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City Studies

Mean Streets

Road safety is a hot topic with the mayor kicking off the new Vision Zero project, a plan to reduce traffic fatalities to zero. But with bikes, cars, pedestrians, and buses all competing for New York’s streets, how can we avoid fatal accidents? Where do we start?

In the Spring of 2014, Ms. Boroda’s Urban Studies class at the Academy of Urban Planning, along with CUP teaching artist Aaron Reiss set out to explore transportation safety in New York City. They saw a lot of unsafe things going on at the Myrtle/Wyckoff intersection in Bushwick, and wanted to know how to change them.

To find out, the class interviewed representatives of advocacy groups, people on the street, a Community Board representative, and staff from the Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) to find out who is in charge of transportation safety. The class made a booklet to show what they learned.