Share The Street



On January 22nd, fourteen children were walking from the public library back to pre-school when a van left idling jumped the curb and hit them.

Two children, Hayley Ng, 4, and Diego Martinez, 3, were killed. The other twelve children were rushed to the hospital. Our son was one of them.

Since the accident, we have learned that:
  • Our neighborhood has the highest number of pedestrian fatalities city-wide 1
  • a pedestrian volume to rival Times Square 2
  • motor vehicles are the leading cause of accidental and preventable child deaths in our city 3
  • 50% of child pedestrian fatalities occur within 700 feet of a city school 4
Today our child participates in a weekly art therapy class with other surviving children. He brings puppets and snacks to comfort his friends at school. He recently stopped drawing pictures of the accident and began drawing pictures of his inventions for keeping our city sidewalks safe.

We are starting ‘Share The Streets’ to give a voice to residents committed to child pedestrian safety.

As a first project, would like to explore the idea of creating ‘Safe Routes to Books’ extending the existing ‘Safe Routes to Schools’ initiative to our public libraries. Ideally this would use the eight minute walk between the Chatham Square and Seward Park libraries on East Broadway as an initial case study.

Together we can reverse our growing culture of carelessness and share the streets safely.



Jane Ryan Beck / Craig Winkelman

info@sharethestreet.org





Regarding the East Broadway accident on January 22, 2009

“There’s a somber kind of a feeling [in] the neighborhood. Even the traffic is different. The way people are crossing is different. The way people are holding the hands of their children is different. How could anybody forget?” - Victor Papa, president of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council
http://www.tbnc.org/

“Chinatown residents and businesses have suffered from dangerous traffic conditions for too long. We must reclaim our streets and sidewalks now, before another life is needlessly lost.” – Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
http://www.mbpo.org/newsroom_details.asp?id=1205

“Improvement of traffic safety in the Chinatown area requires full scale planning. CCBA will continue monitoring the enforcement of related government agencies, and the development of improved traffic planning. We will continue working together with appropriate government agencies and elected officials, to improve traffic safety in Chinatown. We hope the tragedy of January 22nd will never occur again in Chinatown.” - Justin Yu, President of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
http://ccbanyc.org/eindex.html

“My Chinatown community relies upon the high volume of pedestrian traffic created by local residents, students traveling to and from school, workers and tourists who frequent the many small businesses and restaurants in the area. Yesterday’s tragic accident, which took the lives of two young children, is further proof that real action must be taken to properly manage local truck and bus traffic in order to protect the thousands of pedestrians that travel on our streets.” - New York State Assembly SpeakerSheldon Silver
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=064

“Chinatown streets aren't up to the basic job of keeping pedestrians safe. We need immediate action to end the mix of reckless driving, oppressive traffic and outdated street design that continues to take so many lives.” - Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives
http://www.transalt.org/

“The Chinatown tragedy might never have happened if the driver had simply turned the key. Idling is harmful to health and environment; it's wasteful and against the law. Now, we can add "dangerous to pedestrians.” - Rebecca Kalin of Asthma Free School Zone
http://www.afsz.org/index.html






1 NYC Department of Motor Vehicles (also see press release from Office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer press release http://www.mbpo.org/newsroom_details.asp?id=1205)

2 School Safety Engineering Project, FINAL REPORT: P.S. 124, Yung Wing School, Manhattan, NYC Department of Transportation (pages 18-28); http://nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/mnps124.pdf

Times Square the Next 100 Years: Problems and Possibilities Re-imagining the pedestrian environment in Times Square, Times Square Alliance, http://timessquarenyc.org/facts/documents/Problems_and_Possibilities_sm.pdf shows that in 2003 the peak volume for pedestrians crossing 7th Ave Westside (b/w 42nd and 43rd Streets) was over 3300.

3,4 New York City Child Fatality Review Team’s “Child Fatality Report”, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/episrv/episrv-childfatality-book.pdf.