After Kids' Deaths, Chinatown Pedestrian Safety Plan Outlined

After the Thursday incident where an unoccupied van—left in reverse—barreled into a group of pre-schoolers on a Chinatown sidewalk, killing two children and injuring many others, lawmakers demanded that the city better enforce traffic in the neighborhood's busy streets. The NYPD deemed it an "accident," because the driver thought he put the vehicle in park when he jumped out to make a delivery, but State Senator Daniel Squadron and Manhattan Borough President outlined a nine-point plan to prevent further tragedy and demanded the city take action immediately.

The plan (full details after the jump) includes "'zero tolerance' traffic enforcement, banning of trucks and buses from traversing local streets, more pedestrians safety measures such as bollards and speed bumps, and a comprehensive traffic management plan to serve residents, businesses and vehicles passing through the neighborhood." Stringer said, "Chinatown is a bustling 21st century neighborhood, but as one of the oldest parts of the City, it is saddled with an 18th century pedestrian infrastructure. Chinatown residents and businesses have suffered from dangerous traffic conditions for too long." The Daily News reports, "Chinatown's zip code had 25 fatalities and 1,149 injuries from 1995 to 2005, more fatalities than any other Manhattan zip code."

Squadron added, "While no one could ever have predicted the precise circumstances of yesterday's tragedy, anyone who has spent time in Chinatown knows that the streets and sidewalks are overcrowded and overburdened. It is high time to bring modern transportation's three 'E's' - education, engineering, and enforcement - to creating safer streets for Chinatown."

Four-year-old Hayley Ng and three-year-old Diego Martinez were killed in the incident. People had feared that four-year-old Emma Olsen (pictured) was seriously injured, but she only needed a few stitches. Her mother Cindy Yin told the Post, "She was the third in the line. The first two were hit, but she was just grazed and she had a deep cut and she bled very badly, but she is doing very well." Yin is very upset by her daughter's classmates' deaths, telling the News the two kids attended Emma's recent birthday, "Little Diego hugged Emma at the party. Hayley wanted a pink balloon, and there weren't enough pink ones for all the girls. They were both very smart, beautiful, loving children."

The News mentions there is a memorial fund for Hayley and Diego: "Memorial donations can be made to the Hayley and Diego Memorial Fund through the Cathay Bank, 16-18 East Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10002. The money will go to the families of the two children."

The plan offered by Squadron and Stringer:

• Better coordination with community-based planning efforts and priorities. The City must do a better job of working with Community Boards and other community organizations, drawing on the invaluable input that only neighborhood residents and businesses can provide.  The City must respect and acknowledge community priorities such as the re-opening of Park Row, and work with local stakeholders, in order to build consensus behind comprehensive traffic management plans.  The City should provide planning and community organizing resources to organizations such as the Chinatown Working Group, which has brought together many of Chinatown's diverse stakeholders, in order to allow them to undertake a community-based process for meeting Chinatown's traffic concerns and related planning issues, with cultural and linguistic sensitivity to the area's unique character.
  
• A comprehensive study of neighborhood traffic and pedestrian patterns that "connects the dots" between local accident "hot spots" and traffic flow at major arteries such as East Broadway, the Bowery, Canal and Allen Streets.  The study must draw heavily on community input, document the traffic patterns of greatest public safety concern, and use detailed modeling to demonstrate the impacts of potential traffic engineering solutions.
  
• Reconfigured sidewalk space that privileges and protects Chinatown's residents, workers, shoppers, and bicyclists, and is sensitive to the unique character of Chinatown's sidewalks. Chinatown is a "street-level" neighborhood that depends on the liveliness of its sidewalks.  The City must work to expand sidewalks to increase pedestrian space, make the area more hospitable to pedestrians and bicyclists, and keep the sidewalks clear of street furniture, garbage, and other obstacles that infringe on public safety.
  
• Comprehensive coordination of trucks, buses and other high-intensity vehicular uses. Chinatown's cultural prominence, and its location between the East River Bridges and the Holland Tunnel, has made it a center of commercial traffic and regional travel.  The City must respond to these conditions by enforcing truck route zones and effectively managing bus layovers, as Manhattan Community Board 3 has consistently recommended.  Commercial trucks must not be allowed to traverse local streets that were not built to withstand their impact, and buses must not be allowed to create unsafe traffic conditions.  The City should also explore strategic management of commercial deliveries, in order to allow small businesses to thrive without causing dangerous conditions for pedestrians.
  
• Increased traffic calming measures, such as curb extensions, speed tables and leading pedestrian intervals.  While the City has implemented some traffic calming efforts on Chinatown's main roadways, traffic calming measures need to be instituted more quickly and more extensively, with specific attention to areas near schools and senior centers.
  
• Comprehensive parking strategies that create the necessary space for businesses to receive deliveries without requiring double-parking or inviting vehicles to park on the sidewalk. 
  
• Coordination of major City-initiated projects, such as the upcoming Brooklyn Bridge renovation, which will have significant traffic impacts on this neighborhood.
  
• Modern, flexible traffic reduction techniques like congestion pricing and variable market-rate street parking that will encourage public transit use and keep traffic flowing calmly and safely through Chinatown.
  
• Effective and sensible enforcement of traffic laws.  Illegal and dangerous driving should not be tolerated in any neighborhood, but the need for enforcement in Chinatown is particularly acute because of its narrow streets, heavy commercial activity, and immediate proximity to major bridges, highways and thoroughfares.  While the City must respect and meet business' need to receive deliveries, NYPD and DOT should collaborate on an enforcement strategy that creates an atmosphere of "zero tolerance" for dangerous driving patterns that have become commonplace throughout Chinatown.  Local elected officials must also commit to providing NYPD and DOT with sufficient resources to address the situation with the number of officers and staff that the community deserves.