Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
Bronx CB 8 Delays Vote on Play Street Where Driver Killed 8-Year-Old
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Bronx Community Board 8 delayed a decision on whether to approve a play street application from the school where a motorist killed 8-year-old Rylee Ramos, when people complained that a play street at a different school would interfere with their driving. The Riverdale Press reports that the 50th Precinct has joined P.S. 307, Horace Mann School, and St. Margaret’s […]
The Missing Piece in DOT’s Left-Turn Safety Plan: Real Split-Phase Signals
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Split-phase traffic signals protect pedestrians and cyclists by separating them from turning drivers — people walking and biking across the street get their own signal phase, and drivers turning into the crosswalk get another. Research indicates that split-phase signals are highly effective at preventing traffic injuries and deaths. But when DOT revealed its strategy to reduce crashes caused by left-turning […]
Summer Streets 2016 Gets Started Tomorrow
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If you’re old enough to remember when Summer Streets — which begins tomorrow — was a wild new idea, it probably won’t surprise you that this isn’t the first year we’ve pointed out that Summer Streets has become a completely normal thing. For some time now, New Yorkers have wondered when DOT would improve on the city’s premier car-free event, and next […]
Why Not Fix the Flatbush/Atlantic/Fourth Hellscape With a Traffic Circle?
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Could a traffic circle tame cars and trucks at the chaotic intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth avenues in Brooklyn? A team of architects thinks so. Earlier this week DOT held a public workshop about improving pedestrian safety in this area, where heavy traffic on wide, two-way streets meeting at irregular angles creates exceptional hazards. Motorists injured […]
Garbage Truck Driver Admits to Causing Crash That Killed Cyclist Hoyt Jacobs
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The truck driver who killed cyclist Hoyt Jacobs in Long Island City last year admitted to causing the crash and pled guilty to violating the victim’s right of way. Jacobs was riding north on Vernon Boulevard at around 7:15 p.m. last January 17 when Frank Alibrandi, also northbound, hit him with a Mack truck while turning right onto 41st Avenue, according […]
TA: Unfocused, Ineffective NYPD Enforcement Isn’t Helping With Vision Zero
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Since the launch of Vision Zero more than two years ago, NYPD has yet to develop a comprehensive strategy to target dangerous driver behaviors that are known to cause most injuries and deaths. To the contrary, a new Transportation Alternatives report finds that NYPD enforcement often targets the people most vulnerable to traffic violence, while motorist violations like […]
Behold the Transport for London Traffic Collision Map
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As City Hall staffers work on improvements to Vision Zero View, hopefully they’re taking cues from Transport for London’s collision map. Launched last September, the TfL map “shows traffic collisions that resulted in personal injury and were reported to the police” from 2005 through 2015. Some features of the TfL map that Vision Zero View doesn’t currently have: Crashes are […]
Crash Data Show NYC Is Losing Ground on Vision Zero
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After a four-month hiatus, City Hall is again updating its Vision Zero View map with new crash data, and through the first six months of 2016, traffic deaths rose slightly compared the same period last year. Through the end of June, 111 people lost their lives to traffic violence, up from 107 in the first half of 2015. Drivers […]
Bill Bratton Is in Denial About NYPD’s Deadly Drunk Driving Problem
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In the aftermath of another civilian death at the hands of an allegedly intoxicated off-duty officer, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says drunk driving cops are not a problem at NYPD. Nicholas Batka, 28, drove onto the sidewalk at Bedford Avenue and North Eighth Street in Williamsburg at around 3:10 a.m. Saturday, striking Andrew Esquivel and three friends. Esquivel, a […]
Cy Vance Wins Murder Conviction for East Village Sidewalk Killing [Updated]
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Update November 4, 2016: Martin was sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison, according to Vance’s office. A driver who killed a man and injured two others on a Manhattan sidewalk was convicted of murder, District Attorney Cy Vance announced today. Shaun Martin, who reportedly had a history of drunk driving, was high on […]
Eyes on the Street: The Emergent Sixth Avenue Bikeway
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6th Ave finally got its bike lane! #bikenyc pic.twitter.com/5yYF9SaxkL — Jesse Chan-Norris (@jcn) July 19, 2016 Work has started on the Sixth Avenue bikeway. The pic in the above tweet is at Sixth and 18th Street. The photo below, sent to us by a reader, was taken at 16th Street. Sixth Avenue is one of the […]
DOT Overrides CB 10, Advances E. Tremont Safety Project After Cyclist Death
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DOT will implement a road diet on the stretch of East Tremont Avenue where a motorist killed cyclist Giovanni Nin in June. Last year DOT had dropped the project in response to a hostile reception from Bronx Community Board 10. In early 2015, DOT proposed a number of improvements for East Tremont between Williamsbridge Road and Bruckner Boulevard [PDF]. The plan would reduce […]