Welcome by Adam Conover, creator and host, Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV introduced by Paul Steely White, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives
Janette Sadik-Khan, known for her transformation of New York City’s roadways into a network of green bike lanes, shares her experience and wisdom chronicled in her hot-off-the-presses hardcover, Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution (Viking).
followed by Q & A with Steve Hindy, Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Transportation Alternatives
Vision Zero - the prevention of traffic injuries and fatalities - is at it’s core, about the public’s health. Yet, when we think about the key players involved in Vision Zero implementation, we often think of City Hall, the police, DOT, the DMV, etc. This panel will examine the importance of empowering clinical leaders and health institutions such as health departments, hospitals, trauma centers, health insurance companies to serve as Vision Zero advocates and leaders in their communities. Panelists will articulate what leadership in the health sector on Vision Zero could and should look like. Topics will include:
Coordination around data and communications
Looking at the economics of traffic injuries and the role clinicians, health systems and public health departments can play in prevention
Leveraging clinician and health system advocacy
Top European transportation officials in countries with significant progress towards Vision Zero - Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands - agree effective speed management is key to reducing traffic injuries and fatalities and improving street safety. Beyond simply managing speed, experts contend the need for speed differentials - limits set according to an area’s specific type and mix of road users.
This panel will discuss automated enforcement options, consider leading-edge technologies and explore the importance of combining initiatives with education and engineering approaches. Experts from cities including New York and Seattle will examine legislative efforts, public communication strategies and best practices for safety cameras and other tactics to save lives through better speed management and crash reduction.
Data plays a hugely important role in the Vision Zero movement. It has the power to help policymakers understand their community's needs and make decisions about which interventions are most effective. But it takes more than finding the data and data scientists to make it happen - close collaboration with subject matter experts and end-users is key. Learn how DataKind is fueling the Vision Zero movement in several U.S. cities using human-centered data analysis and see how your city can do the same. Whether you’re a researcher in government or a citizen scientist advocating for change from the outside, join us for an interactive discussion of what it takes to do impactful data analysis for the Vision Zero movement.
Restorative justice emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal and dangerous behavior and often involves multiple institutional and individual stakeholders working cooperatively. In many areas, it has substantially reduced repeat offending and lessened crime victim’s post-traumatic stress symptoms. Both offenders and victims express greater satisfaction that justice has been done, as compared to traditional criminal justice. This workshop will discuss contemporary forms of restorative justice. It will present experiences from New York Peace Institute’s Restorative Justice Program and a new pilot project at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, which apply restorative justice in cases of vehicular driving offenses. Experts will discuss the role of criminal cases and civil court suits as means to establish driver accountability and to introduce forms of justice for victims of traffic violence.
Led by Sandra Hawkins, Upper Manhattan Organizer, Transportation Alternatives and Erwin Figueroa, Senior Ambassador, Transportation Alternatives
In 2015 Transportation Alternatives won a huge victory when New York City took bold steps to change Queens Boulevard, known as the "Boulevard of Death," to the Boulevard of life.
Accompany other conference attendees to meet volunteers who helped make a complete street on Queens Boulevard. We'll depart from NYU at 2:45 PM and arrive in Sunnyside Queens at 3:15 PM. Once there we'll ride Citibike the length of the completed Queens Boulevard bike lane and talk about the advocacy efforts that helped achieve this momentous victory. We'll then go to a nearby restaurant for some tasty local food.Led by Jaime Moncayo, Queens Organizer, Transportation Alternatives and Chelsea Yamada, Transportation Alternatives Senior Ambassador
Remarks by Ydanis Rodriguez, Councilmember, New York City Council and Meera Joshi, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Introduced by Jake Dobkin, with Q & A to follow each speaker
For-hire vehicles have become increasingly prominent on urban streets and therefore have a significant role to play in setting standards and rolling out new models of excellence in driver training, safety and accountability.
Technological innovations are changing the way we think about everything, including transportation. How will these technologies impact traffic safety? This panel will consider how autonomous vehicles can reshape cities for pedestrians and cyclists, the ethical implications of introducing these technologies to urban spaces and the possible effects of black box data on insurance companies. Panelists will share their perspectives — from Pandora’s Box to panacea — on new vehicle technologies with regard to street safety.
Street design and re-engineering are among the most effective ways to reduce injuries and fatalities and ensure the success of any city’s Vision Zero program. But even adopting a banner, city-wide program does not lessen the challenges faced by most communities making physical changes on the street. What elements of street design support Vision Zero goals when so many other guidelines already exist, such as Complete Streets? How should cities deliver immediate outcomes and decrease injuries and fatalities while also planning for long-term objectives? What should cities measure to hold themselves accountable?
This panel of expert practitioners will provide insight into these complex questions. Drawing on their diverse experiences of redesigning streets in several cities across the United States, in Sweden and around the world, they will paint a vivid picture of the solutions they have created in the face of challenges all cities confront in order to achieve the goals of Vision Zero.
What does equity have to do with Vision Zero? In short: Everything. For starters, it involves the fair and just implementation of transportation safety measures for all populations regardless of race, age, gender, geography and income level. This panel will discuss current and historic inequities in street infrastructure and traffic enforcement and will look at how those inequities lead to significant disparities for affected populations, including higher levels of injuries and fatalities, poorer health conditions and fewer socio-economic opportunities. Panelist will draw on their experience to highlight ways to address inequities in transportation planning on the road to Vision Zero.
Hospital and trauma centers are vital partners in the effort to achieve Vision Zero. In New York City, Bellevue Hospital treats many of the city’s injured, particularly those affected by traffic violence. Twenty-five percent of the Trauma Center’s hospital admissions are traffic-related injuries. This guided tour and workshop, led by experts from Bellevue’s trauma and injury prevention program, will provide an overview of the injury-prevention activities and outreach initiatives conducted by the hospital to target traffic-related injuries. The event will begin with a tour of the trauma center facilities, followed by a workshop session examining current injury-prevention research.
