Today, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Department for the Aging Commissioner Edwin Méndez-Santiago launched "Safe Streets for Seniors," a major new pedestrian safety initiative for older New Yorkers.
Here's the press release.
Here's an excerpt:
Since 1990, pedestrian fatalities in New York City have decreased by 62%, but senior citizens remain a particularly vulnerable group. A study of pedestrian fatalities from 2002 to 2006 showed that senior citizens-those 65 and over-made up about 12% of the City's population but were involved in nearly 39% of the City's fatal pedestrian accidents. Because New York City's senior population is expected to increase significantly in the next 25 years, Department of Transportation engineers have already examined accident histories across the city and identified 25 city neighborhoods that have both a high density of senior citizens and a high number of pedestrian accidents or injuries, looking at variables like visibility, lighting, drivers' compliance with traffic and pedestrian signals and the width of the roadway. As part of the Safe Streets for Seniors program, engineers will evaluate pedestrian conditions in these neighborhoods from a senior's perspective and make engineering changes such as extending pedestrian crossing times at crosswalks and shortening crossing distances, altering curbs and sidewalks, restricting vehicle turns, and narrowing roadways
Today's announcement took place in Brighton Beach, where the City has already retimed lights and pedestrian signals along key roads including Brighton Beach Avenue, Coney Island Avenue, Neptune Beach Avenue and Ocean Parkway. The Department of Transportation also plans to refurbish signage in the area and to add "No U-Turn" and "Yield to Pedestrian" signs on Brighton Beach Avenue between Brighton 1st and Brighton 7th Streets. Longer-term projects in Brighton Beach include improvements to pedestrian islands, curbs and sidewalks, roadway narrowing and reducing the number of travel lanes, moving stop bars further away from crosswalks and additional senior outreach.
Similar work will soon follow in the four other neighborhoods, including: Manhattan, Lower East Side; Bronx, Fordham/University Heights; Queens, Flushing/Murray Hill, and Staten Island, New Dorp/Hylan Boulevard. Once these five pilot locations are completed the twenty other locations will see similar safety surveys and upgrades.
According to the
map, Jackson Heights is one of the twenty neighborhoods that will be targeted in the second phase of this program. Great news for pedestrians of all ages!
Topic: Safe Streets for Seniors (Read 1837 times)