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DenDekker not impressed with Vision Zero

By Bill Parry

Nearly a dozen city and state elected officials endorsed the Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian Safety Plan for Queens.

“The Plan advances public safety and promotes better use of our city’s streets and thoroughfares,” U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) said. “Families, seniors, and children, especially those living near Priority Corridors in Flushing, Jamaica and Elmhurst, will greatly benefit from these efforts to coordinate public resources to improve the walkability of New York City.”

Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing), whose district is now designated a Priority Corridor, said, “This is a comprehensive plan designed to keep the people of Queens safe. With pedestrian fatalities at a record low, I commend Mayor de Blasio and his administration for aggressively seeking to bring the number to where it should be: zero.”

One lawmaker who seems less impressed with the Vision Zero program is state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D- East Elmhurst). He was quoted by DNAinfo last week as saying the program does nothing to help keep pedestrians safe and could not have saved 11-year-old Miguel Torres in 2012 or 8-year-old Noshat Nahian in 2013.

“All that stuff Vision Zero has done would not have done anything to save the two children that got killed on Northern Boulevard,” DenDekker told DNAinfo. He requested a different traffic light system known as a “pedestrian scramble” which allows cars and pedestrians to move separately at intersections, something that would protect pedestrians better from vehicles failing to yield while turning, something that DenDekker believes would have avoided the collisions that killed the two schoolboys, a member of DenDekker’s staff said.

Reprogramming the traffic lights in all five boroughs would be expensive and Vision Zero programs exhaust the available funds for such a program.

“I have heard his criticisms and I hope we’re going to get a chance to speak with him,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. “We’d like to review our data with him because we’re proud of the work we’ve done.”

A DOT spokesman listed the agency’s accomplishments under the Vision Zero program in 2014, including lowering the city’s speed limit to 25 mph, the completion of more than 50 Vision Zero Street Design projects, the expansion of the speed camera program to 49 school zones, the implementation of 27 new Arterial Slow Zones, the construction of 91,00 square feet of new concrete pedestrian space, the enhanced street lighting at 433 intersections and the installation of 400 speed bumps.

Also, the spokesman said, “The NYPD increased summonses for failure to yield to pedestrians by 126 percent in 2014, deterring one of the leading factors behind fatalities.” All this helped to make 2014 the “safest year for pedestrians in New York City’s history,” he added.

DenDekker did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

“I was surprised at his comments,” Trottenberg said. “We get a lot of great feedback from the elected officials and the community boards.”

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.