De Blasio's 'Vision Zero' traffic plan sees increased fatalities in final year

Traffic fatalities increase despite Vision Zero

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised zero traffic fatalities by 2024 but trends have been going in the opposite direction.

NEW YORK - The Vision Zero Program promised zero deaths by 2024, but trends have been going in the opposite direction.

According to the New York Post, it’s only reduced fatalities by 10%. The New York City’s Department of Transportation says as of Sunday, 266 people died in car crashes on city streets this year so far. It’s the most since 293 were killed in 2013, which was the year before Mayor Bill de Blasio took office.

Since the pandemic, crashes and speeding have increased and contributed to some of the traffic fatalities. But the de Blasio Administration says the blame isn’t entirely on them. The mayor had asked repeatedly for the state to allow speed cameras to operate around the clock as a way to catch the offenders and possibly reduce deaths.

All this as Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking to expand access to bicycle and pedestrian traffic, mainly on MTA Bridges which includes the RFK Triboro Bridge.

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Jon Orcutt, the Advocacy Director of Bike New York, is one of many pushing the MTA – which operates seven bridges connecting the boroughs – to give cyclists access to the bridges. It’s something agencies, like the Port Authority and the city’s DOT, have already done. For example, once the dedicated bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge was installed, ridership doubled nearly overnight and at peak times, 500 bicycles an hour.

"We live a few miles from a lot of what we do. And so it should be easy to use transit and bike and walk, and we just need to really push hard on every policy we can come up with to turn around this trend toward more driving," said Orcutt.