Last month, Mayor de Blasio kicked off his ambitious Vision Zero plan, with the aim of drastically reducing traffic fatalities in New York City. According to the number crunchers at WNYC, the police department definitely got the message. Officers wrote a lot more tickets for the most serious moving violations during the month of February vs. the same period a year ago.
Let’s take a look at the local numbers. In the 7th Precinct, covering the area below East Houston Street and east of Allen Street, cops handed 88 tickets, up 60% from last February. In the 5th Precinct (Chinatown), there was no spike; 58 tickets compared with 57 tickets in February of 2013. In the 9th Precinct (East Village), motorists received 128 tickets for major moving violations, up 8%.
Last week, at the 7th Precinct Community Council meeting, officers reported that 74 pedestrians were struck on the Lower East Side last year and there were no fatalities. Those are the lowest numbers in all of Manhattan South. Just the same, they said troublesome intersections are being targeted and residents can expect to see stepped up traffic enforcement. They encouraged people with concerns about specific locations to report them to 311.
