Once again the Mayor who seeks to outlaw that which he doesn't like has declared his vision Zero for NYC. For those unfamiliar with this Vision Zero it is the high on crack cocaine and heron dream of a city with zero traffic fatalities. Yet another example of liberals who simply cannot stand any risk whatsoever, except going to school in the snow, while declaring an emergency but anyway. De Blasio says he has as his model Sweden. So being the, you know, academically inclined person I am, I went to
look at what is going on in Sweden
Ten years after initiation of Vision Zero, results have been unimpressive in Norway. "The zero vision has drawn more attention to road safety, but it has not yielded any significant short-term gains so far," a staff engineer at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration said.[9]
Sweden, which initiated Vision Zero, had somewhat better results. Sweden has a long tradition in setting quantitative road traffic safety targets. In the mid-1990s a 10-year target was set at a 50% reduction for 2007. This target was not met; the actual ten-year reduction was 13% to 471 deaths. The target was revised to 50% by 2020 and to 0 deaths by 2050. In 2009 the reduction from 1997 totals was 34.5% to 355 deaths.
And there's a pretty table showing how far from zero Sweden has gotten
since 1997.
Yeah, so much for
zero.
To push this nonsense even further, De Blasio wants to drop the NYC speed limit to 20 MPH from the current 35 mph (where possible). Where possible is of course the issue. There are few places in NYC where one can attain and maintain 35 MPH for very far, particularly during daytime hours. Secondly many of the auto to pedestrian accidents, particularly the ones prompting this Zero nonsense, happened at intersections involving turning vehicles. Let us
also note:
27% of fatal pedestrian crashes involved driver failure to yield.
Pedestrian-vehicle crashes involving unsafe speeds are twice as deadly as other crashes.
If 27% of fatal pedestrian crashes were the fault of non-yielding drivers, then what were the other 73% caused by?
Streets blog tries to change the subject by breaking out "enforceable" vs. unenforcible events:
Crash data analyzed by Transportation Alternatives revealed that most city pedestrians and cyclists killed during a 14-year span died because drivers broke an enforceable traffic law.
But when you look at the actual causes, enforceable or not, pedestrians are the largest contributing factor(30%). Pedestrian activity is the largest predictor of fatalities than any other cause.
But here's the thing. This data is completely contradicted by other data:
Another point from
pop center.org:
Pedestrian-vehicle crashes also tend to concentrate at certain places:6
The majority of pedestrian-vehicle crashes (60 percent in urban areas; 67 percent in rural areas) occur at places other than intersections.
Seventy-four percent of pedestrian-vehicle crashes occur where no traffic control exists.
[My emphasis]
70% what?
Where is the usual place where there are "no traffic controls"? That would be between intersections. Meaning, where a pedestrian steps out into the street into oncoming traffic in an attempt to cross a street and
avoid going to an
inconvenient controlled intersection. Did I make this up?
Pedestrian Behavior
Unsafe pedestrian behavior is a major factor in pedestrian injuries and fatalities. In a recent study of 7,000 pedestrian-vehicle crashes in Florida, researchers discovered that pedestrians were at fault in 80 percent of these incidents.8 Similarly, in a U.K. study, pedestrian behavior accounted for 90 percent of crashes where vehicle struck a pedestrian.9
Please Mayor De Blasio, explain this to us.
See the real issue are the pedestrians (and to an extent cyclists who think the lights don't apply to them, and I say this
as a cyclist. But it is unpopular to blame people for their own actions. Someone else must be at fault. Of course the ones to blame are the 2 and 3 ton vehicles that people apparently think little of before stepping out in front of.
So the solution given by De Blasio is not about educating pedestrians to the risk they pose
to themselves every time they jaywalk or walk around absorbed in their phones. It is to slow down the drivers so that when the pedestrian steps in front of them the pedestrian doesn't get killed. If is essentially a shifting of the pedestrian's responsibility to protect themselves onto a third party (the driver). This is much like the feminists who think a drunk man has more responsibility when he has sex with drunk female. He has to account for his and her behavior to his own peril.
Cause you know, Drunken sex is 100% avoidable by every person. Jaywalking accidents are totally avoidable by every pedestrian.
If De Blasio had sense and guts, he would direct the police to enforce the laws as they are. He would instruct the appropriate agencies to look into signage and other changes that may help alleviate the problem. Lastly he would clearly let pedestrians know that it is THEIR responsibility to not step out in front of 2 ton vehicles.
