Ramón Armand acknowledges that he is committing a dangerous imprudence when he crosses Broadway Avenue in the middle in his wheelchair. The distance from corner to corner on this block, he says, is too great in his Elmhurst neighborhood.
“There are many cars here and there is no crossing. Look, the corner is over there at 45, the other corner is over there,” Armand said.
Behaviors like Armand’s are now being studied by the Department of Transportation, using new technology, in Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan counties.
There are 12 sensors that monitor pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in selected places. The purpose, according to the city, is to collect the information, then study it and design roads that help make the streets safer.
“We are going to see with those numbers where they are headed. how they walk How New Yorkers and visitors ride their bicycles”, explained the commissioner of the Department of Transportation, Ydanis Rodríguez.
Ydanis Rodriguez.
Of the pedestrians they want to know how they use the sidewalks and the crossings.
Of the cyclists and vehicles, they will measure the speed in real time, they will count the turns, and they say that these sensors are capable of determining actions that could cause accidents. They say that one life lost is already too many.
“One traffic fatality is one too many, and we are exploring innovative ways to use technology to prevent the next tragedy from happening. New street activity sensors will detect how pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles use the streets to inform street redesigns,” the Department of Transportation wrote in a social media post.
One traffic fatality is too many, & we are exploring innovative ways to use technology to prevent the next tragedy from happening. New street activity sensors will detect how streets are used by pedestrians, cyclists, & vehicles to inform street redesigns.
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) April 12, 2023
“Good idea because there are very impertinent people,” said taxi driver Arturo Coronel.
-What kind of people?
“People who walk do not respect lights. Cyclists the same”.
Colonel. Cabbie.
Commissioner Rodríguez says street activity detectors replace time-consuming manual counts.
The data collected, he says, will allow the agency to prioritize projects in New York City that need immediate attention.
The taxi driver Coronel bets on technology. But he believes that it is the human factor that must change.
“That goes on the phone and they don’t respect anything.”
The Department of Transportation says that the pilot program also guarantees the privacy and protection of the information of those who inadvertently participate.
The department further says that all data collected will be available at the end of the program on the website. NYC Open Data.
