‘Mayor Adams Is Failing New Yorkers’: Transportation Alternatives Demands Action from Mayor Adams After 26th Bike Rider Killed in Traffic Violence in 2023
2023 is on track to be the second-deadliest year for bike riders in recorded history.
There are no protected bike lanes in the community board where the crash occurred.
Traffic violence has killed 185 New Yorkers in 2023.
BROOKLYN, NY — On Wednesday, Emanuel Patterson, 56, was killed while riding his bicycle after a box truck driver struck him at the intersection of Rogers and Clarkson Avenues in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Both Rogers and Clarkson are Vision Zero priority corridors – the top 7% most dangerous streets in New York City – according to the city’s Department of Transportation.
This intersection has repeatedly proven to be dangerous. In the past five years, there have been 13 crashes injuring seven pedestrians and 11 motorists, including a senior pedestrian seriously injured when crossing with the signal, but it still lacks critical safe streets infrastructure like daylighting or a protected bike lane.
Despite high cycling rates, Brooklyn is still behind when it comes to safe biking infrastructure. Only 16% of all on-street protected bike lanes are in the borough, and there are no streets with protected bike lanes in the community board where the crash occurred, despite the fact that the majority of households here do not own a car.
On October 11, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, and a coalition of advocates, educators, business owners, and riders are joining together to honor the 26 bike riders killed and demand Mayor Adams take action to keep New Yorkers safe on his streets.
Statement from Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris:
“We are heartbroken and outraged that another bike rider was killed by the driver of a box truck. We send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of Emanuel Patterson, the 26th New Yorker killed on a bike this year.”
“Mayor Adams is failing New Yorkers. More bike riders have been killed in traffic violence at this point in 2023 than any other year under Vision Zero and, yet, this mayor has advanced no concrete actions or plans to stop this preventable violence.”
“Instead Mayor Adams and his chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, are actively undermining street safety projects that would protect New Yorkers — rolling back street safety redesigns of McGuinness Boulevard and Fordham Road, and threatening to tear up projects that have already been implemented. This is occurring as the City is already failing dangerously behind on their legal mandates of the NYC Streets Plan. Of the 50 miles required to be completed by the end of the year, only 13.5 have been finished to date.”
“Mayor Adams, the choice is clear: Will you break ground on new street safety projects to protect New Yorkers or will families across the five boroughs continue to bury their loved ones because you refuse to act?”
