Region Faces 1,750 Traffic Deaths
in 2006
Will the region's roads be any safer in 2006?
Kolluri is NJ DOT Commissioner, Lettiere Out
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has learned that governor-elect Jon Corzine
will soon name Mr. Kris Koluri as the new New Jersey transportation commissioner.
Bronx Stadium Plan Complaints Give Pause
The NYC City Planning Commission took a full day of testimony from supporters
and opponents of the new Yankee Stadium plan.
Finally! A Mega-Development Looks to Transit
Forest City Ratner told the New York Post recently that it is considering building
the price of transit fares into Nets basketball game tickets for the proposed
19,000 seat arena in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Stockholm Tries Congestion Charge
News reports from the first days of Stockholm's new congestion charging experiment
said early results reduced central area traffic by about 16%.
Region Faces 1,750 Traffic Deaths in 2006
Will the region’s roads be any safer in 2006?
The Campaign analyzed five years of federal reports
in an effort to answer that question.
Our conclusion: it depends on who you are and where
you live. Worsening situations in some areas are offset
by favorable trends elsewhere. In all, we predict about
1,750 people will die on the Tri-State region’s
roads and streets this year. That is 1,750 too many,
and doesn’t count the thousands of serious, life-altering
injuries that others will suffer.
Where’s the broken window theory of traffic
crime?
Probably the best chance for safer streets and roads
across the region is for police to apply a version
of the “broken window” theory of crime
control to traffic violations. Police in New York City
brought crime down over the past 15 years by eliminating
outbreaks of petty crime on the theory that the approach
would net individuals likely to commit worse offenses
before they happened. Arrests for transit fare-beating,
for instance, found many people with outstanding arrest
warrants and helped bring down subway crime.
Regarding traffic, the approach has not been widely
applied. The NYPD has targeted enforcement at areas
with demonstrably high crash rates involving pedestrians,
for instance, and reduced overall fatalities with the
strategy. But petty traffic crime is rampant across
the region, and seems largely winked at by police and
the judicial system. A 2001 study by then-NYC Comptroller
Alan Hevesi, for instance, estimated that drivers in
NYC violate red lights 1 million times per weekday
(MTR #319), and experience and reports across the region
suggest a largely wild-west environment on the roads.
Stepping up enforcement of this sort of violation,
and building to a no-tolerance policy is the only way
to drive crash rates down and rebuild a culture of
lawfulness on the region’s roads.
Recent (2000-2004) trends across the region show:
· Total traffic fatalities and pedestrian deaths
are rising in the northern suburbs (Orange, Putnam,
Rockland, and Westchester counties). If the five-year
trend continues, we project total traffic fatalities
to be up 25% from 2004 to 2006, to 167, and pedestrian
fatalities to rise 14% to 28.
· Fatalities in Connecticut have been declining.
If the trend holds, 2006 should see about a 7.5% reduction
to under 270 from 291 in 2004. Pedestrian deaths are
dropping faster still, and could be about 18% fewer
over the two years.
· In New Jersey, a state that tracks traffic
fatalities without the excessive delay and bureaucracy
afflicting New York, 2005 data show 739, up slightly
from 731 deaths in 2004. Extending this 2000-2005 trend
would produce a gradually worsening toll.
· Traffic deaths on Long Island are also likely
to continue to increase steadily to about 305 in 2006
from 289 in 2004, in line for a 5.4% overall increase
and a 9.8% worsening in the number of pedestrians killed.
· Finally, if trends hold, fatalities in New
York City will continue to fall, to all-time lows that
are nearly 10% down from 2004 in overall terms, with
8% fewer pedestrian deaths.
Overall, according to the identified trends, the
metropolitan region is likely to hold steady at about
1,747 deaths in 2006, down slightly from 1,750 in 2004.
To ensure consistency, our analysis is based on data
from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s
Fatality Analysis Reporting System database for 2000
through 2004. We calculated the average rate of growth
(or decline) in fatalities over those five years, and
used that rate to extrapolate an estimated number of
traffic deaths for 2005 and 2006. As noted above, more
recent data is available from the New Jersey Department
of Law and Public Safety, and we have used 2005 data
in estimating where the state could end up in a year’s
time.
New York City also tracks traffic fatality data,
publishing the figures in the Mayor’s annual
Management Report. In fiscal year 2005 (ending in June),
citywide traffic fatalities dipped below 300, to 297,
a 10 percent decline from fiscal year 2004. These figures
are more or less in-line with the Campaign’s
analysis.
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Kolluri is NJ DOT Commissioner, Lettiere Out
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has learned
that governor-elect Jon Corzine will soon name Mr.
Kris Kolluri as the new New Jersey transportation commissioner.
Kolluri is an attorney for a firm in Lawrenceville
headed by Phillip Norcross, brother to George Norcross,
described by New Jersey newspapers as the “de
facto Democratic political boss of South Jersey.” Kolluri
previously worked as chief of staff and assistant commissioner
of intergovernmental relations for DOT Commissioner
Jamie Fox in the early part of the McGreevey administration.
Fox came to the NJ DOT from the staff of former U.S.
Senator Robert Torricelli.
The New Jersey DOT assignments were Kolluri’s
first transportation-related jobs. Prior to that, he
was an advisor on India to House Democratic Leader
Richard Gephardt, and was chief of staff for New Jersey
congressman Rush Holt.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign and others
had urged the Corzine administration to retain current
DOT commissioner Jack Lettiere. Under his leadership,
NJ DOT developed a new planning framework that used
DOT resources to bring municipal land use and transportation
infrastructure planning together, producing some of
the most ambitious and innovative smart growth-oriented
transportation plans in the country. NJ DOT under Lettiere
received a smart growth award from New Jersey Future
last year for its work in this vein — the first
ever such award presented to a state agency.
