London slashed casualties on residential streets without banning cars or removing parking.
New Yorkers are used to chaos on our streets. Whether we are walking, biking or driving, we dodge cars that cut through crosswalks against the signal and e-bikes and mopeds weaving against traffic, navigate gridlock that snarls intersections and crossings, shuffle around vehicles parked on the sidewalk, endure the incessant honking of irritated and impatient drivers, and breathe a nearly endless supply of exhaust.
That chaos isn’t just unpleasant; it costs lives. Though the city has made real progress on street safety, with pedestrian deaths at their lowest since record-keeping began in 1910, traffic crashes still killed 99 New Yorkers in the first half of this year, roughly one every two days.
Increasingly, our traffic has moved onto our local streets. Drivers racing to beat traffic cut through neighborhoods, flying down residential blocks and bringing traffic, fumes and noise deeper into the places where New Yorkers live in all five boroughs.
