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Dangerous Trees or Dangerous Drivers?

The Daily News notes that a number of trees are going to be cut down on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx and replaced by a guard-rail, presumably to cut down on the number of fatalities by drivers swerving into trees. “The roadway is very dangerous the way it is,” a local pol said.

But dangerous for whom? As the story notes:

According to Police Department figures, there were 185 accidents — with 29 injuries — from January to July 31 of this year along the parkway. Since 2003, there have been two fatalities, both involving struck pedestrians.

The only certainty in removing trees is that speeds will increase. I’m not sure how those pedestrians were struck, but I would guess the issue is not that the trees failed to protect them, and their risk will only increase with driver speed.

(thanks Streetsblog)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 7:15 am and is filed under Pedestrians, Risk, Roads, Traffic Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Dangerous Trees or Dangerous Drivers?”

  1. aaron Says:
    August 26th, 2009 at 8:14 am

    Not if the rail keeps drivers off the sidewalk and prevents pedestrians from crossing in a low visibility area.

  2. Eileen Says:
    August 26th, 2009 at 8:19 am

    A better solution overall would be to give the French government control over traffic safety in the Bronx…

  3. Carolyn Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    A rail will not keep pedestrians from crossing if it’s inconvenient to cross elsewhere - they’ll walk over it, or even cut a gap. Pedestrians are remarkably resistant to walking an extra half kilometer, especially in bad weather. I can’t bring myself to fault them too much.

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How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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