City Council Testimony on on Intersections, Sidewalks, and Pedestrian Safety

Good afternoon and thank you to Chair Brooks-Powers and members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for holding today’s hearing on intersections, sidewalks, and pedestrian safety. My name is Elizabeth Adams and I am the Interim co-Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. 

Almost every New Yorker is a pedestrian, and everyone deserves safe, sustainable, and healthy streets. Investing in pedestrian infrastructure makes our streetspace a safer and more pleasant place to spend time, whether someone is commuting to work, walking to their doctor’s appointment, or wants to enjoy an afternoon in a pedestrian plaza. That means daylighting every intersection, hardening infrastructure, more space overall for pedestrians. More pedestrian space means more safety, and currently only 29.8% of street space is given to pedestrians. It’s also good for business. For example, converting car parking into public seating on Pearl Street in Manhattan added 100 customers a day per parking spot and produced a 14 percent increase in sales.

Pedestrian safety solutions require a Safe System approach, blending infrastructure with proactive policy changes. It’s time for the City to make serious, urgent investments in pedestrian safety and make New York the most walkable city in the world.

The number one factor in safety is speed. Now that Sammy’s Law has passed, the City must prioritize the implementation of its new authority to lower speed limits to 20 mph where it makes sense to do so. Lowering speed limits works. Researchers found that the crash rate decreases by four to six percent for every one mph reduction in speed, and the fatal crash rate decreases by 17%.

Schools and Youth

TA appreciates the Council’s support for raised crosswalks and intersections highlighted in Intro 0095, which would require a study on raised crosswalks, raised intersections, and speed reducers at intersections and roadways adjacent to schools. We know these solutions work: they’re already in DOT’s toolkit, and Mayor Adams has previously highlighted the benefits of raised crosswalks and even promised to build 100 per year. TA calls for the City Council to hold DOT accountable for proactive and aggressive implementation of previous promises.

Open Streets for Schools, also called School Streets, create a safe space on the street for students to congregate at select times (by closing the street to traffic), whether it’s all day or just during pick-up and drop-off. School Streets also activate the space outside of schools for safe play and learning. Car-free Open Streets in New York City have reduced crashes by as much as 77%, improving safety on streets near schools, which have been shown to be much more dangerous than an average street, especially during pick-up and drop-off hours and especially in areas that are majority people of color. 

Traffic violence

New York City’s Vision Zero program is working towards a city where traffic violence kills zero people every year, and also seriously injures zero people every year. However, nearly 2,000 New Yorkers have been killed or seriously injured -- meaning they lost a limb, organ, or were hospitalized for over 90 days -- while walking in the last 2 years alone. These serious injuries are devastating, life-altering events, including organ and limb loss, loss of a fetus, and temporary and permanent disabilities. 

New Yorkers with disabilities and who use mobility devices to get around are also uniquely at risk. Research shows that people using wheelchairs are more than a third more likely to be killed in a crash than pedestrians who do not use them. Our streets must be designed in accordance with universal design principles so that everyone can be safe, no matter how they get around or what their personal needs are. 

Daylighting is a proven way to improve visibility for all road users at intersections. Late last year, Mayor Adams committed to daylighting 1000 intersections. This work must be accelerated to ensure maximum safety benefits where they’re most needed.

Jaywalking

Jaywalking has no business being criminalized in New York City in 2024. Most every New Yorker jaywalks regularly, but enforcement disproportionately, overwhelmingly, and unfairly targets Black and brown New Yorkers. TA wholeheartedly supports Intro 0346, which would decriminalize jaywalking and take this outdated policy off the books.

Bills 

With respect to the bills under consideration at today’s hearing, TA supports Intro 0144, which would require bollards at sidewalks, curb extensions, and pedestrian ramps. Bollards protect people from cars and New York City should have far more of them. We support Intro 0079, which requires DOT to install lighting fixtures for pedestrians, making it safer and more pleasant for pedestrians to move through sidewalks. 

TA wholeheartedly supports Intro 0746, which requires the City to improve paved medians by planting vegetation for the purpose of  stormwater management. As we call for in our Spatial Equity report, converting asphalt into planted medians can reduce runoff by 80% and also reduce pedestrian fatalities and injuries by 30%. 

TA also supports Intro 0504, which prioritizes sidewalk repairs near NYCHA developments, Intro 0468, which would require DOT to post information on speed reducer requests, and Intro 0301, which requires DOT to install solar-powered crosswalks.

TA opposes Intros 0103 and 0104. As this administration looks to daylight thousands of intersections around New York City, City Council should be looking to make this process easier, not harder. These bills would add bureaucratic processes to stall projects at the expense of critical safety measures.

Thank you for your time.