How ‘Broken Windows’ Can Help Stop Traffic Deaths
See something, say something. Mayor de Blasio did just that this week.
It’s a good thing he looked twice when he crossed a Brooklyn street, even when he had the right of way. A truck driver allegedly blew through a red light, and the mayor sent his police detail to slap him with a slew of tickets.
“Decades of good policing have made people think twice about carrying guns... Better thinking about bad driving can make people think twice about driving a car like a weapon.”
But the rest of us don’t have a personal guard — and so too many New Yorkers are still dying because of bad drivers.
De Blasio deserves credit for his actions. First, it shows that he intuitively practices broken-windows policing. Truck driver Franky Matarrese, after all, didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t even harm anyone.
But the mayor felt uncomfortable in this atmosphere of law-breaking. A city where a driver can flout the rules with impunity is a city where people don’t feel safe. Plus, breaking a small law can lead to harm. What if the mayor hadn’t looked? What if a small child had run out?
Second, the mayor’s action shows that the city is changing the culture of how we think about bad driving. In the bad old days, bad drivers and constant gridlock were part of the city. You had to run red lights and speed to keep up. It’s New York, don’t you know?
We once thought the same thing about other types of crime. We were Gotham, the ungovernable city, where a kid from the projects could carry a gun and get away with it — and think, anyway, that he needed to carry that weapon for protection.
Decades of good policing have made people think twice about carrying guns, and made people feel safer without them. Better thinking about bad driving can make people think twice about driving a car like a weapon.
Two mayoral administrations have already made progress. In 1990, 701 people died in car or truck crashes. Last year, the number was 269, including 132 pedestrians. And de Blasio, too, is cutting the carnage. Through October, pedestrian deaths were down 19 percent compared to the first 10 months of last year, to 75 from 93.
But City Hall — and Albany — have to do more.
Last week, 30-year-old Victoria Nicodemus was killed on a Fort Greene sidewalk when a bad driver jumped the curb and smashed into her and her boyfriend.
On Thanksgiving, retired cop Yvette Molina was killed in Brooklyn by an out-of-control hit-and-run driver.
On Halloween, a driver killed Louis Perez, Kristian Leka and Nyanna Aquil in The Bronx as they, too, walked on the sidewalk.
Out-of-control drivers have killed 20 pedestrians on sidewalks this year, according to Transportation Alternatives.
Imagine if we had 20 people killed in random shootings this year — just walking their way home to work or from a party. The mayor would be on his way out.
We can’t prevent all crashes, just as we can’t prevent all shootings. But: The majority of drivers in the above cases were either driving without licenses or had a history of doing that.
“Albany also needs to let us have more red-light cameras. Red-light running is aggressive driving — and it kills.”
Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature should toughen up the laws so that driving without a license is like carrying a handgun without a license. Both are deadly instruments — which the bearer isn’t qualified to control.
Albany also needs to let us have more red-light cameras. Red-light running is aggressive driving — and it kills. Last week, NYPD Sergeant Don Conniff died after complications from being hit by a drunk red-light runner. He suffered for a long time: He was hit 17 years ago, on his way to Mayor Giuliani’s second-term inauguration.
Right now, the state limits the cameras to 150 intersections. At those intersections, the city caught 583,788 people blowing the lights in 2013 — an extraordinary amount of lawlessness (89 percent pled guilty).
At our other 12,000-plus intersections, though, we rely on cops — and they have lots of other things to do.
And if you’re one of our vast majority of people who are good drivers, who never speed up on yellow or honk at slow walkers? Great: You have nothing to worry about.
And good driving is good for you, as you don’t have to act aggressively to fight aggressive drivers, just as more kids in the projects have felt safer over the past 20 years in leaving their weapons at home.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post
This piece originally appeared in New York Post