Newly released data jointly analyzed by several safe streets advocacy groups in their push for a bill to outlaw parking near crosswalks also identified some of the Big Apple’s most dangerous intersections over the past few years.
Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, and Open Plans unveiled the analysis on Tuesday, finding that 12,261 New Yorkers have been killed or seriously injured since the start of 2022. Over the same period, they found that there are 118 intersections where five or more people have suffered those fates — though the city Department of Transportation (DOT) says they found it was roughly half that number since 2023.
During a Tuesday press conference, Transportation Alternatives’ Deputy Director of Public Affairs Elizabeth Adams said, “Dangerous intersections are a critical, urgent, serious issue in every neighborhood of our city, in every borough.”
Among the 118 intersections highlighted in the report, Manhattan and Queens were home to the most dangerous intersections.
In Manhattan, intersections at Avenue of the Americas and West 42nd Street, Lenox Avenue and West 120th Street, and the FDR Drive and South Street all had nine deaths and serious injuries since 2022, the analysis found. However, the FDR drive runs above South Street and the two do not actually cross at an intersection.
One intersection in the World’s Borough, Northern Boulevard and 48th Street, had the same number over that time span.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx all had intersections with eight deaths or serious injuries over the same period.
The intersections in Brooklyn include 37th Street and 3rd Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Avenue H, and Jamaica and Bushwick Avenues.
The three in Staten Island were all along Victory Boulevard, where it intersects with Loop Road, Canterbury Avenue, and Clove Road.
There were also eight deaths and serious injuries where Bruckner Boulevard meets Hunts Point Avenue in the Bronx.
A DOT spokesperson responded to the advocates’ analysis in a statement saying: “One traffic death is one too many, and that is why under Vision Zero we have taken a data-driven approach to street safety that has helped reduce fatalities to historic lows. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all quick fix, but we will continue to use every tool available – including targeted daylighting – to make our streets safer.”
The spokesperson also said that DOT’s own analysis found that just 61 intersections saw five or more deaths or serious injuries over the past three years, rather than the 118 the advocates found. Though that finding does not cover the exact same range of time.
