When More Means Safer, Less Means Risky…
When asking people on the street, which borough has the highest collision rate in New York City, most people got that right — Manhattan. However, the next question was, which borough is more dangerous when involving the traffic accident? People were irresolute…
Even though Manhattan is not the most populated borough in the New York City, it has the highest collision rate this year. The Bronx, borough with the highest injury rate among all five, has a lower collision rate. How to understand these complex terms?
In the past nine months of this year, from Januarys to September 2015, a total number of 118,910 accidents took place in NYC. The three boroughs with the most accidents were Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Neither higher number of accidents nor more population means a flying accident rate. In fact, Brooklyn is 33% lower in collision rate than Manhattan, but 60% more populated. Also, more collision rate doesn’t mean a higher injury rate. That is, while Manhattan shows a high rate of collisions every 1000 population, registrations, and license on file, it maintains a low injury rate.
According to the data from NYPD, Manhattan shows the highest collision rate in many aspects. For example, It has 18 collisions of every 1000 people, 122 collisions of every 1000 registered cars; and 41 collisions of every 1000 licenses registered in Manhattan in the past nine months.
What is the most important factor that imputes blame to Manhattan as the borough with the highest collision rate? The answer is the high population density.
The heat map above, created by Krauss, a technical researcher proves the point.
The collisions marked on the map shows that while Brooklyn obviously outnumbered Manhattan in accidents, Manhattan still has the highest rate of collisions. It is probably because Manhattan has the highest population density among other boroughs. (See table 1.) Therefore, the data from the heat map of collisions is quite consistent with the data from the New York City density map.
Brooklyn, which has the second highest collision rates, had 37,093 collisions and was ascribed to 31.2% of all collisions throughout New York City in the past nine months. On the other hand, Staten Island enjoyed the lowest percentage of 3.84%. The reason that explains Brooklyn’s high number of collision is probably because of its highest population among all five boroughs: nearly 30% of the New York population of lives here.
Queens, which also keeps a high percentage of collisions, has 38.6% of all of the vehicles registered in New York City and 30% of all of the licenses on file. The large base of population and cars registered provide a good reason for the high number of accidents.
Even though Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens all tend to have more collisions than the Bronx, which was accounted for only 13% of total collisions in New York City, Bronx has the highest injury rate among all boroughs: 29.2%. It is 72% higher than the injury rate in Manhattan.
A DOT survey indicates that, in the Bronx, 96% of vehicles get involved in a car accident because of speeding, with an average speed of 37 mph while the posted speed is 25mph. Furthermore, according to Kate Hinds, an investigating journalist from WNYC, “ In 2010, the average vehicle speed in Manhattan was 9.35 MPH. In 2014, it dropped to 8.51 MPH. “ Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Bronx has more injury involved with collisions probably because of its higher average speed.
“The Bronx is connected to many thoroughfares at the northern outskirts of the city, and I would make sense that high speeds o incoming traffic would result in injury at a greater rate than the other boroughs experience,” said by Joey Craig, an insurance consultant at Auto Insurance Center.
The lower average speed in Manhattan might make it “safer” than the Bronx when people get in an accident. However, Manhattan shows the highest rate of collisions in many aspects. For example, Manhattan has a rate of 18 collisions involved with every 1000 population lives in Manhattan, 122 collisions out of every 1000 registered cars, and 41 collisions out of every 1000 licenses registered in Manhattan.
NYDP listed 48 reasons that cause collisions, including the “unspecified” category due to lack of information. The top 10 causes of the accident are driver’s inattention, fatigued, due to other vehicles, failure to yield right-of-way, backing unsafely, obstruction, turning improperly, lost consciousness, prescription medication, and traffic control disregarded.
Driver’s inattention caused 26% of all the accidents in New York City in the past nine months if the data excluded the category of unspecified reason.
Ten causes of collisions with the highest injury rates in New York City are Passenger Distraction, Following too closely, glare, shoulders defective, headlight defective, physical disability, traffic control disregarded, traffic control device improper, unsafe lane changing, and failure to yield right-of-way.
NYPD states that every day between 16:00 to 17:00 is the time peak with highest accidents. In the past years, 5929 accidents took place during that period.
“I would say confidently that the 5 to 6 p.m. period is more accident-prone because of rush hour traffic”, Joey said. The number of accidents also rises sharply after 6:00 a.m. and until 9:00 a.m. in general, when most people are heading out for work.
