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

transportation safety on state highways, including pedestrian safety, is ultimately the
responsibility of the Regional Traffic Safety group.
The role of the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator is to be an advocate for pedestrians and
bicyclists and a resource for the NYSDOT Region and local governments. The bicycle and
pedestrian coordinator typically has other, additional job duties. The Regional Traffic Safety
group does the Priority Investigation Location (PIL) and High Accident Location (HAL)
investigations and analyses and investigates complaints from the public. The bicycle/pedestrian
coordinator generally provides assistance to "Traffic" when a specific safety problem is
identified that involves bicycle and/or pedestrian issues. The coordinator also provides input
regarding the safety of designs under development and general programmatic safety issues such
as crosswalk policy, traffic signal operations/equipment policy, sidewalk and shoulder policy,
trailway design and policy, etc. The coordinator also reviews draft Initial Project Proposals for
bicycle/pedestrian issues in project scopes.
A second state agency that deals with pedestrian safety is the Governor’s Traffic Safety
Committee, created in response to National Highway Safety Program, established in 1966.
In New York, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) coordinates traffic safety
activities in the state. The Committee is comprised of the heads of thirteen state agencies with
missions related to transportation and safety. The GTSC is chaired by the Commissioner of the
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and as a state department is also housed in the DMV.
The Committee promotes and supports the state's highway safety program to provide for the safe
transportation of people and goods on New York's roadways. The Committee acts as the state's
official liaison with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. [Quoted from GTSC’s
web page: http://www.safeny.com/overview.htm]
The top priorities of the GTSC Highway Safety Strategic Plan (GTSC, 2006B) include
“improving the safety of pedestrians.” This is made more specific in three specific performance
goals, that from 2004 to 2010, the state will:
• Reduce the number of pedestrians killed in traffic crashes statewide from 326 to 295
• Reduce the number of pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in New York City from 149 to 125.
• Reduce the number of pedestrians injured in traffic crashes from 16,665 to 15,000.
The GTSC works through 59 Traffic Safety Boards (TSBs), which are composed of
transportation and safety professionals from the locality. Outside of New York City, each county
has a TSB; New York City has several TSBs, one for the city as a whole and one for each
borough. GTSC recognizes two of them, the TSB for all five boroughs and the TSB for Queens.
The county executive or chair of the county legislative body appoints the TSB members and
chair. The TSBs typically have from five to 20 members; the intent is that the members come
from different organizations and have different points of view. Most of the funding from
NHTSA for local projects is distributed by GTSC though the TSBs. (See Section 6.2: Funding
Sources for details.)
GTSC, along with NYSDOT and the New York State Department of Health, is in the process of
forming a statewide pedestrian advisory group.
NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 18