Showing posts with label traffic accident. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic accident. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Vision Zero Nanny caught running stop signs, speeding, breaking traffic laws

CBS 2 New York Report : Mayor’s Caravan Violated Traffic Safety Laws Days After Safety Event

Just days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his #VisionZero traffic safety improvement plan, CBS 2 New York reporter Marcia Kramer busted the mayor running stop signs and speeding, according to an exposé broadcast by CBS 2 New York Thursday night.

"When the mayor announced his 62-point safe streets initiative, which includes lowering the speed limit to 25 mph, he said, 'We want the public to know that we are holding ourselves to this standard,' " Ms. Kramer reported.

Because the mayor appears to have been caught being hypocritical about the enforcement of his new #VisionZero traffic safety plan, he's going to have to explain why traffic laws seem to apply to regular New Yorkers, but not to the mayoral caravan.

The fact that the mayor believes that the application of his #TaleOfTwoCities traffic safety plan only applies to others, but not to him, will undoubtedly embarrass his administration in tomorrow's tabloids. But this pause would be a great opportunity to really evaluate the "pie in the sky" promise of dropping all traffic accident deaths to zero.

According to The New York Times, police statistics show that 176 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in New York City in 2013. How many of those traffic deaths were attributable to the city's encouragement of more pedestrian use of the city's streets ? We have numerous street fairs during the summer, marathons, cement parks have taken over parts of city streets with some tables and chairs mere feet away from moving traffic. Now, there are bike racks right on the streets ! The city has been encouraging more pedestrian use of the streets, and now the de Blasio administration wants to ticket people for using those same streets, either because they jaywalk, or because they are becoming victims of traffic accidents caused by vehicular traffic.

Bill de Blasio - Caution - Watch For Speeding Mayoral Caravan

If we have situations were the mayor's caravan can run stop signs, speed, and break other traffic laws without a police escort blaring its lights and siren, how can citizens take Mayor de Blasio's new #VisionZero traffic safety plan recommendations ? There are all these mixed signals : use the streets, don't use the streets, the streets are safe, the streets are not safe. What are we to believe ?

Before the NYPD started in on its ticket blitz and brutalized jaywalkers, the mayor and the police department should have looked to what Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe tried to do to make that city safer for pedestrians. After Paris installed its wildly successful bike sharing program, the Paris municipality set out to make the city safer for all its pedestrians, bicyclers, and motorists. They rightly started their program, in part, with a huge public awareness campaign to change people's behavior. Huge signs were posted along some of the busiest streets, like the Boulevard de Sébastapol, to make pedestrians -- and drivers -- more aware of each other.

Motorcycle deaths in Paris : Bertrand Delanoe Traffic Safety Plan - Boulevard de Sébastapol

Mayor Delanoe's traffic safety program aimed to make it safer on Parisian streets after that city had encouraged tens of thousands of more people to take to the streets on bikes. It was after this mass new infusion of people on the streets that the effectiveness of the traffic safety plan was revealed to only be marginal. More than 10,000 pedestrians were injured in 2008 in Paris. By 2012, that number decreased only to about 8,327, and that was after a few year's worth of the Paris mayor's traffic safety plan.

Gains in pedestrian traffic safety will undoubtedly be made, but Vision "Zero" is impossible, because there will always be accidents, especially because the New York City is encouraging more and more people to take to the very same streets occupied by motor vehicles. Mayor de Blasio is overlooking how "Zero" is an impossibility. A much-needed traffic improvement plan should not be sold like that. How are we ever going to get to "zero," when certain drivers think that speed limits, traffic signs, and other traffic laws don't apply to them ?

Making the city "safer" for pedestrians needs to involve more than ticketing people for jaywalking, more than just empty talk, and certainly more than letting the mayor run through stop signs when he thinks nobody else is looking. Some of the safety improvements that Paris made were as a result of a whole host of efforts.

Several years in, the traffic safety effort in Paris has only made marginal improvements in safety. Their valiant efforts show that no matter how much you do, traffic is always going to be risky, if not dangerous, because human behavior will always involve risk, whether you are in a speeding cab, driving in dangerous weather conditions, or riding in the mayoral caravan. Making an effort to improve traffic safety is admirable, but let's be realistic. Vision "zero" is nanny-talk.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Why do horses work in dangerous traffic in Times Square ?

From Elizabeth Forel :

Horses are allowed to work in Times Square in the evenings until 3:00 am. Take a look at these pictures and this video :

These horses do not belong on the streets of New York City. What possible attraction could there be to riding in a carriage on crowded, filthy, smelly streets with bright lights and excessive noise led by a dispirited horse whose vision and probably hearing are impaired?

Where is our humanity? How can we continue to allow this inhumane and unsafe business to exist in New York City? Luckily, many people want it to end – all polls since 2006 have shown that between 75 and 80 percent of respondents want this business to be shut down.

horse-drawn-carriages-working-through-dangerous-Times-Square-NYC-Traffic, horse-drawn-carriages-working-through-dangerous-Times-Square-NYC-Traffic

This is why we ask you to join us in supporting the health and wellbeing of horses : please sign a petition endorsing the Avella/Rosenthal bill in the NYS legislature to prohibit the use of horse-drawn carriages in New York City.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

NYPD arrest Boyfriend of 'The Hills' star Stephanie Pratt

Julien Chabbott, 28, drove his expensive Ferrari over the foot of Police Officer Felix Recio. Mr. Chabbott is Stephanie Pratt's boyfriend, and he was trying to get out of getting a parking ticket for having left his expensive car in the "No Parking" zone alongside Mercer Street in Manhattan's fancy SoHo shopping district.

Stephanie Pratt, from the MTV hit show, "The Hills," is in the viral YouTube video.

Julien Chabbott Line Snob Parking Snob

Julien Chabbott, who is accused of driving his $257,000 red Ferrari 458 over the foot of a police officer, is co-founder of the “Line Snob” smartphone app, which was at one time marketed to help people cut through waiting in long lines.

The Facebook page for Line Snob has less than 300 "Likes," and the Twitter account for the Line Snob app has not been used since June 2010. And the Line Snob app is no longer available on iTunes. Nobody knows how Mr. Chabbott makes money.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Livery Taxi Cab Driver Plays Chicken With Jackson Heights Pedestrians

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS : A livery taxi cab driver threatens to back-up on pedestrians, who were standing on 37th Road, near 74th Street, in Jackson Heights, Queens. The driver was playing ''chicken'' with pedestrians (to see whether the pedestrians would step out of his way), and pedestrians were daring the driver to back-up on them (because the pedestrians were not moving (until a woman in a miniskirt distracted their attention).