Some of the city’s most dangerous streets will be overhauled, with studies to start this year.
Since the city launched its Vision Zero street safety initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities in a decade, pedestrian fatalities are at a record low.
The original Vision Zero came out of Sweden, with a focus on designing around human error. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday, as he did last February, that the city would focus on engineering, education, and enforcement to eliminate these deaths.
There were 250 total traffic fatalities in 2014, compared to 293 in 2013.
Redesigns
Much of the success has come from redesigning streets, because that’s what the data called for.
Over half New York City traffic fatalities come from just 15 percent of the streets—the major arteries. On a road that wide, it generally feels natural to speed. A badly designed street can also cause crashes because traffic moves in a conflicting way.