The Star-Ledger reported last week that Lettiere
was frustrated about not being contacted by the incoming
administration and withdrew his name as a candidate
for transportation commissioner.
The director of NJ Transit is not a cabinet position,
so no immediate change is expected there. The agency
is headed by George Warrington, who has established
a strong record prioritizing key capital investments,
containing costs, improving service and promoting transit
oriented development.
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Bronx Stadium Plan Complaints Give Pause
The NYC City Planning Commission took a full day of
testimony from supporters and opponents of the new
Yankee Stadium plan.
Community groups and transportaion and parks watchdogs
appear to be gaining ground across the city in pointing
out that the plan needlessly builds thousands of additional
parking spaces which will consume parkland and add
to South Bronx traffic woes on game days.
The additional parking will result in many more vehicle
trips, shifting the stadium’s overall travel
mix from transit in favor of driving, and pose an added
public health risk to a neighborhood with the unfortunate
distinction of having one of the highest asthma rates
in the nation. Adding insult to injury, the draft EIS
for the project nonsensically claims there will be
no increase in traffic because the new stadium has
slightly fewer seats.
Bronx Community Board 4 voted against the plan in
November. Last month, Bronx Borough President Carrión
approved the plan but seemed to be begin to acknowledge
the impacts of all the parking construction.
The Borough President’s land use review comments
expressed doubt at the DEIS claims that the additional
parking will reduce illegal parking on local streets.
In his recommendation, he wrote, “We know from
decades of experience that illegal parking represents
people seeking to avoid paying parking fees, and not
from dearth of parking spaces, and that increased parking
spaces will not deter fans from illegally parking on
streets, sidewalks and parkland.” He called for
an increase in parking law enforcement and the utilization
of residential permits to restrict fans from parking
on residential streets. He also urged that a Yankee
Stadium Metro-North station be returned to the overall
plan. However, he fell short of urging that parking
construction be limited or excluded.
Written comments on the project will be accepted
by the city until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 23.
Mail to Joshua Laird, Department of Parks, 830 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10021, Fax 212-360-3453 or e-mail:
joshua.laird@parks.nyc.gov.
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Finally! A Mega-Development Looks to Transit
Forest City Ratner told the New York Post recently
that it is considering building the price of transit
fares into Nets basketball game tickets for the proposed
19,000 seat arena in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Next
to the arena, Forest City Ratner has plans for office,
retail uses and 7,500 units of housing in 16 skyscrapers
on 22 acres along Atlantic Avenue.
Linking transit fares to sports tickets is a good
method to reduce car use to the arena. If fans have
already paid for transit fare by the very act of buying
a game ticket, they will be more likely to use transit.
Other stadiums, such as the ice hockey and NFL Europe
stadiums in Duesseldorf, Germany, have had similar
programs for years.
But even if Ratner reduces car trips to the arena,
that will only be a start in solving the transportation
impacts of the project. Most of car and transit trips
will be spurred by other uses, like housing, stores,
and offices. More will have to be done to reduce the
impacts of those projects on the community.
For example, the developer could consider a less
dense alternative that reduces the bulk or height of
buildings. It could also implement stringent traffic
calming to correct the dismal pedestrian environment
in and around Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Reducing
parking will also go a long way to promote alternatives
modes of travel. Unlike much of Manhattan, where caps
exist on parking construction, Brooklyn has minimum
parking requirements for residential and commercial
facilities.
Recent reports have said Forest City Ratner may be
considering a smaller alternative for the project,
though the public environmental review for the full
proposal started in the fall.
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Stockholm Tries Congestion Charge
News reports from the first days of Stockholm’s
new congestion charging experiment said early results
reduced central area traffic by about 16%. With about
13,400 fewer vehicles entering the Swedish capital’s
central area.
Charged from 6:30am to 6:30pm, with the highest rates
(20 Swedish Kroner, or roughly $2.60) from 7:30-8:30
a.m. and 4-5:30pm. Some “shoulder” and
mid-day hours charge as little as 10SEK, and the most
any vehicle can be charged per day is 60SEK.
Stockholm’s program is a test that runs from
now until the end of July, with a public vote on the
plan on September 17. The road pricing system uses
a mix of E-Z Pass-like transponders (about 400,000
drivers around Stockholm have acquired these) and camera
recording of license plates if a transponder is not
detected. Central Stockholm is built on a series of
islands, making it relatively easy to monitor points
of entry. Motorists have five days to pay after driving
into the central area.
ABC News said implementing the charge is part of
a political deal for the national Social Democrat minority
government to win the support of the Green Party in
parliament.
Stockholm mayor Annika Billstrom and fellow local
Social Democrats ruled out congestion charging during
their election campaign in 2002, according to various
news reports. Billstrom now emphasizes the economic,
environmental and social costs of traffic congestion.
The city has bolstered public transit with 200 additional
buses.
IBM’s Business Consulting Services division
is the prime contractor for the charging system.
News sources have also said opinion polls in the
city show 60% of residents opposed. The trial was supposed
to run longer, but the contract award was challenged
in court by a losing bidder.
Officials have said they are confident that support
will pick up as the benefits of the system are realized.
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