They called it the “Boulevard of Death.” Formally known as Queens Blvd., it was a famously dangerous street in New York City. Between 1990 and 2014, 186 people — including 138 pedestrians — met their end on this one roadway. In 1997 alone, 18 pedestrians died there. According to a New York Times report, when New York Mayor Bill de Blasio set out to address its dangers, he phrased it as a Sinatra-inspired challenge: “If we could fix it there, we could fix it anywhere.” And they did — his administration and those that came before his. Beginning in the 1990s and ramping up in 2013, New York officials made a series of changes, in stages, to the street. And eventually they worked. There were no pedestrian or cyclist fatalities at all on Queens Blvd. between the beginning of 2014 and the end of 2017.How did they do it? As summarized by the Times, they narrowed and removed some car traffic lanes, and decreased speed limits by five miles per hour. They increased the amount of time given to pedestrians to cross the street and increased the number of pedestrian crossings. They redesigned sidewalks at intersections to narrow the crossing in some places. They introduced bike lanes and larger medians protected by barriers to the road. They added cameras with photo radar near schools. If you want to make roads safer, you can. How to do it is not a mystery. Slow traffic down through laws, enforcement and — especially, crucially — design improvements. Put infrastructure on the street to protect cyclists and pedestrians. Pay close attention to intersection design. Voila.Read more: ‘You think you’re being safe ... but I still watched her die’: Cyclists share fears about Toronto streetsA pedestrian, a cyclist and a driver share their views of the crisis on Toronto’s streetsEditorial | It’s time for a new attitude to make Toronto’s streets saferIt isn’t a one-street fluke in New York Cit ...
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