Finally
On average, a pedestrian is killed by a driver in New York City about every other day.
Unfortunately, too often the message from the city (from the Bloomberg administration) has been that it's a pedestrian problem -- that it's their own fault. While there are some times where that's the case, it isn't usually.
Bloomberg's announcement last week of a plan for stricter enforcement of traffic laws is a significant step forward. The existing "don't block the box" laws would be good -- if only they were enforced. They rarely are.
The new plan will allow all traffic enforcement agents (who are not police officers) to issue tickets by recording the license plates of drivers who break the law. The owner will then be sent a ticket in the mail.
Giving law enforcement the tools to enforce existing laws doesn't sound flashy but it will probably save lives.
1 Comments:
I'm glad you're talking about this. People so often don't acknowledge that cars are really deadly, either through ignoring it or active denial. Sometimes it's kind of necessary to live in our world and not go crazy/be scared to be killed or to kill someone.
I'm not saying no one should ever drive (or that lots of other common things in this world aren't deadly. A lot of people need to with the way our communities, lives, jobs, and transit systems are structured, and some people that drive or ride in a car can't get around or to the train/bus on their feet/bike. I'm just saying that we should acknowledge that cars are deadly so that we can be real and try to make things better; denial doesn't help the problem.
I am more into spending my time and energy and dreaming on changing structures of transit/living to reduce the need for driving and make it less dangerous than law enforcement. Like biking and critical mass type things and fully funding good transit systems (please, IL legislature, you can do it!)
And raising awareness in creative ways. Check out http://www.drivewithcare.org/ because it's interesting and also because you'll get to see the correct use of the phrase "the City": it means the nearest large city, which in this case happens to be Chicago. It does not mean, exclusively and obviously, New York City. :-b
ps thanks for breaking the seal on my blog's comments a while back!
Post a Comment
<< Home