Jump to content

Vision Zero (New York City)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 77.193.104.227 (talk) at 11:51, 4 November 2017 (Transportation safety in the United States). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Vision Zero is a program created by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. Its purpose is to reduce by 50% the number traffic fatalities by 2025. On January 15, 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced the launch of Vision Zero in New York City, based on a similar program of the same name that was implemented in Sweden. The original Swedish theory hypothesizes that pedestrian deaths are not as much "accidents" as they are a failure of street design.[1]

New York City had seen a significant decrease in traffic fatalities over the last 2 decades prior to 2014. In 1990 there were around 2000 traffic fatalities. In 2013 there were 286 traffic fatalities.[2] 2014 saw the least pedestrian fatalities since 1910.[3]

In 2016, in NYC citywide, there was 10775 pedestrian injuries, 148 pedestrian kills, 4592 bicyclist injuries 18 bicyclist kills due to Motor Vehicle drivers[4], which is less than in the USA, where Transportation safety in the United States in 2015, 5,376 pedestrians and 818 bicyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts). These two modes accounted for 17.7 percent of the 35,092 total U.S. fatalities that year[5].

The plan includes criminal charges against traffic violators, speed limit reduction from 30 to 25 miles per hour (48 to 40 km/h), slow zones, increased enforcement, increase use of speed cameras, quicker repairing broken traffic signals, strict enforcement on taxi drivers and more.[2] Under the Vision Zero plan New Vision Zero laws made it a crime, punishable by imprisonment, if a driver does not yield to a pedestrian and causes death or injury.,[1] Any government official on duty is exempt from this law and is not charged with a crime.[6]

There was a reduction in traffic fatalities in the year 2014, but the reaction was mixed.[7] Transit union officials say that bus drivers are persecuted through this law, and that they should be treated like government officials and not be charged criminally. Opponents say that buses killed at least 9 of the 132 pedestrians in 2014 and that they should therefore be investigated like anyone else.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Lisa, Belkin (January 14, 2015). "'Vision Zero,' one year on: NYC's quest to reduce preventable traffic deaths". Yahoo News. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. ^ a b LEMIRE, JONATHAN (May 29, 2014). "NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL PASSES VISION ZERO LEGISLATION". 7 News -AP. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. ^ DONOHU, PETE (December 30, 2014). "EXCLUSIVE: Pedestrian traffic deaths hit record low in New York City". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  4. ^ http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bicycle-crash-data-report-2016.pdf
  5. ^ "Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center". www.pedbikeinfo.org. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  6. ^ a b FITZSIMMONS, EMMA G. (Feb 19, 2015). "Mayor de Blasio's Traffic Law Vilifies Bus Drivers, Union Says". New York Times. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  7. ^ NOLAN HICKS , CAITLIN NOLAN , BARRY PADDOCK (May 26, 2015). "EXCLUSIVE: Daily News probe finds mixed results for Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero plan". NY Daily News. Retrieved 17 July 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vision_Zero_(New_York_City)&oldid=808675301"