In the wake of the three tragic pedestrian deaths of local M.S. 51 students this past year, fellow student and advocate for pedestrian safety awareness, Alison Collard de Beaufort, decided it was time for action. Beaufort personally knew the three victims Mohammad Naiem Uddin, Sammy Cohen Eckstein, and Joie Sellers and recalls what it was like to suffer the loss of her friends and classmates. Both Sellers, twelve, and Uddin, fourteen, were killed by hit-and-run drivers in the Park Slope neighborhood, while Eckstein was killed near Prospect Park when fetching his soccer ball which had rolled into the street.
“The first time it happened it’s a big shock, you don’t expect it. Then having to go through it a second time and then a third time all within fourteen months was completely surreal. It is a pain that no one should have to experience.”
-Alison Collard de Beaufort
Reaching out to heavy-weight champion for pedestrian rights, Councilman Brad Lander, in hopes of finding a solution to the seemingly growing hazard of street safety in Brooklyn, the ambitious sophomore of Brooklyn Technical High School aimed to start a social action group specifically targeted for students. “Since most groups are for adults and parents, Councilman Lander and I had a meeting [about] how to get students involved with the matter—which is how Vision Zero Youth Council was created,” Beaufort elaborates.
Vision Zero, a series of traffic legislations originally implemented in Sweden to eradicate serious crashes, made its way to New York City this past year when Mayor Bill de Blasio placed the act at the top of his transportation priority, with policies of lowering driving speeds and expanding automated enforcement. Following in the footsteps of the Swedish model and mantra of having an anticipated zero deaths or serious pedestrian injuries by 2020, New York City is embarking upon both technological and legislative changes to help facilitate the much-needed social revolution of pedestrian safety. A few items in the works include the planned additions of 120 speed-tracking cameras near schools, following the impressive example by Sweden who has installed more than 1,100 cameras, along with the goal of reducing the citywide speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25.
New York City’s Transportation Department is keen on blending both Swedish-style design principles along with engaging public awareness campaigns. The reasoning lies simply with the notion that despite changing speed limits and traffic design, the ultimate preventative measure in pedestrian accidents lies in properly educating both drivers and pedestrians. We are admittedly in the age where there are a plethora of technological distractions—whether it is a driver on the phone or a pedestrian with headphones in—and in order for change to occur both parties must do their part in adopting safe practices.
But all this legislative banter clearly isn’t reserved for adults. The Vision Zero Youth Council is a means for students in the New York City area, grades four to twelve, to join the call to social action, come up first hand with solutions to on-going problems, offer input for pedestrian safety around schools, and liaise directly with school faculty members. Of course parents are welcome to join the meetings, but they should be prepared to take the back seat to these vocal and opinionated young people. Of the two meetings the council has hosted to-date Beaufort notes, “Though we have only had two meetings so far, one held each month, there has been great discussion and brainstorming among local students and faculty members, and the future membership for the group looks very promising.” Faculty members of local schools are doing their part in spreading the word of the council, encouraging students to get involved and attend the meetings.
After just coming to creation in January of this year, the Vision Zero Youth Council has had a notable attendance of approximately thirty members to each meeting as well as mustering hundreds of likes and followers on its social media pages, which are all personally manned by Beaufort when she is not figure skating or spending time with her school’s engineering club. The Vision Zero meetings, held once a month at local M.S. 51, have an open forum style where students are welcome to voice their concerns and work together to find solutions. Though the council does not have an official board yet, the strategic fourteen-year-old has picked her allies with care, as councilman Lander and the Department of Transportation have played prominent roles in laying the foundation for the council.
Councilman Lander has shown time and time again that pedestrian safety in the city is of upmost importance with his newest call to action, the Driver Accountability Task Force—just passed early March in partnership with Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson and Street Safety Advocates. The avant-garde approach of the Driver Accountability Task Force aims to increase prosecution of reckless driving and eliminate loopholes in legislation, which allow drivers who cause injury or death to pedestrians to escape punishment.
The force—formed in response to the third tragic hit-and-run fatality of 14-year-old Mohammed Naiem Uddin who was hit in a cross-walk when a driver failed to yield—will comprise stakeholders from the NYPD, advocacy groups, local and state governments, and criminal justice experts. While advocacy groups like the Zero Vision Youth Council serve to take preventative measures for pedestrian accidents, the Driver Accountability Task Force will ensure that justice is met when unfortunate accidents occur. The hope is to foster a cultural shift in the ethical implications of driving responsibly and to further force drivers to face the repercussions of reckless driving.
In the wake of the local tragedies, support and advocacy groups consisting of victims of traffic violence and families who have suffered loss from reckless driving have sprung up. Families for Safe Streets, formed in early 2014, has played a crucial role in lobbying for changes in legislation such as lowering city speed limits. The group wants to make a conscious effort to turn their grief into action and create a city in which pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles safely coexist. Going with the notion of strength in numbers, the Vision Zero Youth Council plans to partner with Families for Safe Streets and other social action groups in order to tag-team legislative changes through rallies, events, and social media campaigns to engage public discussion.
Other groups such as Transportation Alternatives are more on the extreme end of the pedestrian activist spectrum, suggesting vehicles be eliminated altogether, promoting bicycling, walking, and public transit as a means to get around. While it might not seem totally realistic to banish the car completely here in Brooklyn, the big brother group, founded in 1973, has managed some notable accomplishments such as Citi Bike, parking-protected bike lanes, Select Bus Service, and automated speed enforcement cameras just to name a few. Possible future projects could include ways to reduce cyclist fatality rates, as Swedish authorities are channelling efforts to find an energy-absorbing pavement to alleviate the severity of a fall. Like that of Families for Safe Streets, their ultimate goal is to see change and eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries in the city’s streets.
New York City might be similar to Stockholm in the essence that it is the national epicenter for the Vision Zero initiative, and leading by example might encourage other metropolitan cities in the country to jump on the pedestrian safety bandwagon and take the necessary steps to propagate change. San Francisco adopted the Vision Zero plan at the same time as New York City in January of 2014, with Boston shortly after in March 2014, and most recently Portland as of February 2015. Car companies like Volvo are also taking matters into their own hands and have initiated projects for automatic braking and steering, pedestrian and cyclist detection systems, and even a bit of a robotic-esque sensor that can read road signs. On the topic of drinking and driving, Sweden ensures sober driving by installing breathalyzers in nearly all school buses and government vehicles as well as one-third of taxis—all of which New York City might think about incorporating in the future.
With a full plate of agendas and a seemingly endless list of pedestrian safety topics, what really is the Vision Zero Youth Council’s main goal? Beaufort emphasizes, “We really want to put an end to pedestrian deaths and make zero fatalities and injuries a reality by 2020.” And of course, spreading awareness of the issue: “I want students to know that this isn’t just an annoying topic that teachers pester us about. This is a real problem that has directly affected us and change needs to happen.” With the progress made by the group already in its short time of existence, there is no limit to what these driven students can accomplish within the next five years.
For more information on the Vision Zero Youth Council and for meeting dates and times visit their website: http://visionzeroyc.wix.com/vzyc2015