, struck Antonina Zatulovska, and saved driving — with a rear wheel of the bus rolling over the teenager, video of the incident exhibits.
Patlakh was arrested later Monday and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to make use of due care.
“We're decided to declare the intersection as a sacred area and defend the area within the metropolis of New York,” stated Division of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez.
Along with avenue design reforms, Adams pledged the NYPD will crack down on unsafe and unlawful driving and biking.
“We’re going to double down on enforcement at efforts of failure-to-yield violations the place individuals are simply failing to yield to pedestrians as they cross the road,” he stated. “And we’re going to implement a brand new visitors rule: Drivers and cyclists should totally cease at intersections even when there usually are not four-way cease indicators, each time there’s a pedestrian crossing or on the avenue nook about to cross.”
Metropolis officers additionally revealed that the town Division of Transportation will launch a public consciousness marketing campaign dubbed, “Cease, allow them to cross,” geared toward urging drivers to abide by visitors legal guidelines and to pump the brakes.
“Individuals should be taught the principles of the street or get off the street, and that's the message we’re sending out,” stated the mayor.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell promised cops would “guarantee compliance” with visitors legal guidelines.
“Cease in the event you see a pedestrian crossing the intersection. That doesn't imply decelerate and navigate your automobile between individuals strolling within the crosswalk; it means cease till the crosswalk is evident of pedestrians, then proceed. If our officers see a automobile failing to cease whereas pedestrians are crossing in entrance of it, that’s the place the enforcement is available in,” stated Sewell.
“We’ve issued warnings. However the time for warnings has come to an finish, and it’s time to obey this regulation, and we can be on the market to make sure compliance.”
Adams additionally vowed to enhance on Imaginative and prescient Zero, de Blasio’s signature however flawed protected streets program, calling the spate of 2021 visitors deaths a “darkish interval.”
“Final yr was a darkish interval for us. We noticed the very best degree of visitors fatalities in virtually a decade final yr. Irrespective of how a lot we lean into the Imaginative and prescient Zero, that imaginative and prescient was clouded by the variety of deaths that we witnessed in our metropolis,” he stated.
“So this administration is evident on one message: We wish to get stuff completed. We wish to be energetic. We wish to transfer ahead and proceed to mix our metropolis companies to get the outcomes we’re searching for.”
Bike New York spokesman Jon Orcutt praised the brand new plan.
“Components of it are good, that we haven’t seen quite a bit — like raised crosswalks and bike corrals at intersections for added visibility,” he instructed The Publish. “Most bike parking now is just not at avenue corners. We’ve been calling for extra bodily stuff to calm visitors, and this suits the invoice.”
“Enforcement has collapsed within the metropolis, so any transfer to extra visitors regulation enforcement is an effective factor,” Orcutt added of cracking down on harmful driving.
The measures revealed Wednesday additionally observe a harmful yr on metropolis streets.
De Blasio’s remaining yr in workplace, 2021, noticed extra visitors fatalities than some other yr in his eight-year tenure, in keeping with metropolis stats. As of Dec. 26, 266 individuals had died in automobile crashes within the 5 boroughs, in keeping with the town Division of Transportation — probably the most since 293 individuals died in 2013.
Site visitors deaths soared in 2021 as NYPD’s enforcement of visitors legal guidelines geared toward making streets safer plummeted in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with final yr’s Mayor’s Administration Report.
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