NYMTC Regional Pedestrian Safety Study - New York Metropolitan ...

• Good planning and organization. The characteristics and special needs of the
neighborhood should be considered. It also should entail coordinating with the engineers
and traffic safety educational groups.
• Training of police for right-of-way enforcement. Right-of-Way enforcement differs from
other types (e.g., speed, right light).
• Support from senior police staff.
• Informing of prosecutors and judges.
• Media and public support.
• Precede citations with warnings. This is particularly important if there is no history of
crosswalk right-of-way enforcement.
• Start strong and gradually reduce. Enforcement should be very frequent at beginning of
the campaign and reduced gradually but sustained over a long period.
• Choose locations with higher frequency of poor pedestrian safety behavior.
• Provide good engineering measures first. This could include ensuring crosswalks are
well marked and signs are up and clearly visible.
5.4.3 New Laws and Regulations
Several new laws or changes to existing laws have been suggested. One is the use of No Right
Turn on Red in areas with high pedestrian volumes. New York City already has banned the
RTOR throughout most of the city. Other jurisdictions should look at where the number of
conflicts with pedestrians would be reduced by banning them
Another New York City practice that could be expanded to other jurisdictions in the region is
Red Light Cameras. The city has recently received permission from the state legislature to
expand the number of cameras from 50 to 100, but they are still banned from the rest of the state.
A recent evaluation of their effectiveness (Council et al., 2005) indicates that the decrease in
right angle crashes due to red light cameras is partly balanced by the increase in rear end crashes,
but there is a small positive improvement in safety overall. Since a pedestrian is more likely to
be endangered by a vehicle that runs a red light than one that stops too quickly, the impact for
pedestrian safety may be greater.
New York State authorization to use speed cameras would be beneficial to pedestrian safety also;
lowering speeds is often suggested as the one most beneficial change for reducing pedestrian
deaths and injuries.
New York City has been seeking a law that would require all large commercial trucks to be
equipped with cross-over mirrors. These mirrors are commonly used on school buses and
increase ability of the drivers of large vehicles to see directly in front to the vehicle. This would
be of particular benefit to the safety of children and people in wheelchairs, and again would be
beneficial in all parts of the region.
Other suggestions for new laws made by Zegeer, Stutts et al. (2004) are:
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