Photo Courtesy of DOT
Pedestrian deaths decreased by 6.3 percent in NYC in 2022.
By Forum Staff
City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Friday announced that in 2022 the city experienced a decline in traffic fatalities for the first time since 2019, with among the fewest annual pedestrian deaths recorded in history. Amidst a nationwide increase in traffic fatalities, New York City’s overall traffic fatalities fell in 2022 by 6.6 percent. Pedestrian fatalities decreased by 6.3 percent, also defying national trends.
The City continues to defy national trends around pedestrian deaths, which are nationally at a four-decade high. Traffic fatalities were down in four of the five major travel modes DOT tracks. Compared to 2013, the last year before implementation of Vision Zero, New York City traffic deaths have dropped by 14.7 percent, from 299 deaths that year. Pedestrian deaths have decreased by 35.9 percent when compared to 2013 figures. Cyclist fatalities were also down for the third straight year (17 in 2022, down from a 20-year high of 28 in 2019) — declining even as bicycle ridership has soared in recent years.
During 2022, DOT gave special focus to pedestrian safety at intersections, where a majority of pedestrian fatalities and injuries occur. In January, the Adams administration announced the city would improve 1,000 intersections – and the DOT has exceeded that target, completing more than 1,400 intersection improvements through a variety of treatments, including intersection redesigns, signal upgrades, all-way stop installations, daylighting, turn calming, and raised crosswalks. Injury and severe injury analysis shows DOT’s treatments are effective; through the aggressive deployment of these tools, DOT has driven traffic deaths to historic lows in the Vision Zero era.
In 2022, DOT worked with state lawmakers to expand school zone speed camera enforcement program to 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The expansion more than doubled the hours of operation, which were limited to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Since the launch of 24-hour operations on Aug. 1, DOT has experienced a 25-percent reduction in violations, with month-over-month declines. In August, cameras recorded more than 755,000 speeding violations, followed by approximately 661,000 violations in September, 586,000 in October, and 565,000 in November.
Particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, speeding and reckless driving have been leading causes of traffic fatalities, especially on highways. In 2023, the DOT will continue working with city and state elected leaders on legislative proposals aimed at increasing accountability among reckless drivers and keeping drivers with a history of dangerous behavior off the roads. In December, the agency announced one such proposal: legislation that would curb drunk driving by lowering the DWI blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) threshold from .08 to .05 percent.
“Even just one death on our streets is one too many, and our work must continue until every mile of roadway in this city is truly safe for all New Yorkers, regardless of how they get around. But the statistics show that our collective efforts to protect our neighbors thus far have gotten us closer to that ultimate goal,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “I commend the Department of Transportation for its tireless work, our community leaders for their advocacy and all those involved in the critical work of making our streets safer every single day. Together, we can and we will save lives.”
