New York City motor vehicle accident attorneys help victims every day who are injured in motor vehicle collisions.
Drivers, passengers, bicycle riders and pedestrians could all sustain injury as a result of auto accidents, and those injuries can change lives forever. Prevention of motor vehicle accidents, including those involving walkers and bicycle riders, is vitally important and Mayor de Blasio has been taking steps to try to prevent injuries through his Vision Zero campaign.
Now, Mayor de Blasio has announced a series of new efforts that are aimed at improving traffic safety and saving lives. Projects will be undertaken throughout the city in order to try tor reduce car accidents and to try to reduce fatalities that occur in collisions. Hopefully, some of these new safety initiatives will help bring the city closer to the goal of zero auto accident fatalities.
New Efforts to Reduce Traffic Accidents Are Ongoing
According to Curbed, there is a $1.6 billion initiative underway in New York that is aimed at reducing auto accidents and resulting fatalities. This is part of a Vision Zero campaign that Mayor de Blasio began when he took office. The idea behind Vision Zero is to implement policies and changes to road conditions to ensure all fatal car accidents are avoided.
The next phase of Vision Zero improvements that are part of this initiative has been announced. Some of the new projects include widening sidewalks, installing new crosswalks, installing new bicycle lanes that are protected, and installing pedestrian refugee medians.
These changes will be occurring throughout all five boroughs of the city. Protected bicycle lanes are being added to parts of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan; the city of Brooklyn is improving bicycle and pedestrian access to the Williamsburg Bridge; new bus services are being added to Queens; pedestrian access is being made available on the Madison Avenue Bridge in the Bronx, and the city’s first traffic circles are being installed in Staten Island.
Mayor de Blasio believes that these new changes will help to correct problems with dangerous streets where pedestrians are suffering harm as a result of auto accidents.
Earlier phases of Vision Zero have already been implemented, as the initiative first began in 2014. Since progress has been made on making the streets safer, there has been a major decline in motor vehicle accident fatalities.
Traffic fatalities have declined 23 percent from 2013, before Mayor de Blasio took office. There were just 230 traffic accident deaths last year, which is the lowest number of traffic fatalities in the history of the city. These new projects could improve conditions further; however, there are concerns about the ability to make ongoing improvements due to proposed budget cuts to the Department of Transportation that have been suggested by the Trump administration.
Still, the next phase of projects will be starting soon, and should help to achieve a further reduction in fatalities in New York City. Unfortunately, accidents are still likely to occur, though, and victims who get hurt in motor vehicle collisions need to know what their rights are. The accident attorneys at Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff can help victims of collisions to pursue a claim for compensation after an accident happens that causes them harm.
