New Poll Reveals 30 Percent of New Yorkers Have Been Injured in a Traffic Crash; 70 Percent Know Someone Who Has Been Injured Or Killed in a Traffic Crash

Traffic Violence Near-Universal Experience; 79 Percent Consider Crashes to be Serious or Very Serious Problem

51 Percent Have Heard, Read, or Seen ‘Little to Nothing’ About Vision Zero

In Response To Increasing Fatal Crashes, Transportation Alternatives & Families For Safe Streets to Host Vision Zero Cities Virtual Conference on March 4-5, 2021

NEW YORK — 30 percent of New York City voters have been injured in a traffic crash, 70 percent know someone who has been injured or killed in a traffic crash, and 79 percent consider traffic violence a serious or very serious problem, according to a survey Transportation Alternatives (TA) commissioned the Siena College Research Institute to conduct of registered New York City voters from November to December, 2020. At the same time, 51 percent of New York voters polled had heard, read, or seen little to nothing about Mayor de Blasio’s signature Vision Zero initiative -- demonstrating a significant missed opportunity by City Hall to make noticeable improvements on New York City streets to save lives, and a reflection of rising traffic fatalities over the past two years. 

“The 2021 elections will usher in new leadership citywide, and these poll results should make clear that no candidate can afford to run for office without a plan to address traffic violence,” said Danny Harris, Transportation Alternatives Executive Director. “During Mayor de Blasio’s final year in office, after traffic deaths rose for the second year in a row, this poll should be yet another wakeup call for Mayor de Blasio to step up, save lives, and achieve his Vision Zero goals.”

“Behind each traffic crash statistic is a devastated parent, child, friend, and community. Today’s poll results prove that far too many New Yorkers have been impacted, and irrevocably damaged, by unsafe streets,” said Amy Cohen, Co-Founder of Families For Safe Streets. “Mothers like me, who lost a child on an unsafe street, are members of a club that nobody should have to join, and we urge our current mayor and those running to succeed him to implement plans that once and for all put an end to the preventable plague of traffic violence.”

More results from the poll:

• Of those New York City voters who have heard, read, or seen some or a lot about Vision Zero, there is strong support, with 69% of these voters supporting the initiative.

• 30 percent of voters have been injured in a traffic crash, including 35 percent of Black voters, the highest rate among the racial demographic groups surveyed. 

• 33 percent of voters from households that earn less than $50,000 a year have been injured in a crash -- the highest rate among any economic group surveyed and six points more likely than New York city households earning over $100,000 a year. 

• 37 percent of voters age 50 to 64 have been injured in a crash, the highest rate among any age group surveyed, and 76 percent of voters in this age group report knowing someone killed or injured in a traffic crash. 

• The effects of traffic violence are most pronounced on Staten Island, the borough with the highest rate of car ownership. 88 percent of respondents on Staten Island know someone who was killed or injured in a traffic crash, and 48 percent have been injured in a traffic crash themselves. 

“Nearly half of Staten Islanders have been injured in traffic crashes. This is unacceptable,” said Rose Uscianowski, Staten Island Organizer at Transportation Alternatives. “With 2021 elections upcoming, leaders on Staten Island and citywide must make safer streets for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers a priority. Year after year, Staten Island gets left behind, and it’s past time for City Hall -- and its new occupant next year -- to focus on saving lives on our streets on Staten Island.”

TA and Families for Safe Streets are hosting a Vision Zero Cities Spring Pop-Up conference on March 4-5 in part to directly address and respond to the rising number of traffic deaths in New York City. This conference will bring together policy-makers, planners, and advocates from across the world. The previously-scheduled 7th annual Vision Zero Cities conference will still take place in October, 2021.

Since Mayor de Blasio took office, reckless drivers have killed more than 1,000 pedestrians and cyclists on New York City streets. In 2020, the number of traffic deaths in New York City rose for the second year in a row, even as automobile traffic significantly declined for months at the start of the pandemic. Forty-seven motorcyclists died, the highest number since 1989, and the number of drivers and their passengers killed behind the wheel rose more than 62 percent, from 43 in 2019 to 70 in 2020. The start of 2021 has been especially deadly on New York City streets, with at least seven killed in traffic crashes, including cyclists in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn and a child in Bensonhurst. Mayor de Blasio continues to ignore recommendations sent to him more than 200 days ago by the experts he assembled on his Surface Transportation Advisory Council, ideas which would combat the rise in traffic violence and speeding. In 2014, Mayor de Blasio set a goal of reaching Vision Zero by 2024. To do so, he must commit to action, not words, immediately. 

The Transportation Alternatives Poll was conducted by The Siena College Research Institute (SCRI)  November 30 – December 14th, 2020 by random telephone calls to 805 New York City registered voters. The results have an overall margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual-frame probability sample of landline and cell phone (from L-2) telephone numbers from within New York City, weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data was statistically adjusted by age, race/ethnicity, gender, party affiliation, and borough/county to ensure representativeness. SCRI, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in New York State. SCRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices.