Hey, bike lanes aren’t so bad, are they?
Speed bumps help slow cars down, y’know.
How could you argue with speed cameras being placed in school zones? Do you want children to die?
Lowered speed limits help save lives.
Congestion pricing has decreased traffic and pollution in Manhattan and has made the roads there safer.
You can see where I’m going with this.
The last decade in New York City has been a death by a thousand cuts for drivers.
Those who saw the slippery slope coming from a mile away were called hysterics and advocates for vehicular manslaughter.
But now we see how much anti-car mission creep there’s been in the city.
We’ve got speed cameras running 24/7/365 and not just in school zones.
We’ve got ever-lower speed limits that make it easier for drivers to break the law and get fined.
We’ve got under-utilized bike lanes everywhere on Staten Island that take up valuable parking and driving real estate.
We have to pay a congestion-pricing toll to enter a certain part of our own city. And the Island is dealing with increased traffic and added pollution because truckers are using our roads in an attempt to beat the congestion fee.
And now we have the latest anti-car outrage from our friends in the City Council: so-called “universal daylighting” at city intersections.
Under a proposed law, parking would be banned within 20 feet of an intersection. It’s supposed to make for improved visibility and safety at those intersections.
An estimated 300,000 parking spots in the city would be eliminated if the bill passes.
Again, this is being done for safety purposes and if you oppose it, you must want people to die.
Amazingly, the city Department of Transportation has spoken out against the bill, the New York Post reported.
DOT Deputy Commissioner Eric Beaton told the Council that increased visibility at intersections could actually cause drivers to take sharper and faster turns at intersections, leading to an additional 15,000 injuries a year.
Oh, and blocking parking spots with bollards and other infrastructure could cost the city $3 billion in lost parking revenue.
The way some people talk, you’d think the city hadn’t done a thing to improve road safety and that universal daylighting is necessary to save lives.
But think of all the increased traffic lights and stop signs that have been installed.
Think of how traffic lights remain red in all directions for a time in order to give pedestrians more time to cross.
Add in all the speed cameras and lowered speed limits.
All we’ve heard in the city over the last decade is how bad and unsafe and reckless drivers are. How motorists must be brought to heel before they kill us all.
But the sad truth is that while you can make laws, you can’t force people to follow them.
In comparison, very little has been done to address the biggest cause of crashes in every borough of the city: distracted driving.
Never mind the maniacs on two wheels who continue to make their own traffic laws out there. They drive the wrong way. They illegally drive on sidewalks. They go through red lights. They make illegal right-on-reds.
Keeping track of all the cyclists, electric bikers and scooter folks zooming around truly is like playing a video game. And talk about being a danger to pedestrians.
And now we have yet another attempt to calm traffic on the streets at the expense of motorists.
The city DOT has been front and center in support of many Vision Zero, anti-car efforts in the last 10 years.
But the agency is opposed to this one.
In this case, the City Council should listen to the experts.
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