The Weekly Carnage

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This week, New York State authorities launched a probe into the gap between Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains and platforms. After that, the National Transportation Safety Board launched its own probe, which like the state’s follows the tragic death of a Minnesota teenager who fell through such a gap boarding an L.I.R.R. train on Aug. 5. These probes are a good idea, but why the obsession with making the safest mode of transportation even safer when someone dies in a tri-state traffic crash every three and a half hours? This week we learned that U.S. traffic deaths rose to 43,443 in 2005, the highest level in 15 years and 16 times the number of U.S. casualties in the Iraq war to date. Imagine what those figures might be if public authorities were as focused on eliminating fatalities on our roads as they are on our rails. Here are news articles about some of the regional traffic deaths and injuries that occured this week.

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Transportation Alternatives Launches Probe Into NYPD Crash Investigations

By Brad Aaron |
Transportation Alternatives today delivered over 2,500 citizen letters to Ray Kelly demanding that NYPD crack down on dangerous driving, and announced a comprehensive probe into how the department handles traffic crash investigations. Flanked by dozens of supporters and victims of traffic violence at 1 Police Plaza, TA executive director Paul Steely White excoriated NYPD for […]

TA Rolls Out CrashStat Improvements

By Brad Aaron |
E. 33rd St. and Park Ave. was the city’s most dangerous intersection between 1995 and 2005. Transportation Alternatives’ CrashStat 2.0 is now out of beta, with improvements in performance and functionality. The most obvious change is that the data loads a lot faster, and the icons are cleaner. There are more data points, too: the […]

The Weekly Carnage

By Brad Aaron |
The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up of motor vehicle mayhem across the five boroughs and beyond. For more on the origins and purpose of this column, please read About the Weekly Carnage. Injuries, Arrests and Property Damage Gothamist Newsmap: Unidentified Pedestrian Struck Near Bellevue Hospital Mill Basin, BK: SUV Collision That Injured 12-Year-Old Ruled […]

Crashstat 2.0 Reveals NYC’S Most Dangerous Intersections

By Aaron Naparstek |
Crashstat shows Fordham Rd. in the Bronx to be one of the most dangerous streets in New York City. For years, Livable Streets advocates have pushed New York City government to make citywide pedestrian and cyclist crash data more accessible to help civic groups and policy makers make more intelligent street design improvement decisions. Rather […]