How data is helping NYC cut traffic deaths
Connecting state and local government leaders
A new report outlines how data shared across agencies is helping the city meet its Vision Zero goals.
Traffic fatalities in New York City were down in 2016, marking three successive years of decline and a 23 percent reduction since 2013, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office. A new report outlines how data shared across agencies is helping the city meet its Vision Zero goals of ending traffic fatalities:
Modeling data. The nonprofit data science firm DataKind is working with the Mayor’s Office to develop an analytical model to improve understanding of how best to prevent different types of crashes and how effective each intervention is at reducing injury and fatality crashes.
Classifying corridors. Using data from CANceiver devices that record information about speeds, hard braking and hard acceleration on its vehicle fleet, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services is building a Driver Behavior Index that will rank and classify corridors and intersections based on driver behavior.
Smashing silos. Matching hospital records with crash reports, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has started identifying patterns of injuries associated with crash characteristics, which will help describe, among other things, the impact of traffic injuries on special populations, such as children and older adults.
Shining a light. Analysis of crash trends by the Department of Transportation and the New York Police Department found that the darkness on fall and winter evenings correlated with a 40 percent increase in severe injury and fatal crashes involving pedestrians, so improvement efforts have focused on enforcement, priority locations, education and LED lighting,
Opening data. The city’s tracking system for collisions, called CRASH, is now reported in the publicly available Mayor’s Management Report. The NYPD’s TrafficStat 2.0 presents weekly collision data in a map-based format that lets users compare current collision statistics to the previous year’s numbers.
Read the full Vision Zero Year Three report here.
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