Recently released dashcam footage apparently shows a horror unfolding in front of Bayside High School: two students struck by a speeding driver. This isn’t random bad luck: It’s what happens when politics trumps our kids’ safety.
We don’t have many details of that crash, but here’s what’s plain to see: Community Board 11 in Queens has asked to keep our kids safe, and the City hasn’t delivered. CB11Q voted on Jan. 3rd 2021, unanimously approving a network of protected bike lanes.
Why would a Community Board in one of the most car-centric parts of New York City want a protected bike lane network? The data is clear, and it’s not subtle. According to NYC’s own comprehensive analysis, protected bike lanes cut total deaths and serious injuries by 18.1%. For pedestrians specifically, those lanes slash deaths and serious injuries by 29.1%, with an even sharper 39% reduction in deaths and serious injuries for seniors. We see similar results in this larger study of 17,000 fatalities in 12 large cities over a 13-year period: Having protected bike lanes in a city would result in 44% fewer deaths and 50% fewer serious injuries than an average city.
Why do protected bike lanes decrease crashes, even when a cyclist isn’t involved? Protected bike lanes shrink the traveling lane from a highway width to something more similar to other local streets. It’s very simple: Narrower traffic lanes allow normal driving but stop speeding and that decreases crashes.
The Department of Transportation originally had a plan for a protected bike lane right at the scene of this crash, according to this slide from its June 15th, 2022 presentation:
Yet over 4 years later there is still no real change in that street. Why? Our local politicians like Vickie Paladino try to make this a culture war issue and listen to a few loudmouths claiming the project would hurt the “character of the neighborhood.” Apparently, neighborhood aesthetics matter more than children’s safety. Yet the people actually using this space, the kids walking to their high school or their park, didn’t get a voice in their own protection.
Corporal Kennedy Street between 32nd and 33rd Avenue is bordered by Bayside High School and Raymond O’Connor Park. It is along the only north/south route for kids to cycle to their neighborhood’s local destinations. It should be designed to be among the safest streets in the city with all the children around. Instead, it’s 50 feet of open asphalt inviting drivers to cruise like they’re on the LIE at 2AM. In this second view of the crash, it’s clear how far one of the children is thrown and how long it took the driver to stop. That driver looked to be going far above 20 miles per hour, reaching speeds we should never see on a local street.
So here’s the question: Will anything change?
Is Mayor Mamdani happy with this setup, a rejection of his own DOT’s plan? We know he wasn’t in office at the time, but he’s in charge now. Are we all comfortable letting a handful of neighbors hold hostage the safety of hundreds of children?
We’ll keep waiting for another tragedy in front of our local schools. Without real leadership not much will change, even if someone’s kid isn’t lucky enough to walk away next time.
In related news, last Sunday at 8:35 AM a 23-month-old baby in a stroller was killed on Murray Street and 32nd Avenue in Flushing by the driver of a Chevrolet Silverado. As of yet there seems to be no progress on limiting cars with hood heights that tall (we believe this one is over 4 feet 6 inches) or fixing this intersection (which doesn’t even have sidewalks on two of the streets).
