NYC re-engineers traffic to prepare for 25 mph limit

[N6 Limited]

http://www.amny.com/transit/nyc-re-engineering-traffic-to-prepare-for-25-mph-limit-1.8852264

 

 

From a chilly, windowless command center in Long Island City to the Transportation Department headquarters at the tip of Manhattan, engineers are contemplating how to reorchestrate the traffic on the city's 6,000 miles of streets to start slowing it down.

The city's default speed limit will be lowered to 25 miles per hour from 30 mph as soon as mid-October. The reduction is a central component of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Vision Zero" traffic safety plan to reduce pedestrian fatalities, and includes with speed bumps, improved roadway designs, new cameras to catch rulebreakers and much more to confront dangerous behavior at the wheel and on foot.

"Human beings are human beings, and they're fallible and they're going to make mistakes, so we're trying to have a transportation system that's forgiving to people's mistakes," says Ryan Russo, an assistant commissioner. "So that if they make a mistake it doesn't cost them their lives or their limbs."

The default speed limit -- which applies where there are no signs indicating otherwise -- will revert to 25 for the first time in 50 years. Last month, at de Blasio's request, the State Legislature allowed the city to move forward with the plan.

Central to Vision Zero, based on a program pioneered in Sweden, is the principle that no level of traffic efficiency is worth a single pedestrian death.

New York City already differs from municipalities where pedestrians must press a button to get a signal to cross. The city assumes there will always be pedestrians present and such buttons are rare.

"We give them ample crossing time without having to worry about pushing a button," said John Tipaldo, director of systems engineering for the city's DOT, whose doctoral dissertation focused on pedestrians.

Most pedestrians cross at 4 or 5 feet per second, but the city assumes a slower rate -- 3 feet per second -- to accommodate children and the elderly.

Traffic could move more efficiently -- the average speed during peak hours in Manhattan is just 10 mph -- if city streets weren't pedestrian-friendly by intent.

"We don't necessarily want it to flow. We want it to move, but we don't want it to move at excessive speeds," Tipaldo said.

When the new limit takes effect, signs will be posted at about 150 so-called gateways, such as those on the Queens-Nassau border, to school motorists. An ad campaign will blitz the airwaves, Internet and billboards. Cops will patrol to ticket speeders and red-light runners, and surreptitious cameras will be deployed to automatically ticket violators when cops aren't necessarily watching.

In the command center -- actually two large rooms in a city office building near Queensboro Plaza -- traffic engineers and other city personnel monitor walls of surveillance videos displaying hundreds of congestion-prone intersections, highways and byways. Police and traffic experts shuttle between terminals to reroute traffic around crashes and stuck vehicles. Midtown in Motion, a computer program that color-codes midtown traffic, recommends in real time the optimal tweaks and the engineer on duty decides whether to accept the computer suggestions. With a few keystrokes, engineers can rejigger nearly all of the city's 12,000 signaled intersections.

Vision Zero will alter traffic design, and motorists will need to change their habits as officials target the estimated 2 to 5 percent who break the rules.

"We're trying to remove the incentive to speeding," said Tipaldo. .

One strategy is adjusting traffic signals so that drivers rolling along major one-way avenues in lighter traffic don't see an endless stream of green lights ahead.

"You can be inclined to go faster if you see nothing but green," Tipaldo said.

"By timing the progression, you can encourage safe, smooth speeds along the corridor," added Nicholas Mosqura, a DOT spokesman.

City engineers will study traffic flow, congestion and other factors to determine where to retime signals.

To nab and discourage motorists who disobey traffic rules, engineers are deciding where to put new speed cameras. Officials hope to keep the locations secret.

"We don't want somebody to slow down to pass the camera, then speed up after he leaves," said Steve Galgano, DOT's executive director of signals, street lighting and systems engineering.

Officials have maxed out on the 150 red-light intersections where they are authorized by Albany to set up surveillance, but can install up to four cameras at each. Right now, there are 190 cameras.

The city is also authorized by Albany to install up to 140 speed cameras near school zones -- 20 are in place so far -- which issue a $50 ticket without license points. (The vehicle owner, not the driver, is penalized.

Before the city's new speed limit can take effect, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo must sign the bill passed last month, and the City Council must pass a law. Both have signaled they'll give the green light.

