East SideProtecting Pedestrians From Cars
Today’s NY Times City section covers the issue of basic pedestrian protections that Upper Green Side recently raised with Community Board 8, specifically protecting pedestrians crossing the street on Park Avenue with some type of additional barrier, whether it be a concrete barrier as have proven effective on Broadway (see photo above) or a tasteful set of bollards. From the Columbia Spectator article about the incident shown above:
“That wall is the only thing that kept the taxi driver from killing any pedestrians,” Detective Bob Winton said. “He was traveling at 40 or 50 miles per hour-anyone crossing the street would have been killed.”
Clearly these pedestrian protections are effective from a public health perspective – they prevent injuries and deaths. A 2002 Transportation Alternatives study reported that
Very few pedestrian medians in NYC, including those on Atlantic Avenue, are protected by bollards or walls. Thus, there is nothing to stop vehicles which swerve, or are deflected onto the median from killing or maiming pedestrians waiting there. Based on State DMV crash data, Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) estimate that 250 NYC pedestrians are struck and seriously injured by motor vehicles while standing on medians.This is why the pedestrian refuges on streets like Broadway and Route 9A are protected by stout concrete walls and large steel bollards. Unfortunately, they are the exception.
It’s not clear why there are inconsistent installation of these basic pedestrian protections for fairly similar pedestrian medians, but yet many like Park Avenue remain unprotected.
The only other objection to the installation of these basic protections is aesthetics, since Park Avenue’s malls are a city treasure. I will grant that many of the protective barriers installed around the city are not very attractive, but instead of being a reason to not install basic protections, this should be a creative challenge to designers, artists and city planners. Perhaps the Department of Transportation or the Municipal Art Society could sponsor a design competition? Certainly, there are many attractive bollards elsewhere in the world.
And as I mention at the end of the NY Times article, I do think we need to start protecting people more than just physical infrastructure like fire hydrants and telephone booths.
