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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ryan Barthel, Member of Bronx Community Board 8, on Intro 1138
5:00:51
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104 sec
Ryan Barthel, a member of Bronx Community Board 8, testifies in support of Intro 1138, which proposes universal daylighting in New York City. He emphasizes the importance of daylighting for pedestrian safety, particularly for vulnerable road users like children and people with disabilities.
- Barthel cites DOT statistics showing that pedestrians are most commonly injured when legally crossing in daylight.
- He shares personal experiences of the challenges in safely crossing streets with children.
- Barthel argues that hardened daylighting is necessary due to lack of enforcement of existing parking laws.
- He concludes by framing the issue as a choice between pedestrian safety and convenient parking.
Ryan Barthel
5:00:51
Hi.
5:00:51
Good afternoon.
5:00:52
Thank you for hearing my testimony.
5:00:54
I'm a member of Bronx Community Board eight speaking in support of Intro eleven thirty eight for myself.
5:01:00
DOT's own quarterly serious injury tractor tracker consistently shows that the most common way for a pedestrian to be injured by a car is it is in daylight legally crossing in a crosswalk.
5:01:12
I'm about six feet tall, so a relatively tall person, and I'm frequently unable to see if vehicles are coming down the street without actually stepping into it.
5:01:20
When I'm traveling with one or both of my children, one of whom is still in a stroller, I must either bring them into the street with me with the stroller leading or leave them on the sidewalk corner, check the street, go get them, and then by the time I've gotten them, the situation may have changed.
5:01:33
This intervention is a rare one that can help everyone, but it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable road users like children and folks with disabilities.
5:01:43
The hardened daylighting required by this bill is especially important as NYPD is unable to enforce the laws we already have around street parking as evidenced by epidemic bike lane and other illegal parking.
5:01:54
This needs to be self enforcing rather than lying on act relying on active enforcement.
5:01:59
Lack of daylighting and cars parking right up to or in the crosswalk forces vehicles to drive further into the crosswalk rather than legally stopping at the stop bar to see if people are waiting to cross or if cross traffic's coming, and this directly contributes to the statistics made public by the DOT.
5:02:14
Pedestrians who are hit by cars are not jumping out from between cars in the middle of the night.
5:02:19
They're crossing legally in a crosswalk.
5:02:21
Only hardened daylighting can begin to address this problem, and I'd wanna echo what one of the other speakers said that we're making a choice.
5:02:28
Either people get hurt or people have more convenient parking.
5:02:31
So I hope you'll pass intro 11:38.
5:02:34
Thank you.