2013-dot-sustainable-streets-lowres

SAFETYSustainable Streets set the goal of reducing annual trafficfatalities by 50% from 2007 to 2030. This provided NewYork City’s street designers with clear annual targets—anaverage of a 3% annual drop in fatalities—that they striveto meet. Since 2007, DOT has embraced this mandate byundertaking the most ambitious and comprehensive setof traffic safety initiatives in the city’s history, and in anylarge U.S. city. With hundreds of traffic calming projects,education campaigns, technological applications andstronger regulations such as lower speed limits, DOT hassuccessfully reduced traffic fatalities to record low numbers.One thousand New Yorkers are alive today who would notbe if annual traffic fatalities had remained at the same levelsseen in NYC a decade ago. Traffic risk per resident in NewYork City is lower than it has ever been before, even in theface of NYC’s increasing population. At 3.1 fatalities per100,000 in 2012, New Yorkers experience a fraction of therisk to residents of other big American cities, substantiallylower than any of the next 20 largest U.S. cities.Yet the costs of traffic crashes in NYC remain high. Mostof those killed are in prime productive years and often havedependent family members. Traffic crashes are the thirdmost frequent cause of death of New Yorkers ages 5 to 24,and second highest cause of injury deaths among adultsover 45. Safety risks also tend to limit pedestrian trips forSafer streets across New York City since 2007:– Implemented safety design on 137 street corridorsand 113 intersections– Installed 772 new traffic signals and241 all way stop controls– Implemented leading pedestrian intervals at100 intersections to give pedestrians extra timeand visibility when crossing the street.– 39 acres of road repurposed for plazas,public seating, refuge islands, painted extensions,medians, and bulb outs– 29 implemented or planned slow speedresidential zones– 189 schools with reduced speed zones– Added red light cameras at 50 intersections andnew speed radar cameras at 20 locations12Introduction