Pedestrian and bicycle fatalities continue to be in the
spotlight, both nationally and locally. Nationally, NYC Mayor launched an
aggressive multi-agency bike/ped safety campaign and USDOT Secretary announced
bike/ped safety as top priority. At the
Jan. 17th MPO Board meeting, BWL urged Lee County leaders to follow these examples
and make reducing bike/ped fatalities a top priority.
TIGER/BikePed
Safety:
At Friday's Lee
MPO Board meeting, Don Scott, MPO executive director, brought the Board
up-to-date on TIGER grant implementation and the related Bicycle Pedestrian
Safety Action Plan (BPSAP) activities, as part of the monthly status report
requested by the Board. BikeWalkLee's
Darla Letourneau commented on this item, first on TIGER and then on BPSAP.
TIGER
Letourneau reported to the MPO Board that the TIGER program is alive and
well at the national level. In the 2014
appropriations bill that will be enacted by this weekend, the TIGER program
funding level jumped 20%--from $500 M last year (yr. we won grant) to $600 M
this year. The strong bipartisan support
for this successful program is important as the Lee MPO moves forward on
implementation of its $10.4 M grant. It
means our funding should be secure and that the support needed from our
national and state partners in helping us implement our grant should continue.
Bike/Ped Safety
As part of the
BPSAP update, Scott presented the final 2013 data and the 10-year trend line of
Lee County bike/ped fatalities and injuries.
Letourneau
commented on this item, stating that the county has just completed one of the worst
years on record for pedestrian fatalities and bike injuries (see graphs above), and these trends must
be reversed. Our pedestrian and bike fatality
rates (per 100K) are almost double the national average (see graphs below).
Following up on an email she
distributed to MPO Board members prior to the meeting, Letourneau highlighted the launch of NYC's major multi-agency approach
to reduce bike/ped fatalities. She
reported that this week the new mayor of NYC committed to eliminating traffic
deaths within a decade and launched an aggressive multi-agency campaign to make
it happen. Just as in NYC, all the local
jurisdictions, law enforcement officials, agencies and stakeholders must work
together if Lee County is to reduce the traffic fatalities on our roads.
On a per capita basis, Lee
County's pedestrian fatalities are almost double the rate of those in NYC,
yet there's little sense of a community-wide crisis here. The plan laid out by
Mayor de Blasio to achieve this goal illustrates the power of political
leadership in tackling these problems. Letourneau
stated that we need Lee County leaders to reject the idea that traffic
fatalities are inevitable, and instead, link arms and make solving this problem
a top priority. She also informed the Board
about USDOT Secretary Foxx's announcement this week that bike/ped safety will be a top priority during his tenure. (also see FastLane statement)
The Bike/Ped Safety Action Plan
that this Board adopted in September is a good start. Now political leadership by all the players
is needed. Letourneau urges all the
local jurisdictions to make this a top priority and to work in concert with the
MPO and other partners.
Letourneau also reported on the Florida Senate Transportation Committee's action this week to raise the speed limits on Florida roads. BikeWalkLee, along with safety advocates throughout Florida, oppose this bill because it moves in the opposite direction of making our roads safer for all users. BikeWalkLee communicated this position to the Lee Legislative delegation in December and Letourneau asked other Lee County officials to express their opposition to the bill in their communications with the Lee delegation.
Letourneau also reported on the Florida Senate Transportation Committee's action this week to raise the speed limits on Florida roads. BikeWalkLee, along with safety advocates throughout Florida, oppose this bill because it moves in the opposite direction of making our roads safer for all users. BikeWalkLee communicated this position to the Lee Legislative delegation in December and Letourneau asked other Lee County officials to express their opposition to the bill in their communications with the Lee delegation.
Report by Darla Letourneau
January 15, 2014: De Blasio Rolls Out a
Multi-Agency Approach to Reducing Traffic Violence by Stephen Miller
Calling
traffic fatalities an “epidemic” that deserves immediate attention from the
city, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched his administration’s “Vision Zero” agenda
this afternoon, setting out to eliminate traffic deaths within a decade. The
most important news to come out of today’s announcement is that his
administration will enlist multiple agencies to tackle the multifaceted problem
of traffic violence. A working group led by the city’s police, transportation,
health, and taxi commissioners is tasked with coming up with an action plan by
February 15.
De
Blasio also announced more immediate steps. School-zone speed cameras, which
have been issuing warnings since they were installed in September, will begin issuing tickets
tomorrow, the mayor said, and the police will begin prioritizing enforcement of
the most dangerous infractions: Speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians.
In addition, NYPD will be increasing the size of its highway division — which
investigates crashes and performs much of the department’s traffic enforcement
— to 270 officers, an increase of 50 percent; already, the unit has increased
its staff size by 10 percent, up from 170 officers.
De
Blasio made the announcement this afternoon at PS 152 in Woodside, where
8-year-old Noshat Nahian was walking last month when, crossing Northern
Boulevard with his sister, he was struck and killed by an unlicensed
tractor-trailer truck driver. Flanked by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, incoming
Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, elected officials, and families
of traffic violence victims, de Blasio began his remarks by saying this issue
is important to him as a parent. ”Every one of us thinks: ‘What if that
was my child?’” he said. “That is, in fact, how we have to make public policy
and how we have to implement public policy.”
“There
is an epidemic of traffic fatalities and it can’t go on,” de Blasio said,
noting that traffic fatalities are the leading cause of injury-related death
for NYC children and that the city’s plunging homicide rate — 333 murders last
year — is closing in on the number of traffic fatalities, which last
year’s preliminary data puts at 286 people.
“The
families joining us today have turned their grief into action,” de Blasio
continued. “We are standing with them and we’re starting immediately to make
changes to protect our children, and to protect all New Yorkers.”
In
tone and substance, today’s announcement marked a notable departure from the
days when NYC DOT was the sole city agency taking traffic violence
seriously. The interagency task force will convene over the next month
before releasing a report with “concrete plans” to carry out de Blasio’s Vision Zero
campaign promises,
namely: Dedicating more NYPD resources to traffic enforcement, improving design
and enforcement along 50 dangerous corridors and intersections annually,
expanding the number of 20 mph zones, and formulating a legislative agenda that
includes securing home rule over traffic enforcement cameras.
Bratton
announced a raft of changes at NYPD, some of which were begun last year by his
predecessor,
Ray Kelly. These include expanding the Highway Division and its Collision
Investigation Squad, including new staff focused on crash investigations, drug
testing, and retention of “black box” data that records critical
information immediately before a crash.
“Many,
many serious accident investigations involving serious injuries were not
adequately investigated,” Bratton said. “I intend to ensure that the new policy
is adhered to strictly.”
Bratton
said the department increased the number of speeding tickets it issued last
year by 16 percent over the year before, and he expects the number of citations
to continue to increase. Bratton also said the department is outfitting more
precincts with laser speed enforcement equipment, which is more effective than
traditional radar-based speed guns.
December 22, 2013: Pendergrass Guest opinion: Deaths on roads require our full attention
December 13, 2013: Area law enforcement officials meet to discuss bicycle and pedestrian safety efforts
September 22, 2013: Lee MPO Board adopts Bicycle Pedestrian Safety Action Plan and prepares to implement the TIGER grant
November 15, 2013: Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities again in spotlight
link to NYC Vision Zero Plan
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