|
 York City initiative that made 2015 the safest year on record for
traffic accidents even as the number of roadway deaths nationwide
shows a steep increase.
Engineers are redesigning a stretch of Queens Boulevard, which
earned its notorious nickname due to the 185 people killed on the
road over 25 years. Cars, bicycles and pedestrians are being routed
into more clearly marked lanes with wider buffer zones between them,
more stop signs and smarter parking rules.
Adopting a Swedish program known as Vision Zero, New York City
officials are trying to eliminate traffic deaths through more than
100 initiatives that include curbing speed limits, boosting
enforcement with speed cameras and high profile ticketing campaigns,
as well as driver outreach and education.
Although 18 U.S. cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston
and Washington already have put in place some form of Vision Zero,
states and the federal government have lagged in their coordination
and implementation of the latest safety measures, which is
frustrating to international experts.
 "It surprises many people who are involved in road safety that the
richest, most successful nation on earth allows many of its citizens
to die because they don't take advantage of basic engineering," said
Michael Woodford, chairman of the Safer Roads Foundation, which aims
to reduce road casualties globally.
Woodford, who was ousted as head of Japanese optical equipment maker
Olympus after blowing the whistle on a major fraud case, said he has
spent millions of dollars of his own money on the initiative.
He contrasted the immense U.S. sensitivity over airline safety with
the relative inattention to the roadside carnage.
"It's got to become a political issue," Woodford said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio made New York the first U.S. city to adopt
Vision Zero when he launched it shortly after taking office on Jan.
1, 2014.
By 2015, annual traffic fatalities in New York City had fallen to a
record low of 231, a 22 percent drop from 2013 and the lowest since
record-keeping began in 1910, the mayor's office said. Pedestrian
deaths, which are high in New York City given how may people walk as
part of their public transport commute, fell 27 percent over the
same two years to a historic low of 134.
Because so many cities are new to Vision Zero, they lack the
before-and-after data that New York has, said Leah Shahum, director
of the national Vision Zero Network.
Although some drivers inevitably complain about slower traffic and
more tickets, there was a "transformative shift in prioritizing safe
mobility" under way across the country, Shahum said.
"No one is against zero traffic deaths. That said, the reality is
that behaviors can be hard to change. There will likely be more
pushback," Shahum said.
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'BELTS, BOOZE AND SPEED'
Vision Zero starts from the premise that all accidents are
preventable. Traffic engineers and driver safety experts know how to
reduce casualties, which are largely related to poor road design,
speeding, alcohol and the lack of seat belts.
Still, tens of thousands of people die on U.S. roads every year. The
toll fell from 44,599 in 1990 to 32,675 in 2014, according to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In the agency's latest report, covering the first nine months of
2015, traffic deaths nationwide rose 9.3 percent versus the same
period of 2014.
Experts warn against reading too much into any short-term
fluctuation in those national statistics, saying traffic deaths are
affected by gas prices, employment and other factors independent of
safety standards. But they stress that the main causes can all be
addressed through public policy.
"We've seen a huge amount of success in the past few decades, but
when you look at belts, booze and speed those are some persistent
problems," said Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and
research with the American Automobile Association (AAA).
In the New York City borough of Queens, officials focused on a
1.5-mile (2.4 km) stretch of Queens Boulevard where 47 people were
killed or seriously injured between 2010 and 2014.
Such campaigns are more difficult in rural areas, where narrow
highways typically lack a median, are poorly lit at night, and
attitudes are more lax about using seat belts or driving while
intoxicated, Nelson said.
Road engineering for safety has reduced fatalities in New York City
by 34 percent, the city said, twice the rate of improvement at other
locations, but it also requires money. The first phase of the Queens
Boulevard redesign cost $1.4 million and the price tag for citywide
safety related changes planned this year is $115 million.
"Our interstate infrastructure is crumbling. We can't afford to even
fill potholes and repair bridges, which is why Vision Zero is so
important because we have scarce resources and we need to invest
wisely," Nelson said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Diane Craft)
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