Speeder City
[Per capita Baltimore has about twice the crash rate of New York City, what's valid in NYC should be doubly valid here.]
"New York City can't keep looking the other way while speeding takes the lives of children, grandparents and neighbors by the dozens," Wiley Norvell said. "Speeding contributes to three times as many crashes as drunk driving, and yet Albany has denied New York City the one tool needed to enforce against this crime: speed enforcement cameras."
-- NY Daily News, 2/12
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T.A. surveyed over 15,000 vehicles at 13 locations throughout the five boroughs. |
Although any cyclist, pedestrian or person with a pair of eyes could have assumed as much, this survey of over 15,000 vehicles at 13 locations throughout the five boroughs provides the data to back up that long anecdotal estimation.
The study found: on East Houston Street, 70% of drivers sped through a school zone; on Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn, 88% answered the call of a lead foot; and on Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island's most dangerous road, cars were often clocked traveling more than 60 miles per hour.
Each of these horrifying figures not only shows the below-bar quality of the NYPD's speeding enforcement programs, but also indicates that speeding drivers put hundreds of thousands of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers at risk every day.
Speeding contributes to roughly 2,400 motor vehicle crashes in New York City each year--nearly three times the number attributed to drunk driving. The likelihood of a crash resulting in a pedestrian fatality increases exponentially with speed; a pedestrian struck at 40 mph has only a 30% chance of survival.
Something must be done to address NYC's speeding epidemic. To this end, T.A. is calling on the City to design streets for lower speeds, for the NYPD to collect data that documents the frequency of speeding, and for the State Legislature to pave the way for speeding enforcement cameras in NYC.