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

• The signal time for crossing the street is too short.
• Speeds on the avenues (in Manhattan are too high)
• They need the leading pedestrian intervals at more intersections
• Wheelchairs cannot be seen – they are below the sight lines of large trucks and some
buses.
• Existing audible signals need to be monitored and managed.
• There needs to be a City-wide policy to improve crossings around senior centers.
• The city population is aging.
• There are more cars and trucks than ever.
• Pedestrian laws are not enforced.
• Buses, including dialysis and school buses, are among the worst for running red lights.
• Many of the people who are hit are not reported to the police. They are taken to
hospitals, and only the hospitals know about them.
• Wheelchair ramps are not being installed fast enough.
• When streets are repaved, many of the ramps are lost.
• Cars, including police cars, park in the bus stops, forcing pedestrians including those in
wheelchairs to go into street to board the buses.
• Tour buses also block the bus stops.
• The police do not enforce the no-parking in bus stops.
• Community Boards are supposed to have a disability committee, but many don’t.
• Pedestrians have no rights; it is even worse for the disabled pedestrian.
• Parks are inaccessible.
• Plows break off rubber projections of new mats with the rubber bumps at some ramps.
In addition, several individuals at the meeting of Disabled in Action mentioned problems at
specific locations, including:
• Lack of ramps at
o 24 th street and 2 nd Avenue is no longer there,
o 65 th Street at Columbus and Broadway
o Shopping mall at Bronx Boulevard Plaza
• At park at Christopher Street and 7 th Avenue, they recently renovated the Park and added
a step to get into the park.
• At Metropolitan Oval, the bus stop for the Bx22 is under the traffic signal. Buses
frequently leave during the red phase exposing pedestrians to traffic.
• At 1 st Avenue and 23 rd and 20 th Streets, the lights are staggered making crossing difficult
for the visually impaired.
Recent immigrants
Immigrants (particularly Hispanic) are overrepresented in pedestrian accidents. This was cited
specifically for outlying counties, although it may be true throughout the region. Recent
immigrants walk, bicycle, and use transit more than longer-term residents who often own cars.
Immigrants are not familiar with traffic in the United States. A lot of the impaired pedestrians
are immigrants (Hilton, 2006). The MV104 form does not record ethnicity, so it is hard to
document the regional occurrence of pedestrian crashes among immigrants.
NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 40