It’s now been over a month since Mayor DeBlasio unveiled his 63 point plan called Vision Zero, a comprehensive multi-agency approached aimed at reducing traffic fatalities to zero within ten years. Immediate action has already begun with City Council hearings and community wide forums on the topic taking place, as well as ramped up police enforcement targeting the most deadly traffic violations.

With dangerous corridors like Atlantic Avenue in our neighborhood, the Cobble Hill Association is well aware that its residents frequently have pedestrian safety issues in mind. We are glad to see a renewed focus on safety by many agencies under Vision Zero and want to thank our own officers in the 76th precinct who have increased enforcement by 186%.  As mapped by WNYC, in February of 2013, they distributed a combined 22 tickets for speeding, failure to yield to pedestrians and failure to stop at traffic signal. This year that total went up to 63 tickets.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/traffic-tickets-across-city/

Many are delighted by this sea change in enforcement and hope it will continue each month. Others raise the concern that it is still not nearly as widespread as it ought to be, with observable violations far outweighing the number of tickets issued. In fact, some precincts have even given out fewer tickets than they did in the same month of 2013.

The 76th precinct holds it’s monthly community council meeting the first Tuesday of each month at the precinct at 7:30 P.M. We encourage our community to visit the officers and Captain Justin Lenz to hear more about how the Vision Zero platform will be adopted by our local precinct.