I don't like how they're trying to make the lights deliberately out of sync again. They've worked on improving traffic flow and now they want to ruin it in the name of "safety". One non-Manhattan example is Bushwick Ave. It used to be an out-of-sync nightmare. They put all lights in sync and now traffic flows SMOOTHLY WITHOUT SPEEDING. So they need to stop the brainwashing.

 

They just want an excuse to install speed cameras for REVENUE purposes. Out of sync lights promotes speeding as people will feel they need to go faster to not get caught at lights.

[Joel Up Front]

I always called this the "Intelligence Zero Initiative" because how are slower drivers going to stop people from walking through the middle of a major thoroughfare?

[N6 Limited]

I always called this the "Intelligence Zero Initiative" because how are slower drivers going to stop people from walking through the middle of a major thoroughfare?

I guess the idea is that slower traffic will help prevent fatalities by improving reaction times and decreasing stop/deceleration times. But what's going to happen is that slower traffic will make pedestrians even more bold to bolt across the street.

[peacemak3r]

People that don't drive will never know how much this lowered speed limit is going to suck monkey balls. People that don't drive also will never know that a lot of accidents are not even caused by drivers but by pedestrians themselves. Ugh.

 

I spoke with a few cop friends and they all hate this new speed limit reduction ugh.

 

I really want to see city officials and state officials actually following this new speed limit, let alone the taxi's around the city. Because quite frankly, it's not going to happen. There are freaking spots where I don't even see buses do less than 25.

[4P3607]

So basically all of us are getting penalized just because of a few dumb pedestrians.  

 

Like a few others said, this is a corrupt way for the city to get our money. Red Light cameras will only cause more rear-end collisions, possibly causing a few more casualties. The majority of drivers I see today don't even follow the 30 mph speed limit. 

 

In other words, we're sacrificing our time, money and sanity just so a few of those pedestrians who think that they are invincible don't get hit. I never thought I'd say this, but this mayor is worse than Bloomberg. 

[peacemak3r]

So basically all of us are getting penalized just because of a few dumb pedestrians.  

 

Like a few others said, this is a corrupt way for the city to get our money. Red Light cameras will only cause more rear-end collisions, possibly causing a few more casualties. The majority of drivers I see today don't even follow the 30 mph speed limit. 

 

In other words, we're sacrificing our time, money and sanity just so a few of those pedestrians who think that they are invincible don't get hit. I never thought I'd say this, but this mayor is worse than Bloomberg. 

 

Don't get me wrong, there are still crappy drivers out there but it's pretty much even in my book with crappy drivers and irresponsible pedestrians.

 

-- I agree, red light cameras are like the bane of any driver's existence because I believe it causes more problems than help. Even while obeying speed limits, once it hits yellow, every driver slams that brake if they can't make it before changing to red.

 

-- No one followed a 30mph limit unless there is heavy traffic...hell no government vehicle or city official even followed that limit (excusing a reasonable emergency though).

 

It's really a shame.

[R10 2952]

De Blasio can take his "Vision Zero" garbage and shove it up his hypocrite ass.  I still haven't forgotten about him and that speeding incident...

[N6 Limited]

De Blasio can take his "Vision Zero" garbage and shove it up his hypocrite ass.  I still haven't forgotten about him and that speeding incident...

Do tell

[mediccjh]

Do tell

His motorcade was caught speeding and blowing red lights.

 

Vision Zero is zero-brained. There is no way in hell you will ever get deaths to zero. Human beings are stupid. People are still going to jaywalk and cross against the lights. Drivers are still going to speed. Trust me, the 5 mph does NOT make a difference whether or not you survive or become street pizza. 

[N6 Limited]

They're trying to slow everyone down and dumb the roads down with road markings, signs and restrictions, but I'm seeing more accidents and traffic. Waze users can report accidents that show up on Google Maps and the accidents were all over the place this weekend and traffic was essentially slower than usual.

 

I also saw a pedestrian almost become a UFO yesterday as he strutted across the street and appeared out of a blind spot for the driver in the right lane by being in front of the vehicle in the left lane.after the light already changed. He had an embarrassed look after the fact but being embarrassed would have been the least of his problems had he gotten hit.