Vision Zero for NYC Schools 2018
This is a work in progress, and I invite readers to comment and add to the conversation about how to make #NYC streets safer for our 1 million school kids.
Like most parents, I’m pensive about the beginning of another school year, but unlike most parents, I’m pretty fearful for our children’s safety on their commutes to school.
First Day of School photos are appearing on our social media feeds. The children are smiling, polished and beam with the promise of new adventures. It’s an exciting time for kids and families, and many of us feel a sense of relief to go back to typical routines and get down to work.
But why is it that we all kiss our children goodbye, lingering outside school a bit watching our children walk into their school buildings, as if the sidewalk in front of them may cave in and they’ll never make it.
Why aren’t we thinking about the trip to school with such trepidation?



I admit, I can’t get enough of those first day photos. I love to see how everyone has grown and catch up on lost friends. But I can’t get through these days without remembering the tremendous losses families across the city have felt and all the hard work they’ve put in to making streets safer for other children.
Road Violence is what we call it in safe streets, much to the chagrin of selfish drivers who think we’re overbearing, entitled, or hypersensitive to the state of transportation. One million school kids in NYC are at risk. Nearly 500,000 children in Queens alone. In 2016, 93 children between the ages of 4 and 17 were injured due to speeding drivers.
Speeding is a key indicator of whether a person will survive a motor vehicle crash. Here in New York, advocates are fighting for speed cameras around school zones. This lifesaving initiative was stalled in New York State Senate, despite the fact that in 2016 speeding drivers injured 1,715 children across the state.
(source: NYS Traffic Safety Statistical Repository)

Many of these families leading the way have suffered the horrific loss of their own children due to reckless drivers, speeding drivers, unsafe crossings and lack of infrastructure. These parents are fearless. There is nothing left to lose when you’re own child has been taken from you due to a preventable traffic crash.


There are so many images and actions to recall over my five years as an advocate. They come to mind in waves that turn my stomach and have me digging my head into a pillow. I’ve seen the heartache of the parents and loved ones, and I’ve mustered my own strength to face these dear parents and stand alongside them and fight for the safety of other children. Yes, it’s very difficult to meet a parent who has lost their child to traffic violence, but those of us who’ve never experienced such a loss, shouldn’t have the luxury of turning a blind eye to the dangers, sometimes brought about by our own actions as drivers.
Here are a few of the grating examples of how drivers have destroyed families of school kids in #NYC. Beyond speeding, there are other factors- running red lights, distraction, aggressive driving, impatience and road rage.
March 11th, 2013. Tenzin Drudak, 16, was killed by a curb-jumping driver outside his school in Long Island City. Five others were injured. The speeding driver blew through a light, lost control and ended up on the sidewalk.
September 13th, 2013 Five children were struck and injured outside their school, PS 58, when a driver dropping off his child reversed up the curb and onto the sidewalk. The children were between the ages of 12 and 13.
December 21st, 2013. Noshat Nahian, 9, was struck by an unlicensed driver as he crossed Northern Boulevard to PS152 in Queens again, at about 8AM. He was killed in front of his classmates, as his own teachers tried to save his life.
December 16th, 2015 A mother and her two children were struck and seriously injured by a cement truck as they crossed in a marked crosswalk on 55th Ave and Junction Boulevard on their way home from school.
I remember all these kids and see their faces in the faces of the children crowding our sidewalks today and in the coming school year. I hope you will too. Whether you’re a driver, pedestrian, cyclist- whether you have children in school or you are another at risk pedestrian of any age, your active participation and involvement in safe streets advocacy can save a life.
This is my fifth year advocating for a policy I call “Vision Zero for Schools”. The tenets are simple:
- Make New York City Department of Transportation a full partner in Mayor DeBlasio’s Vision Zero Initiatives.
- Ask NYC Public Schools to include traffic safety as part of Chancellor’s Regulations on School Safety.
- Have individual Community Education Councils accross the city develop traffic safety committees.
- Ask New York City Department of Transportation to create guidelines for pick up and drop off of school children at each individual school.
- Create an accessible chain of command within NYPD, DOE, and DOT so that care-giver concerns can be reviewed and acted upon with ease by PTA’s and other community groups.
- Enforce traffic laws around school zones with strict fines so that reckless behaviors like double parking or blocking crosswalks doesn’t kill another child.
I’ve had success with my own Community Education Council- District 24 Queens. We have over 55,000 kids in a district that spans 14 miles, including both Queens Boulevard, the old boulevard of death…and Northern Boulevard…the new one. (Northern is mainly District 30- but proposed new school construction is set for a dangerous interchange of the Grand Central Parkway and we must be vigilent. Northern, which has suffered the loss of 6 children in as many years has over 20,000 children crossing it to get to 8 schools.
My work has brought me to meet the Deputy Chair of Safety and Education within the Department of Transportation, to meetings with the United Federation of Teachers and with our wonderful school superintendent.
So, here’s hoping that this year, we wont suffer the horrendous tragedies of traffic violence that have ravaged families across the city. Let’s work together to change a car culture that dismisses the number one killer of children age 5 to 14 in New York City. Let’s do it to honor our young victims and their tireless family members.
