The city has released detailed data compiled by the police department showing every car crash as it seeks to stimulate the development of apps to help reduce street deaths.
The data includes up-to-date, geo-coded information on crashes going back to July 1, 2012.
The release, announced on Wednesday, came as part of the city’s annual BigApps challenge that calls on developers to compete for money by building apps based on data generated by municipal agencies.
This year’s challenge is focused on apps that can help meet the goals of Vision Zero, a plan championed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to stem pedestrian deaths in the city.
Noah Budnick, the deputy director at Transportation Alternatives, called the data release “game-changing” because the data includes information about each individual crash.
Previously, monthly collision reports posted by the New York Police Department on its website was “messy,” he said, and were formatted by intersection so that some crashes were lumped together.
He said the newly released data is essential to understanding “where the biggest problems are, what corridors are the most dangerous corridors, and what are the most frequently contributing factors to causing fatalities.”
