The Correlation Between Congestion Pricing and Car Crashes

INTRO:

Congestion pricing has been in effect now for nearly eight weeks. The Trump administration is now trying to remove the policy by March 21st. Meanwhile, collected data so far indicates that there are already a range of positive impacts in the city, including a reduction in the number of crashes, as well as fewer cyclist and pedestrian deaths. Flora Warshaw has the story.

WARSHAW 1:

Mary Beth Kelly is the founder of Families for Safe Street. She’s standing on the corner of West End Avenue and 103rd Street, an intersection with a number of safety improvements she helped lobby for. Street safety is a very personal issue for her. In 2006, her husband, a physician, was struck down by a truck.

MARY BETH 1;

We were at an intersection, a truck took a fast turn and missed me but hit him. And he died of his injuries three days later.

WARSHAW 2: Since then, she’s been a consistent advocate for improved traffic safety in the city and a consistent advocate for congestion pricing. Just this year, there has been a 55% reduction in injuries, and a 51% reduction in crashes in the Congestion Price zone compared that same area last year.

 MARY BETH 2:

That means that there are people alive right now that would have been killed.

So many New Yorkers that would be dead right now. And prevention is not sexy. You don't even know who you've helped to save by putting in something as life saving as congestion pricing.

WARSHAW 3:

According to the non-profit Transportation Alternatives, over 250 people were killed last year due to car crashes in NYC–and that number of fatalities has been largely consistent over the last 10 years, despite the introduction of Vision Zero in 2014. But Mary Beth explains why congestion pricing helps prevents traffic accidents.

MARY BETH 3:

 So what you have with congestion is speeding up, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down. And that speed up and with the road rage that goes with people being angry about not being able to move there’s more likely careless driving, reckless driving, distracted driving. And thats why the data shows car crashes go down, lives are saved, there are fewer injuries. It all goes together.

WARSHAW 4:

Sara Lind, is co-executive director of Open Plans, a street safety advocacy group. She says that as a result of positive results like these, many of the groups initially strongly opposed to congestion pricing have changed their views.

EMILY LIND 1:

 Yellow cab fares within the zone have gone up. So they're, they're not opposed. Um, and real estate within the zone, real estate interests and business interests are all supportive of congestion pricing. I like to say you know its a good policy when you have the real estate board of New York and the democratic socialists of new york both supporting it. This is just good policy.

WARSHAW 5:

Last Friday, Governor Hochul met with President Trump and discussed the fate of congestion pricing. The MTA says that the fate of the policy now rests with the courts. Flora Warshaw for Uptown Radio.