Supposed Safe Havens Pose Danger to Pedestrians in NYC

Matt Flegenheimer reports on the findings of a study of more than 1,400 pedestrians and cyclists treated at Bellevue Hospital Center that's been published recently in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. "The study could help inform transportation planning in the city, as administration officials — with whom the authors corresponded throughout their research — evaluate how best to engineer the streets to reduce the types of injuries sustained in these cases."

Some of the most compelling findings include:

• 40 percent of injured cyclists were hit by taxis, compared with 25 percent of the pedestrians
• 44 percent of pedestrians injured on the street were using a crosswalk with the signal
• 6 percent of pedestrians were injured while on a sidewalk
• Victims with an above-normal body mass index were found to have less severe injuries than their counterparts

"Administration officials said the report reinforced many of their own findings, including the need for bike lanes, pedestrian plazas and other traffic-calming measures," adds Flegenheimer. "Traffic fatality rates have fallen sharply under the Bloomberg administration, though the 274 traffic deaths in 2012 were the most in four years."