Cristina Furlong
Prepared Statement on Vision Zero Legislation
Transportation Committee, New York City Council
April 30, 2014
Good Afternoon, Chairman Rodriguez and members of the Transportation Committee. Thank you for this opportunity to address you.
Make Queens Safer was formed by concerned parents out of empathy for families coping with the loss or injury of loved ones due to reckless driving, unsafe street design, and lack of enforcement of traffic laws. We are a community-based movement that sees pedestrian and cyclist fatalities as intolerable and preventable. We…
- advocate for safer street designs and stronger enforcement of traffic laws;
- demand that drivers in our communities take responsibility for the safety of their neighbors; and
- provide resources and education materials to our communities on driver, pedestrian, and cyclist safety on our overcrowded streets.
Since Mayor Bill de Blasio’s historic announcement of his Vision Zero program in January, we have commissioners of police, transportation, taxis, and public health who are rolling up their sleeves and beginning the difficult work ahead in eliminating the epidemic of pedestrian deaths on our streets. In Queens, many of our elected officials at all levels of government are passionate about improving pedestrian safety, and speak frequently and clearly about the difficulty of the challenge ahead. And at the town hall meetings that have been held so far, the vast majority of public speakers have been urging strong action. 105 days after the launch of Vision Zero, this is an extraordinary place to be.
On the streets of Queens, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of police officers. They’re reaching out, talking with drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists about Vision Zero. We expect that this is making a difference heightening everybody’s awareness of street safety, and that it is already having an impact in reducing injuries and fatalities. But this effect will be temporary, and permanent changes to the streetscape and law enforcement are needed.
We applaud the broad agenda of bills under consideration in today’s hearing. We encourage the Transportation Committee and the city council to pass all of them. We’d like to highlight a few in particular.
Intro. 140, which would require the city to establish 50 school slow zones annually, is extremely important. We’d like to see it go even further:
- Every school should have a student access safety plan, developed cooperatively through an interagency process.
- These plans should address crossings on major arterials near (but not necessarily adjacent) to schools, with Traffic Enforcement Agents assigned to control traffic and supplement Crossing Guards where they are needed.
- The plans should also designate specific zones for the dropoff and pickup of students by private cars, with coordinated adjustments to curbside parking regulations as needed to make safer dropoff and pickup possible. The scene at many schools is like the Wild West, and a tragedy waiting to happen.
Intro. 168, which would establish comprehensive plans for arterial streets, is also very important. We strongly support DOT’s new Arterial Slow Zones initiative, and hope they will soon be coming to Queens, especially Northern, Queens, and Woodhaven Boulevards, some of the most dangerous arterials in the city. But much more comprehensive redesigns of these major arterials are needed. We are glad to see the City Council emphasizing this point.
Third, we urge passage of all of the home rule resolutions addressed to the New York State Legislature. We strongly urge the State Senate and Assembly to pass these important measures.
Finally, we’d like to emphasize a point that often gets overlooked. As you know, Queens is the most diverse borough in the city. Many of our neighbors are linguistically isolated, or avoid contact with government because they are undocumented immigrants, and conventional methods of outreach won’t get to them. Additional efforts should be made to reach out to these groups.
- It is critical that pedestrian, driver, and cyclist safety education efforts reach these vulnerable populations in their languages, through local partners like community organizations and houses of worship.
- If immigrant families suffer the tragedy of a loved one injured or killed by a motor vehicle, as we’ve seen numerous times in our area, they often need extra assistance getting the public services and support they need. The city should work with local hospitals and community groups to ensure support is in place to help these families.
- The city should appoint an ombudsman or family liaison or give the Public Advocate’s office authority to intervene for families after tragedies occur.
- The NYPD should do what it can to lower barriers to families victimized by traffic violence. Instead of just telling people they need a $15 money order to get a police report, they could also inform people who may not know that these can be obtained inexpensively at a local post office. People who don’t know better are being ripped off by check cashing stores.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today.