Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Traffic Justice

Victims Arrested, Assailants Walk Free: Dark Days for Traffic Justice

By Brad Aaron | Aug 18, 2009 | 6 Comments

Few regular readers of this blog need to be convinced that pedestrians and cyclists of all stripes — i.e. the vast majority of New Yorkers — are completely vulnerable to serious injury and death at the hands of reckless motorists. Though collisions, near misses and confrontations occur with such frequency that even fatalities often go […]

Road Rage Victim’s Reputation Smeared Until Proven Innocent

By Ben Fried | Aug 17, 2009 | 8 Comments

Ray Bengen, pictured on the sidewalk below his assailant, is paying a steep price for defending himself while riding in the Ninth Avenue bike lane. Following Brad’s post last week about one pedestrian’s encounter with an enraged driver and the NYPD, I caught up with Ray Bengen, another New Yorker charged with criminal mischief after […]

DA Candidate Aborn Unveils Transportation Safety Plank

By Ben Fried | Aug 14, 2009 | 4 Comments

The collision that claimed the life of eight-year-old Axel Pablo yesterday afternoon was another sobering reminder of New York City law enforcement’s institutional failure to deter deadly driving. Police let the cab driver who killed Pablo, Akim Saiful Alam, leave their custody after deciding that he had not committed a criminal act. Even adherence to […]

NYPD Arrests Pedestrian After Near-Death Brush With Raging Motorist

By Brad Aaron | Aug 13, 2009 | 46 Comments

Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue, the Long Island City intersection where a pedestrian was nearly mowed down by an erratic and angry driver. Locations approximate. Image: Google Maps/Carly Clark A Queens man will go to court tomorrow following a charge that he damaged the vehicle of a driver who — twice — nearly ran him […]

DA Candidate Aborn: Traffic Deaths Not Just “Accidents”

By Brad Aaron | Aug 4, 2009 | 11 Comments

Candidate for Manhattan district attorney Richard Aborn has a piece on The Huffington Post today comparing New York homicides with traffic fatalities, and pledging to give traffic crime the attention it deserves. Richard Aborn. Photo: Brad Aaron While "effective policing and prosecution" have lowered the homicide rate to around 500 per year, Aborn says, the […]

1.2 Million Traffic Summonses Is Nothing to Be Proud Of

By Brad Aaron | Aug 4, 2009 | 5 Comments

Just another city motorist breaking the law with impunity. Photo: NYT In his response to Executive Order, the thorough and damning report on lax NYPD traffic enforcement released by Transportation Alternatives last month, Commissioner Ray Kelly was dismissive and defensive. "I don’t know what they are talking about," said Kelly. "In 2007 and 2008 we […]

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