Questioning the de Blasio Administration's Commitment to Vision Zero

Nicole Gelinas reflects on a deadly week on the streets of New York City—"six people killed in car crashes in just two days"—following a "bloody summer for walkers and bicyclists."

According to Gelinas, the death toll raises the question of how seriously Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking his Vision Zero campaign to end road deaths by 2024. According to Gelinas, the city reduced traffic deaths an encouraging amount in 2014 and 2015, but 2016 isn't looking likely to continue that trend.

Gellinas suggests that the city isn't doing enough, fast enough, to invest in pedestrian and bike safety. The city has also worked to opposite effect recently, as exemplified by city's recent decision to remove "pedestrian islands along Brooklyn’s dangerous Eastern Parkway," designed "to help schoolchildren cross the street more safely."

An article by David Meyer puts that decision in perspective:

DOT removed pedestrian islands on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights yesterday, undoing years of street safety advocacy work on the part of local residents and community board members with no public process, and no one in the de Blasio administration is taking responsibility.

Meyer's article also shows evidence of the buck being passed around by the Mayor's Office, the NYPD, and the DOT. A follow-up article the next day, also by Meyer, reports that Mayor de Blasio eventually blamed the decision on an unnamed local politician.