NYC Rethinking Left Turns

It's been two years since the city launched its Vision Zero approach to traffic safety, and while the mayor is touting the drop in fatalities as encouraging, he says the progress is "just beginning."

"Vision Zero is going to move ahead with even more intensity in the coming year," said de Blasio.

One area of intensity: left turns.

As WNYC has reported, the move is difficult for drivers — and can have disastrous consequences for pedestrians. In New York City, they account for 30 percent of vehicle-pedestrian crashes. Now, they're coming under increased scrutiny by the city, and the mayor says making them safer is one of his Vision Zero goals for the coming year.

"We're going to be doing something new," said de Blasio. "We're going to be improving left turn configurations...at 100 intersections across the city. And if it works as well as we think, we're going to expand from there."

The pilot involves installing plastic curb-like barriers on double-yellow centerlines to force drivers to make slower, more deliberate turns, as well as removing some parking spaces near corners to increase visibility (a practice known as daylighting).

While it's likely that the removal of some parking spaces will bring howls of protest from some residents — "I spent many many hours circling around my block looking for a parking space," said the mayor, "so I'm very sensitive to my fellow New Yorkers who are concerned about parking" — it sounds like de Blasio is ready to take the blowback.

"If the process of saving lives means we lose some parking spaces," he said, "that's a good choice."

City transportation officials said they're still determining locations, but that they'll be based on crash data.