New York City: Now With 30 Percent Fewer Car Wrecks, But Still Not Very Safe

If you've ever ridden in a New York City taxi, you know that it can be one of the most terrifying experiences of all time. In a new report called "Vision Zero," Transportation Alternatives confirms your worst fears, finding that "on average, 317 New Yorkers are killed in traffic every year," while 3,774 come away with life-altering injuries. The morbid statistics seem endless, but the study does offer a little hope: It reports that the number of traffic fatalities and the number of serious injuries resulting from car crashes have both dropped by about 30 percent from 2001 to 2009.

The people at Transportation Alternatives suggest that we should not be satisfied with this progress though; they argue that in order to make significant progress with regards to traffic safety, we need to change our mindset and refuse "to accept that human death or lifelong suffering from injury is an acceptable result of road traffic."

They argue that many of the roads in New York City are "designed in a way that allows or even encourages illegal and dangerous speeding." They specifically point to wide streets and encourage the construction of speed bumps and pedestrian islands or plazas to discourage speeding.

Read the whole report in .pdf form here.

[via Animal NY]