Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
Will NYC Act to Get Deadly Cab Drivers Off the Streets? [Updated]
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An analysis by the Post confirms that cab drivers who injure and kill pedestrians in NYC rarely face sanctions from the Taxi and Limousine Commission. The Post examined 16 serious crashes since 2009 and found that only two drivers had their hack licenses revoked. The cabbies who killed Timothy Keith and Cooper Stock and the […]
Two Events This Weekend Build on Momentum for Safer Queens Streets
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There are a couple of events focusing on safer streets in Queens this weekend. Make Queens Safer will host a pedestrian safety town hall Sunday afternoon, with Congressman Joe Crowley and Assembly Member Francisco Moya. Representatives from the 108th and 115th Precincts were invited to the meeting, along with DOT and the Department of Education. […]
Van Bramer: Deadly Northern Boulevard Should Be a Vision Zero Priority
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City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, state electeds, and advocates gathered in Queens this morning to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to make Northern Boulevard a Vision Zero priority by making hazardous intersections safer for pedestrians. Standing next to a recently repaired bus shelter at Northern and 48th Street, which was nearly destroyed by […]
Post Wonders What Woman Did to Get Herself Run Over by Cab Driver
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It used to be that the tabloids would focus on any mistake by an injured or deceased pedestrian while ignoring what a motorist did, or didn’t do, to cause a crash. Now, in the absence of actual evidence that a pedestrian was in any way at fault, the Post has taken to spreading innuendo. Yesterday […]
Sneckdowns 3: There’s Snow Going Back
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This week’s barrage of snow and ice has made sneckdown spotting an international pastime. We may never look at slush piles the same way again. Here are some examples of nature’s traffic-calming from the past few days. Also, a shout-out to sneckdown spotters in Chicago, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Carrboro, and Edmunton. And in case you missed […]
Council Overrides Bloomberg Veto of NYPD Hit-and-Run Transparency Bill
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The City Council today voted to override a number of vetoes handed down by former Mayor Bloomberg. According to the Staten Island Advance, among the bills passed was Intro 1055, which requires NYPD to release information on hit-and-run crashes and investigations. The bill mandates that NYPD report quarterly on the total number of “critical injury” hit-and-run […]
Was the Victim of the Jackson Heights MTA Bus Crash Jaywalking? [Updated]
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Update: NYPD identified the victim as Martha Tibillin-Guamug, 25, according to the Times Ledger. A pedestrian was killed by a Q53 bus driver in Jackson Heights Monday afternoon. Some published reports say the woman was hit near 74th Street and Broadway, but photos of the scene and the Q53 route map indicate that the crash occurred […]
NYC Speed Cams Only Nabbing a Fraction of Speeders
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After two weeks, it’s clear that NYC’s new automated speed camera program needs much more leeway from Albany in order to wrestle the city’s dangerous speeding problem under control. Under the law that state legislators passed to enable the program, speed cameras are currently operable only from one hour before the school day begins to […]
Martin Dilan Introduces 20 MPH Bill in State Senate
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State Senator Martin Malave Dilan, of Brooklyn, has introduced companion legislation to Assembly Member Dan O’Donnell’s speed limit bill, which would set the maximum speed on NYC streets at 20 miles per hour, except on streets “where the City Council determines a different speed limit is appropriate.” “In the first two weeks of 2014 there were seven […]
Watch NYC Reclaim Its Streets With the Swipe of a Finger
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If you didn’t spend at least some of your Friday ogling this post on the Architect’s Newspaper Blog, you’ve been missing out. A/N Blog overlaid before and after shots of 25 Bloomberg-era NYC street transformations, allowing readers to “slide” between views. “With little more than paint, planters, and a few well-placed boulders, Bloomberg and former […]
DOT Plans Changes for UWS Intersections After Pedestrian Deaths [Updated]
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Video: Barron Lerner, uncle of Cooper Stock, speaks at last night’s CB 7 forum. Update: DOT’s presentation on the intersection of Broadway and W. 96th Street is here. DOT last night presented proposals to improve conditions for pedestrians in an area of the Upper West Side where three people were killed by motorists in January. […]
NYPD: 16,059 Pedestrians and Cyclists Injured, 178 Killed in Traffic in 2013
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Twenty-five people died in New York City traffic in December, and 4,277 were injured, according to the latest NYPD crash data report [PDF]. Based on monthly NYPD figures, 168 pedestrians and 10 cyclists were killed by city motorists in 2013, and 16,059 pedestrians and cyclists were injured. These numbers are preliminary, and official data from […]