Poll: Nearly a third of NYers involved in traffic crash
BY MARK HALLUM
A new poll of over 800 New Yorkers
suggests that at least 30% of
respondents in the fi ve boroughs
have either been injured in a traffi c-related
crash, while up to 70% know someone who
has been.
The Siena College Research Institute
(SCRI) conducted the poll at the request
of Transportation Alternatives between
Nov. 30 and Dec. 14, by random calls to
registered voters and found a high number
of folks who have been injured, including
35 percent of Black New Yorkers.
Since Mayor Bill de Blasio took offi ce
and implemented Vision Zero in 2014,
Transportation Alternatives said over 1,000
pedestrians and cyclists have died on the
city’s roadways while 51% of the sample
had never heard of the initiative.
“The 2021 elections will usher in new
leadership citywide, and these poll results
should make clear that no candidate can
afford to run for offi ce without a plan to
address traffi c violence,” said Danny Harris,
Transportation Alternatives executive
director. “During Mayor de Blasio’s fi nal
year in offi ce, after traffi c deaths rose for
the second year in a row, this poll should
be yet another wakeup call for Mayor de
Blasio to step up, save lives, and achieve
his Vision Zero goals.”
While activists are looking to the next
mayoral administration to take aggressive
action in making streets safer and less carcentric,
some candidates are taking these
calls seriously.
FILE PHOTO
City Comptroller Scott Stringer has
proposed a plan in recent days to limit the
capacity for cars on city streets by growing
the current Open Streets plan and
even repurposing highways throughout
the fi ve boroughs. Meanwhile, Brooklyn
Borough President has vowed to expand
the city’s protected bike lane infrastructure,
specifi cally for children to bike to school in
greater numbers.
“Behind each traffi c crash statistic is
a devastated parent, child, friend, and
community. Today’s poll results prove that
far too many New Yorkers have been impacted,
and irrevocably damaged, by unsafe
streets,” said Amy Cohen, co-founder of
Families For Safe Streets. “Mothers like me,
who lost a child on an unsafe street, are
members of a club that nobody should have
to join, and we urge our current mayor and
those running to succeed him to implement
plans that once and for all put an end to
the preventable plague of traffi c violence.”
More fi ndings from the Sienna poll
found that 33% of injured New Yorkers in
the poll who had been injured were from
households making $50,000 a year or less,
up to six points more likely that someone
from a home earning more than $100,000.
Up to 37% of people between the ages of
50 to 64 have been injured as well.
But the most staggering numbers pertained
to Staten Island, Which has the
highest rate of car ownership and where
88% of respondents know someone who
was killed or injured in a traffi c crash.
Up to 48% have been injured themselves,
according to the poll.
Stringer proposes new climate plan to limit
cars on New York City streets as mayor
BY MARK HALLUM
Scott Stringer is making
promises to limit the
number of cars allowed on
New York City streets as well as
banning a new fossil fuel infrastructure
as part of a climate plan
if elected as mayor in the coming
year.
The sitting city comptroller
took to Zoom Sunday for the
climate announcement with
environmental champions Bill
McKibben and Councilman Costa
Constantinides in outlining a proposal
they believe will transform
how New York City runs.
“But New York City is not
leading. We’re actually falling behind.
emissions are up since 2017.
We’re still putting pipelines in the
ground and air pollution has contributed
to more COVID deaths
in the Bronx than anywhere else
in the country. We can’t pretend
to be making progress on climate
change,” Stringer said. “We will
measure our progress in years,
not decades, you’re gonna be able
City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
to hold me accountable during my
term, every day, every step of the
way. pipelines, power plants, and
peaker plants are relics of the past
and that’s where I’ll put them.”
Stringer’s climate target parts
of the city with elevated asthma
rates like Astoria’s “Asthma Alley”
while drawing a bead on the
urban highway network and other
roads that would be repurposed
into green space for public use.
McKibben, a well-known environmentalist
and author, backed
the plan while highlighted the
need for public transit outside of
the subway network.
“New York needs its subway
system back on a financial
basis that works. It needs to be
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
operating 24 hours a day, and it
needs a bus system that’s not a
poor sister to the subway system
that gets people out in the boroughs
and up and down the outer
avenues and everything else,”
McKibben said. “So the plan is
great, but the best plans in the
world don’t matter if the people
who are attached to those plans
can’t get them done. If they don’t
have the savvy and competence
to do what needs doing, so I will
just say that I’ve been incredibly
impressed by Stringer.”
Stringer plans to carry on
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Open
Streets program by making it permanent,
providing fully protected
bus lanes for the busiest bus lines,
expanding CitiBike throughout
the city by a “massive” expansion
to the bike lane network and
subsidizing the purchase of new
bike-sharing equipment.
School buses would be completely
converted to electric by
the year 2025.
As comptroller, Stringer has
taken environmental initiatives
within his power as an accountant
by divesting the city’s pension
portfolios away from fossil fuel
industry investments.
For buildings, one of the biggest
sources of carbon in the
city, Stringer intends to eliminate
number four heating oil by 2025
by providing “district-scale” clean
energy projects.
14 January 14, 2021 Schneps Media